At Week's End; 610; AWE #610 State of the State

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you have ten Stand by the roll count down Stand by the roll count down Stand by the roll count down It was a week of beginnings meetings, as Americans witnessed the inauguration of their 42nd president. New Mexicans also watched the opening ceremony of their 41st legislative session, Governor Bruce King's State of the State of Dress. On this edition of it weeks in, we review excerpt from that speech, followed by an analysis of the governor's program and of this stormy legislative session, which promises to be one of the most significant and pressure -laden in the history of the state, with burning issues from the reform of drunk driving laws to new standards of legislative ethics, from New Mexico's old plagues of poverty and health care to new challenges in education, nuclear

waste, mining regulation, and more. Join us for an in -depth analysis by journalists, a former legislator, and a citizen activist. Now, some excerpts from Governor King's State of the State of Dress, last Tuesday. For I'm proposing that two very narrowly selected types of increases that should bring us sufficient money to cover the increased Medicaid demand. That again, we are forced by federal mandate to meet. I'm recommending to you a 10 cent per pack increase for cigarettes, which will produce 10 million in added money, and a 1 percent increase on all natural gas and a digital 1 percent on coal -sing gas, which will produce another 20 million dollars. I point out that these two areas of tax increase, which I am proposed to deal with Medicaid, have been recommended but task force

on state government finance, which I appointed last year to study possible initiatives we might take in this area. For the 11th time, in the 11th Legislature's Disgovernor, I state my opposition to any general tax increase that would affect most New Mexicans, and I will not accept one. That leaves us with real revenue growth based on our existing tax base, which we projected at $106 million of the current fiscal year appropriation level. Of this, the executive proposes that 56 million or 53 percent go to public schools. We propose that higher education receive 18 million or 17 percent. Together, this gives public and higher education 70 percent of year revenue use flowing to the general fund in the existing tax base. That leaves us with about 31 million to appropriate to all other state agencies and programs that provide so many

additional vital services to our citizens. These amounts are sufficient to give salary increases to teachers and personnel at institutions of higher learning of 3 percent. In addition, state employees or employees receive average 3 percent increase through an executive recommendation that combines cost of living and merit pay adjustments. I'm recommending an additional amount of about $8 million or an 82 percent increase in the department's budget. This is considerably higher than legislative finance committee's recommendation of about $2 million. My budget recommendation for the correction department gives top priority to effective management of the increasing prison population and compliance with requirements for the grant consent degree. I believe that full implementation of these recommendations will lead to a complete vacating of the

consent degree within the next two years. I support DWