New Mexico in Focus; 413; Legislative Session Preview/Interview with Raymond Sanchez

for in focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation, enriching the cultural life, health, education, environment, and spiritual life of the citizens of New Mexico. There will be some new faces in the 45th New Mexico legislature but will there be a new attitude at the Roundhouse allowing the governor and the legislature to work together? Tonight we'll preview this year's 60-day session followed by a conversation without going House Speaker Raymond Sanchez next on in focus. Hello and welcome to in focus. I'm R.C. Choppa. The political season is

upon us, a new administration and Congress are gearing up in Washington while here at home the legislature is preparing for a 60-day session up in Santa Fe. With two years left in office many observers believe that this is Republican Governor Gary Johnson's last real chance to build a legacy for himself. He has already promised to return to the familiar themes of tax cuts, school vouchers, and drug policy reform. Democrats have maintained their solid majority in the legislature through this year's tumultuous elections and the governor will have to reach out to them if he's going to be successful. Tired of years of gridlock, community, and business leaders are demanding a host of tax education and health care reforms add to this at least a $357 million budget surplus and we're looking at a very interesting session. Joining me in the studio to talk about what we can expect our low-effecto political reporter

for the Albuquerque Journal, Bill Hutchison, staff writer for the Santa Fe reporter, and Steve Lawrence editor of Crosswinds Weekly. Thank you everyone for being here today. We've been at round tables like this before in the past right prior to the legislative session. We've talked about is the governor going to cooperate with the legislature this year. I'm going to ask the same question again this year. Is the governor going to be able to work? He's got a new house speaker. Loyell start with you. Well the proof will be in the putting but he says he is. He says he's going to engage to use his word more than ever before. And actually one good sign is he's already started. He has had private meetings with Ben Luhan and Max Call on the House side. He also met with some of the Senate leaders including the president proton many other gone Tim Jennings and John Smith. John Arthur Smith and everybody that I talked to after those meetings said in terms of tone they went very well. They talk about you know cooperation and at least they're talking so that's a start whether or not they can carry it out and actually lead to something remains to be seen. And what

what interests me most is this governor has always been pretty disdainful of the political process. He says he doesn't want to compromise because compromise is built into the system but he is more legacy conscious he's only got two years left and I think he knows that so we'll see. What is different about this year? Why has he been having these meetings prior to the session? Is this different from last year? Well part of it is he and he said what what sort of triggered this for him was the loss of David Harris who had been his budget secretary and Harris who had worked as the LFC direct the legislative finance committee director for a number of years was real familiar with the legislators and used to kind of take that role. David interestingly enough has joined the Senate Republicans as their advisor this year he'll be working with Stu Ingle and I also do think it is the clocking tick on two years left. The governor to this point has pretty much a negative legacy. You know he says he's balanced the checkbook held the line on spending some Democrats would argue with with exactly whether or not that's an accomplishment. I mean he's governed through his veto pen. He would he's really serious about wanting that

tax cut. He said in a news conference earlier this week that in looking at his administration what he's accomplished that's what's left to be done. So will he wheel and deal? We'll see. I'm sure Manny would love to do some with him. Bill Lloyd mentions that the governor is very conscious of his legacy and you did an interview with him in the Santa Fe Reporter I think prior to the new year and he talked a lot about what he talked about his accomplishments and his legacy. What do you think is going to be the legacy that he wants to leave behind? I think the legacy that he's got at this point that he's going to really try to fight for to to keep his name in history books is with drug reform. He's been he was clever enough to wait until after the election to bring it up but he's he's hammered on it pretty heavily and I think to for him to be sort of an outsider in the political group which this issue issue certainly does is not at all an unfavorable legacy for him for him to leave. So far what is he he believe are his accomplishments in the legislature? In the interview

we as governor in the interview we did he felt like he had addressed a number of issues that were in front of him across the board I think the governor in true governor Johnson fashion went into the governorship both terms with a laundry list of things he wanted to do and ticked them off as he talked about them. Sometimes he talked about them effectively a lot of the time he didn't and the fact that that as low he said in this session it seems like it may be a little friendlier he may actually be able to accomplish more than he has in past sessions which have been kind of sad. I think that in your interview he talked about his major accomplishments was that he had taken a balanced approach. I think in saying he took a balanced approach that was the laundry list idea there were a lot of issues there are a lot of issues facing New Mexico there are a lot of issues that New Mexicans want to talk about and he went down and talked about them all. He is a efficacy in those in those areas was may not have been as balanced as he thinks but I do believe he genuinely feels proud of the fact that he's talked about all these things without possibly

realizing that they weren't as meaningful as meaningful conversations as they might have been. Steve is the governor going to be more cooperative this year do you think that he will be able to to work with the legislative? I'd be real surprised if we see a new Gary Johnson I don't I'm not convinced that Gary Johnson has the capacity to be a politician he hasn't demonstrated much political acumen or skill up to this point. I think one of the things that may have sparked his new Gary Johnson sort of talk is his party has just gotten finished waging some of the nastiest campaigns for the legislature in this last election that we've seen in a long time spearheaded by John Dendall the party chairman they went after and succeeded in beating Raymond Sanchez and Raymond we were going to talk to next is is fairly angry about all that and talks a lot about it these campaign tactics didn't work I mean the Democrats still control the legislature I think Dendall was going for broke here he thought he had a real good chance at control at taking control

the legislature and he did not so they ways these very nasty campaigns and many of them were not successful and so the Republicans go into this session of the legislature with a very hostile legacy the governor may be trying to blunt that in some way but I think they're going to have a very difficult time cooperating and coming to some kind of meeting ground it seems to me that there's an awful lot of hostility that's waiting for them all as they've come back into this session you agree low well one thing that's going to help a lot for cooperation is this four hundred million dollars in new money I mean so there is an opportunity here that hasn't existed in the past the trick will be because most of that new money is based on oil and gas revenues which are volatile you know whether how much of that money to put into recurring spending or to do it on one time expenditures but nonetheless that's a lot of money and so there should be some wiggle room that they haven't had in the past and Steve is the right I mean you know the jury's still out whether or not the governor Johnson can actually pull this off but there is an

opportunity precarious but I do think it is an opportunity one of the things I found most interesting this week and talking with legislators about what do you think the tone of the session is going to be is everyone was truly more optimistic than I thought they'd be they'd be I thought there would be more hard feelings more upset and instead there did seem to be the sense of fresh start and maybe Ben Luhan who's going to be the incoming house speaker one of things he's done that I found just fascinating was he's actually had some conversations with some of the more strident Republican members of the house who used to give Raymond Sanchez fits including Joe Mahorobic a Republican of Albuquerque and Dan Foley Republican of Roswell and both I talked with both Dan Foley and Joe Joe Mahorobic and they were just sort of singing Ben's praises again you know it's early days yet anything can happen but the fact that everybody is sort of talking I take as a positive sign do you think the dynamics have changed because of house speaker I do and I also think it's real unfair of Governor Johnson in a sense to say that well there's this

fresh start because Raymond's gone I think it's very unfair to blame the lack of communication on Raymond because it you know it is a two-way street nonetheless politics isn't fair oftentimes and you know this is a fresh start so Steve do you think that the dynamics have changed or that will change at the governor will have a different attitude now that Raymond is not there well I don't know as you know we we did an interview with Raymond in the issue of Crossroads Weekly that's on the new stands now and he was when we asked him this question did he see any sign and he's a pretty astute observer and he said no he said that these meetings these preliminary session meetings had always gone on that that maybe if not not with a governor at least with his staff and that he wasn't convinced that there was anything necessarily new going on here I think the low is quite right this amount of money that's sitting before these guys and these men and women is very tempting even though it's not going to recur and it's very interesting to see alleged fiscal conservative saying you know let's go spend this money but but I'm not sure that

these meetings are a sign of of anything new Ben Lujan is a is a Raymond Sanchez Projay I mean he's a man who sat at Raymond's elbow all the time that Raymond was speaker and you know was said to be able to second guess him in complete Raymond sentences and you have many Eric on who's a master at controlling the park in the legislature in the way it's spent I think it would be interesting to see but I'm not convinced that we're gonna that we're gonna see a real rap pro schmott here in between these two parties Bill you cover you cover the legislature what changes do you expect to see in your coverage of the legislature changes that it's hard to say what changes we'll see things will we'll get going I think that the biggest changes are gonna be that the conjunction of two major events the money that we're talking about and the fact that both sides are going to want some of it and the fact that it's got the governor's leaving the I think Democrats are truly getting friendlier with the governor because they know he wants to leave a good legacy and that they

know he's gonna have to bend I think they also know that they're gonna have to bend so you've got two parties which have been going neck and neck at each other that aren't gonna be a savage I think it's gonna be a much more productive session for the state the governor wants a across the board tax cut seventy five million dollars is he gonna accomplish that lawyer well once again it's gonna be a familiar battle because the Democrats are already saying their top priority is raising teacher salaries trying to get them up to on par with the with the salaries of their comrades in the region for other teachers and so I once again you know and Ben Lujan says you know once we do that if there's enough money maybe we'll look at you know tax governor Johnson's tax plan but the Democrats also are coming up with their own tax incentive programs trying to spur economic development the other thing on you know new factors we also have to keep in mind that they're 25 out of the 112 legislators are new so that's a new dynamic too any predictions on what he might say during his address tax cut is a pay raise for us all I think we'll hear a lot you know vouchers competition makes every aspect of our

lives better I mean I it's getting so you can almost predict the sum of the sound bites I'm you know be interested to see how much he dwells on drugs because a lot of his fellow Republicans don't want to hear that Steve what do you think is going to be talking about the drug thing is is the new element here or one major new element and it's going to depend on how much he wants to horse trade if he's capable of doing that for this drug initiative I mean man he's already come out and said that's not one of our priorities I mean you know forget it I mean everybody's like backpedaling away from all that even though several of the things the governor is proposing seem to me to make perfectly that sense and to be quite logical but he's going to have to step forward quite a bit I need to get some of that out of the legislature there are these new legislators the the new Republicans are real dental people because if they're not they didn't get back in this last election I mean John made it very clear who they were backing so drug reform is this new area that this new area I would think we would see something in terms of

tax relief in in some way if it's not tinkering with the with the grocery seats tax I'd be real surprised if the governor got his across the board tax got it just simply doesn't amount to that much for the average New Mexico taxpayer and I don't see any realignment at all in this voucher debate I mean you still have you know no no private schools in rural areas to take care of anybody with a voucher and you still have the pretty much the same the same issues as what we was saying and I don't see that that's been realigned at all so with taxes vouchers and drugs well how much of the drug reform do you think he's going to make as part of the legislature you think he's going to make that a top priority bill I think I think the governor is going to make it a top priority I don't know if the Democratic leadership is going to going to allow it to be a top priority I think was Mr. Outagon who said that they we talk about it if we have time and I think that's really tragic it's a point where New Mexico could take the lead rather than constantly playing catch-up like we are with with education I hope it gets

made a priority I think that if the governor can push it and can can back some of the other proposals in front of the the the the house some good things could happen there is an opportunity for horse trading there though because it's actually the Democrats who would be most open and sympathetic to the I mean it was Manny who you know a number of years ago proposed a legalization of marijuana decriminalization so it will you know there is this opportunity so and it will depend on whether the governor is going to go for all or nothing with these drug proposals I mean there's several parts of them and you can argue the logic of each one several of them are very attractive and as you know as Bill said we could be very progressive in the state and step forward on this issue politicians are pretty pretty frightened and even some Republicans are willing to talk about medical marijuana which is in which case you know pop could be used for for health health to alleviate pain and suffering things like that and I think most people probably think that's reasonable but the rest of it I don't know even Max Cole one of our primary Democratic leaders has

said you know if we had this with lots of money for treatment I'm not a verse to backing it and I think the horse trading analogy is absolutely a good one well that money question I mean that's where also the impetus is going to be on Johnson will he finally put his money where his mouth is because he has veto drug treatment programs in the past and you know even with these he still has no money that he's talking about on the table for drug treatment so what do you know we asked him about it at press conference last week and he's like well you know in the best case scenario it's going to be revenue neutral well except that if you're going to get treatment on demand you have to have the beds there you have to have the doctors there so you know money has got to be spent they've got to be an investment made but he doesn't believe it works he doesn't believe treatment works so build it and they will come but well how how committed Bill the interview that you had with him in that article I would say three-fourths of the article he talked about drug reform if the Democrats don't want to make a pop make it a priority in the legislative session do you think that he will continue to push it throughout I think from

what we've seen from the governor we know he's in he's an absolutely stubborn individual he's he's not not a man committed to compromise his man committed to what he believes are the primary principles if the Democratic leadership fights them on it I think he's going to fight right back I think that that could damage his legacy in the long run I think a good damage the fact that this could be a really great session but yeah I think he's going to I think he's going to go to the nail for it and he might be well advised to as long as he's willing to compromise and throw some money at some of these programs that he's not talking about that should be talked about well what are some other changes that are going to be occurring at the at the legislature this year one of them is I think the streamlining of the Senate committee the Senate is Tim Senate Majority Leader Tim Jennings is proposing a number of rules changes which will be considered opening day when they also vote on the president pro tem position and this there could be some fireworks opening day it would be interesting to see what time Johnson actually gets to speak because under the what Tim is talking about and they say it's to

make Senate committees more efficient but it would limit all senators to serving on just one committee instead of the traditional two with the exception of the four new freshman Democratic senators of course Republicans are up in arms about this they are not happy that would give the Democrats a majority and a lot of the the committee well they actually they have a majority now but it would streamline the committee so in a sense they the the so the Democrats still have a majority but it would limit you can only serve on one committee instead of two and so I think there are going to be some rules battles opening day and just you know with the Senate if they implode it's not going to be pretty Steve what other observations are you making for this year's session and things that we should be looking for well I think it's going to be interesting to see what how the issues that surround economic development take shape here tourism is one of the most important economic engines in this state and there are a lot of proposals on the table mainly to increase spending

on on tourism to market the state better I mean everyone seems to acknowledge in both parties that we're at a serious disadvantage in selling this state to the rest of the nation and to the rest of the world and there are various proposals to spend more money on tourism to market the state better serious increases you would think that might be a bipartisan possible bipartisan issue in a place where where both sides of the aisle could come together and the government and the governor could endorse that thing is there's a big pot of cash sitting in front of them this year so there's that there's a proposal to dramatically increase in plant training which is sort of a sacred cow among economic developers right to give companies cash to actually train work to train workers and which most economic developers say is pretty worthwhile whether they need to increase the amount from six million to fifteen million as some people are proposing is another question but that will be interesting well in the context of economic development they've also talked about vouchers improving education yes they will but there's doesn't see any any agreement at

all that vouchers really will improve education I can't think vouchers are gonna go anywhere again this year I just I really don't there's an there is important in terms of jobs there's like twenty three thousand welfare recipients they're gonna fall off the rolls in the next year and who need jobs and somehow that's a the state has to either deal with that or not how will the state deal with that that's a good question nobody do you have any idea no I mean I mean that is a good question I mean the other and help I mean the other big issue has sort of hanging out there's health care and Medicaid and prescription drugs and you know the Medicaid even Governor Johnson says Medicaid is a mess right now New Mexico so I mean they want to remove it from human there's talk about that you know the human services seven secretaries in the last six years I mean so that'll be and and that's sort of another wildcard issue sort of hanging out there is gambling you know and that has the potential to be a showstopper if it if it comes up we're using you think that can be resolved this year well many many said let's

talk about gaming you know we've got these problems we're in the courts but nevertheless there's the tribes are you know stop paying the governor so far has been silent on this which I think is very interesting I mean possibly one of them one of the more important issues that faces the state well what's your take on that on the gaming issue I think the governor's silence on this is directly related to the to do that he got himself into when he first was was when he first won the when this when the governorship after that I think it's been one that he in a surprising move has been smart enough not to touch when I say smart enough I don't know if I necessarily mean it's good for the state that he hasn't touched it but politically I think it's allowed him to steer clear of what was the biggest hotbed issue that he ran into first round out of the box but that's I mean that in a way that sums up the whole big problem because I mean a lot of the legislators would love to get that issue behind them they'd love to have it resolved but nobody wants to touch it it's just so well there's no one's a minute and there is no agreement there's no one talking about leadership here some of that's a step up and say this is something that we need to address none of us like it but we have to do

something about it you would think that would be a job for the governor but so far it has not been yeah you're right there's a real vacuum there yeah well there's a sixteen percent revenue share that that that the legislators want the legislative leadership is that correct that's the contract that's the contract right but then they say that the Native Americans and the Pueblo say that that's illegal yes they do and they're in court talking about it now and they did come to an agreement last session where which would have lowered those revenue sharing payments considerably but then it failed in the Senate it never even got over to the House so you know and that's kind of where we are now in the courts it failed legislatively last year the governor says it's up to the legislature do something legislature says well wait a minute so let's let's talk about this moving on about this new money the projected four hundred sixteen million dollars what is it taking to do with that and does that money really exist well it really exists I mean it really exists for now but it's but it's it but it's not what you call a you know a recurring a recurring dividend gas prices are high now the state's

economy is key to that you collect more money as gas prices go up but but you could say for sure that they're not going to stay up forever everything that goes up comes down and the legislature has to plan accordingly you know it's sort of you know this year you may make a hundred thousand bucks next year you might not maybe you'll make thirty thousand and you have to you have to run your finances if you you know if you're if you're not convinced of that hundred grand so the legislature's got this money but it would certainly be wise to sock some of it away and not blow it all at once and that's the differing opinion here even saying that the the governor and the legislative finance committee are not that far apart in the amount of money they want to spend this year educate oh go ahead I was just gonna say another big issue that's hanging out there that they've got to resolve the school construction right and we've got the zoonie lawsuit hanging over our heads and everybody says there's maybe one point three billion dollars and you know either new schools that need to be billed or crumbling schools that need to be fixed and I do think some of

that four hundred million will be spent on school construction it doesn't solve the long-term problem though they still need to come up with a permanent revenue stream to to address that so it's going to be a balancing act governor wants a five percent salary increase performance based salaries across the board and the legislature let's specifically talk about teachers wants what seven well the LFC has recommended eight percent some senators like John Arthur Smith says actually it should be fifteen percent to bring bring teachers up to the the region and I again I think that'll be the the primary budget fight will be over and as it has been in recent years how much money to give teachers and then you know Johnson meanwhile saying what about a tax cut if there's a crime need for this state to be educationally competitive you got to pay teachers more five percent is not going to do it and I would suggest that eight and a half percent or eight percent is not going to do it either there has to be a long-term plan in place in order to get teachers salaries up the legislature tried to do this a few years ago and the governor vetoed it they

just never never went anywhere with it but I think there's got to be a long-term plan in place so that people who are contemplating coming to New Mexico to teach can see what their economic future is going to be and not feel that you know the next administration could pull a rug out for money well the governor believes that the money that money is not the answer and that they put half a billion dollars into education since 1995 do you think that he would build do you think that he would give in to hire pay raises I don't think it's likely in a in a press conference today the governor said in relation to private schools public school teachers really don't have it all that bad I don't know that the governor is really going to ever be able to budge on that issue I think that education will be the greatest travesty in this in this session of the legislature because nobody's going to budge the Democrats are really going to fight as well they should for for bigger teacher salaries and I think the governor is going to fight against it and go for the voucher program and nobody's going to touch some of the real problems which are the failing infrastructure of the New Mexico public school system it's it's falling apart around the around the ears of kids and and nobody's touching

the real issue they're touching what are the political politically important issues but it hasn't changed anything we've got a few minutes left what are the issues you're going to be looking for this year I of course I'm going to be watching the drug reform issue very closely it's something that's really hitting media across the country for a variety of governors and political leaders and I think it's a like I said I think it's a great place for for New Mexico to take take the lead especially because we're so so laden down with with with people who can really use some help rather than just spending some time in jail I think that watching the educational aspect will be one to have some hankies handy for but I think it's going to be a good one to say Steve what are you going to be looking for? Well we are facing electricity deregulation which sounds something I'm not sure too many consumers really understand and the prospect of really either delaying it or pushing it forward and I sort of suspect that we'll get another another delay I'm going to be interested to see what the legislature does in terms of campaign finance reform in the last session both houses passed a campaign finance reform initiative which would have allowed voters to decide whether they were interested in

public financing of elections pretty progressive stuff and it died in the session it didn't even get it it it died in the session in this chaos that went on in the last several days Ben Luhan Raymond Sanchez's successor is going to carry that bill again it'll be interesting to see what happens with campaign finance reform there's some gun control issues that are up but campaign finance reform to me is one of the one of those one of those sleeping issues that that could be very interesting to watch this session well you'll be back at the state of the state address so you can give my give the rest of the list then Loey what are you going to be looking for? Well I think drugs because it's going to be the the real new issue this year and then I just want to I'm interested in the personalities we've got a new house speaker in Ben Luhan it's going to be very interesting to see how he does and the dynamic between with the Senate the give and take and then you know do we indeed have a governor who is willing to engage and deal I mean that you know the personalities I think will be the most fun okay well we'll leave it at that thank you everyone for being here today next I'll speak to a man who has helped shape New Mexico

politics for 30 years Raymond Sanchez list of the great men of New Mexico politics would be incomplete without the name of Raymond Sanchez he has served in the New Mexico House of Representatives for 30 years 16 of those as speaker of the House longer than any other person has served on that post he joins us in our studio today with his unique perspective on New Mexico politics Mister Sanchez thank you so much for being here today I'm very pleased and honored to be on your program actually just had a roundtable discussion with reporters we talked about the session and everything that's going to be going on this year it's got a hurt that you're not in the middle of all of this as speaker of the house the paraphrase the song don't cry for me New Mexico I'm a I'm content with where I am I'm pleased and honored to have served New Mexicans for as long as I did and specifically to have been elected by my peers a speaker the house for as long as I was but I'll miss the

most are the men and women of the session I'll miss the children I used to work with I'll miss the employees the stress and strain though of making decisions I've been able to sleep very very well lately so I have no pain I have no regrets and I wish the new speaker Ben Lujan and all the members of the house in the Senate and many out of one the president pro tem the best and I'm sure they will deliver the best because they are the best what advice would you give Ben Lujan right now at the beginning of this to listen have an open mind respect other people's opinion act responsibly look at things as they really exist and just be Ben Lujan someone said to me he'll never be able to fill your shoes and my response was he doesn't have to fill my shoes the only shoes he has to fill our his own shoes and he'll do a very good job of doing that speaking of feeling your shoes I read in an article that no one knows house rules better than you and that you will be sorely missed because you have all of that

information in your head what you think that's true you think anybody else can do that oh the institutional memory and the rules it's one thing to have written rules it's another thing to understand why the rules are there the intent behind them in the meaning and it's so that the majority can rule without being oppressive Ben will understand those rules Max Call who used to be a Republican many years ago knows those rules extremely well Kenny Martinez a newcomer to the house will be very adept at the rules so each of them learn from me over the years and I learned from each of them all they have to remember is that rules are meant to move the process in a fair way being just dishable and if you just do that they'll get along well well really well the governor says he is truly jazz and that's quote truly jazzed about engaging with the new house speaker claiming that he wasn't able to communicate with you you know

that's rather disingenuous of Gary especially in a lot of the fact that he came to me on a variety of occasions and I tried to work with him I'm sorry he feels that he has to use me as the excuse for him being so unsuccessful for the last six years but knowing him that doesn't surprise me he wants to be the winner and go out of winter unfortunately he was unable to communicate with anybody for the last six years including members of his own leadership and his own party that's truly unfortunate but I wish him well I hope that he can leave a legacy to this state other than legalizing drugs and creating a gambling atmosphere that most people really are not satisfied with I'm not sure what other legacy he has but I hope in a way that he may be able to help us leave a legacy for the children of this state for our seniors and for those young couples who want to have an economic opportunity of being part of the

American dream and that's being able to own their own home be able to make their payments have a good job and a good education he has an opportunity to do that in this long legislative session do you think that there will be that spirit of cooperation that he has wanted to have the last six years that has eluded him I would hope that he would make a greater effort at communicating with more people for six years he never had a luncheon with legislative leadership a breakfast with legislative leadership conferences that he called himself most of them we had to ask could we please meet I think if he holds out an olive branch and listens to people just the same advice I give to ban which I really don't need to then knows that but if the governor would listen to that too listen to what people have to say understand that they may have a better idea than yours and even if it isn't better there may be something that you

can use within their concept of what is good for New Mexico add that to what you think is good compromise and move forward hopefully he can do that I know that many members of the house are anxious to do that they don't want these next two years to be lost in partisan rhetorical debate that is meaningless I know they are very conscientious I know that many out of one of the most brilliant men in the New Mexico legislature is going to want to get something done I know that Ben Lujan really wants to do something especially in the area of tax equalization tax credits for those who truly need tax relief those will be some issues that there will be different opinions on economic development issues which I've carried for years and years others will carry those issues but hopefully hopefully this governor will see the merit to many of

those initiatives versus and across the board tax cut that really doesn't help stimulate the economy those are things that you need to look at work towards and hopefully hopefully be able to find some consensus on that is a answer to economic development is that across the board tax cut of seventy five million dollars is that the answer that's a very simplistic answer what we as Democrats and many responsible Republicans have proposed is that you do specific tax cuts aimed at stimulating the economy giving incentives to businesses located in a Mexico to grow and prosper and to encourage new businesses to relocate here and to pay higher wages to their employees that's what we've put in place the implant training act we put in place so many initiatives it clips the new aviation company that's coming here was they weren't a brainchild but the idea to give them the tax break that we're giving them

they will be one of the biggest employers in the state of New Mexico once they start production they will exceed and tell in terms of employees and tell came here because of initiatives specific specific initiatives that we put in place to encourage them to come here and expand those are things we need to concentrate on and across the board tax cut is very simplistic and it's very dangerous because the economy now as I leave office is on an upswing we're gonna have over four hundred million dollars in reserve money extra money surplus and it's not all recurring money false economy it's really a false economy because the oil and grass gas is going up if that peaks and goes down and you're given this tax break where do you go then you either have to cut services and or go back to the people as in Gary Carruthers administration and ask for a tax increase as Gary Carruthers when he was governor had to do to make

sure that we could ensure that educational initiatives that he wanted to put in place were continued but it's being touted as a pay raise for all New Mexicans and all New Mexicans want to pay raise I think that would be a good idea if all New Mexicans were going to get a pay raise that meant something and made a difference but the pay raise he wants to give especially to those middle class working people is so negligible it may buy them a six-pack of Coca-Cola once a month if that and that's the tragedy of it all it's misleading and it isn't real tax relief you need to do tax relief that creates jobs so that those people will have better wages better benefits insurance for their children and themselves so that more employers can provide that if employers find a way to be able to make more money well they can do that that's what we've done in the past

we have created those initiatives and incentives for employers on employment taxes we reduce that tremendously for employers so that they can have money not just for themselves on the bottom line but that they can pass on to their employees my father always used to say the people you take up first take care of first Raymond are your employees because they make the difference in any business you operate and he was absolutely correct take care of employees pay them better the minimum wage be sure they are taking care of be sure that they can support their families on the issue of taxes gross receipts medical communities want to do away with the gross receipts tax you know medical services the medical community would like to do that however that has never been an issue in New Mexico until recently and that's come about by virtue of the new health care delivery systems that have come into play in New Mexico which have in turn deprived an awful lot of doctors of the income they used

to make before you had managed care that was not compassionate managed care right now you have managed care and people who are making decisions aren't doctors they're adjusters who used to go out and tell you what damage to your car was worth now they're trying to tell you what damage to a human being is worth and that's caused a significant problem so doctors are now looking at any avenue they can to find a way to improve their bottom line and I don't blame them a point I always make is if we only pay three and a half percent excise tax when we buy an automobile why is that we have to pay so much for health care we ought to at a minimum reduce the grocery seats taxes on medical care and or in the alternative give tax credits to people who pay grocery seats on medical bills and to the doctors who don't get any reimbursement for those grocery seats taxes so you go at it both ways take care of the consumer and

the doctor with tax rebates that way you don't do away with a tax base but in turn you give them a tax rebate and or a tax credit it's the same idea with our revenues today our revenues have gone up because of the gas prices that are being charged across the nation and we're starting to feel them here in New Mexico in the price of our gas bills and our electric bills right what we ought to do instead of a tax break what we ought to do is give tax credit to those users of those services so that they in turn get a tax credit so that it ebbs and flows with the tide and that way when the prices come down the tax credit or rebate comes down as they go up that increases that way you are sure that in lean years you're protected and in those years where you have high bills you give it back it's it's it's not very complex but it shouldn't be so simple as you say across the board tax cut I want to get wanted to get

your perspective on the state of the state and current issues that will or will may not be addressed during the session water like blood of the state is in danger has a comprehensive plan ever been addressed in the legislature we have tried to do that in fact when Governor Johnson first came into office I introduced legislation to re-codify the entire area of water law he of course vetoed that bill immediately but that's an important aspect before you go to fix the problem you need to know what the problem is and so you should re-codify the statutes to know exactly what you have on the books who those statues impact how they impact different entities the different entities that are involved and you ought to be able to have those in a place where everybody can look at and then decide here's the problem here's a potential solution here's another potential solution now let's work on it that is an extremely important issue I've set up a couple of interim

committees along with Senator Aragon and leadership on both sides of the party they have been reviewing the issues for the last two years in spite of the governor's reluctance to get involved in it and hopefully they will come forward with some solid recommendations hopefully one of those will be to re-codify our statutes so everybody knows what we're talking about and what the problems are what are the problems how serious is the water situation in Mexico well I don't think it's critical right now but it certainly is reaching that point especially in light of the fact that we are able now to discern scientifically that our aquifers are not being replenished at the rate people had predicted they would be replenished the southwest in spite of what we're having recently has experienced a significant drought we cannot continue to rely on the Colorado for all of our water we also need and another serious

problem is when all of the compacts were entered into the individuals that were negotiating who were negotiating on behalf of New Mexico in my opinion did a very poor job of representing New Mexico's interests we need to petition Congress and other states to redefine or re-evaluate what was happened and then renegotiate many of those compacts because New Mexico even though she produces a great amount of water at certain times never gets the benefit of the excess water produced it is fed on down river and that is a significant problem that needs to be addressed quickly Texas at the present time state senator by the name of Buster Brown has appropriated several hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight New Mexico over water that goes to Texas New Mexico needs to step up to the plate and say we're going to match that and we

are going to fight for those water rights that are ours it is extremely important education facing a crisis and recruitment and retention of teachers many out of gone mentioned at a comp at a lunch in the other day that we the next ten years need ten thousand teachers to keep up with the growth in New Mexico how are we going to do that I'm not sure if it's in the next ten years but I certainly know that in the near future we are going to be short on teachers if we don't produce more teachers the problem is the production of teachers in terms of them going to our universities and to our colleges for degree in education they're not stimulated to do that by virtue of two facts one the severe criticism the teachers receive when I believe most of them are doing a very good job and secondly I don't believe they are paid adequately enough for what we are asking them to do it's important to understand that this

generation of children the last generation of children came to school with different ethics than when I went to school or even when you went to school and it's extremely important to recognize that teachers should not have to teach children ethics mores and morals but unfortunately they are caught in an extremely difficult position in trying to deal with children who have in none of those and at the same time they're trying to teach them math English history the arts that's extremely difficult the task force that was put together by the legislature has come out with some interesting recommendations and I encourage all of you out there to take the opportunity to read those recommendations because they really focus on the real problem with education they don't talk about throwing the entire educational system out

because they recognize that that's not the problem the system is not the problem it's people who are running the system who have created that problem and you need to set up a tier for these teachers and there's three tiers for them and this should be very encouraging to teachers because as they reach each of those tiers they can be paid more how do you how do you develop an accountability system when you have a child leave school who may just be a CC student but is one of the kindest most gentle considerate and ethical child around was that a failure I don't think so that's a sea average a good student maybe not an A but you need to look at things like that it isn't as simple of an as an answer as the governor would like us to believe privatize our public schools get rid of the public schools privatize them and you'll have no more problems that again is simplistic you need to look at things as they really exist and address them responsibly talk

about vouchers for a minute which you just sort of alluded to and that the governor and that is what his his solution is vouchers is just an attempt by a group of libertarians to do away with public schools they have said over and over again and it's written in literature how they feel that public schools are socialistic and that we ought to do away with that in its entirety that public schools have not added anything to the productivity of this nation I mean nothing could be a bigger bigger misstatement or distortion of the fact public schools have made this nation in this state great sure we're having difficulties but the difficulties can't be ascribed to the teachers or the system itself parents have to take a very active role in teaching their children how many children never have contact with an adult until they're

told to go to bed or when to get up in the morning that's a very interesting concept and many of the parents are working and or having problems I'm not blaming it all on parents because a lot of kids can make it in spite of their parents in spite of their peers in spite of their surrounding they still will make it but educators shouldn't be blamed for everything that goes wrong as a child progresses through the system it takes an awful lot of people to help develop that child into a productive element I mean they need health care they need educational opportunity and they certainly ought to have economic opportunity their parents need that economic opportunity to be sure that they have medical care and that they can go to school instead of having to work part-time to help their children their family lieutenant Walter Bradley says that lieutenant governor Walter Bradley says that you pay at the state of New Mexico pays fifty five hundred dollars per student in in New Mexico and that three thousand or three hundred and three thousand two hundred of that will go to parents to choose whatever school they want to go to private or public

is that enough money for a parent to send their child to a private or public school both you and I and governor Bradley know that it's not first of all there aren't sufficient private schools in the state of New Mexico to accept all those kids secondly what you give to each child is nowhere near sufficient to match the six or seven or eight thousand dollars it costs to go to a private school and thirdly private schools can set their own standards for accepting or rejecting students and they are not and they will tell you they will not accept every student who comes to them with a voucher it would in turn in their own mind say it hurts their standing it's just a ridiculous comment to make and governor Bradley knows better but he's got to be loyal to governor Johnson well I want to go ahead and change the subject and talk about the election and this weekend crosswind's weekly interview you commented about the the negative campaign against you in particular flyers and pre-recorded

messages that says that you were pre that you were a pro pornography and that you weren't going to take care of the state's children what evidence did and I believe that in the interview it said that John Dendall was responsible for this Republican party chairman well John has always had this love hate relationship with me he loves to hate me for whatever reason he had been going into my district for the last four or five years seeing that song I didn't believe people in my district believe that I was totally caught off guard on the pornography issue and I've said several times my opponent either never read the law that we have on the books in New Mexico if you read it he didn't understand it if you read it and understood it then he made a conscious decision to distort the facts especially as to my record on pornography because I have always been a protector of children today I addressed a group of advocates I

have made it my career and my career goal to protect children at every step of the way I have also made it my career to be sure that any law you put in place is a law that will stand two tests the test of time and the test of any court because anyone can pass any type of legislation but if it's not constitutional and if it won't stand the test of time and it is discarded you have helped no one and too many people again go back to the simplistic instant gratification we need to do it today regardless of what the consequences are that's not how you are or should be a responsible legislator anyone who distorts the record and tries the deceptive deceiving tactics that were used in my district against me will have a very difficult time wherever they go because people will know that they in fact did distort the record misled people and

a man's character and a woman's character is always based upon what they will do when they face adversity or they feel they need to be elected at any cost I was told whoever sticks the knife in the other person's ribs and twist it Raymond is going to win the election in your district well I refuse to do that I would never do that to another human being ever did you at the time believe that you had done any kind of damage control and very briefly because I have one more question to ask you before our time is over well I thought I had I thought the people in my district would know better than that unfortunately people in the northeast heights of my district who had just moved there a lot of new homes I lost that area by over 300 votes and that was the difference in the election I went up and down the valley the traditional North Valley district but I lost that all those new homes and I guess I didn't do enough to convince those Republicans who had moved in there that I wasn't the bad guy

that the Republican Party portrayed me as being but that's okay too you know you always get what you deserve I have another question what kind of impact do you think the Bush administration is going to have on New Mexico you know you would hope that it would have a positive impact him being from Texas and recognizing the issues that we have in New Mexico I'm a little worried about it in light of the fact that Texas is trying to steal our water and in many instances are offering a lot more money to pay our teachers if they don't have an income tax and people move there for that purpose I don't think New Mexico can do away with our income taxes all together unless they're willing to pay higher property taxes or some other tax so George Bush being I guess a subson of Texas we'll look out for Texas's interests over New Mexico's and that bothers me but yet I think in the Southwest we have and in the West we have interest in common and I believe that George Bush will look

at many of those interests we have and I will offer him the benefit of the doubt and I believe that he's an honest man I think he's a good person hopefully he will be a good president you have 30 years of public service behind you 16 years of speaker of the house is there any more public service for you in the future are you going to run for governor or U.S. Senate everyone asked me that question I told you I was going to throw that back at you if I do when you vote for me and you said you would tell me what I asked the question I would like at some time to have that opportunity I will look at that objectively I will talk to people who understand the political process and awful lot of people are asking me to do that and now I'm not sure how they will feel two years from now because the public always makes that decision so thank you for asking the question thank you for alluding to the fact that many people would like me to do that that decision will be made by my family myself my wife my

children my grandchildren my mom my brothers and sisters and many of those good friends I have both in politics and out of politics but I certainly am not going to shy away from being involved in the political process especially as it affects children and the economic stability and growth of this state well we'll have to leave it at that thank you so much Tracy thank you that's our show for this week join us next week for three episodes of Infocus Monday night at 10 following jazz a film by Kim Burns we will bring you an interview with jazz vocalist and band leader Chris Callaway then Tuesday at noon we'll bring you live coverage of Governor Johnson state of the state address on the opening day of the 45th New Mexico legislature finally Friday night at our normal time we'll be talking with House and Senate leaders about the work underway in Santa Fe this year we will be also collaborating with KU&M radio to bring you coverage of this year's legislative session KU&M Capital Correspondent Leslie Clark will be reporting

from Santa Fe about each week's developments and for daily reports you can also listen to KU&M on the radio or go to their web page at KU&M.um.um.edu for everyone at Infocus I'm RC Chappa good night major funding for Infocus is provided by the McEwen Charitable Foundation enriching the cultural life help education environment and spirit of life of the citizens of New Mexico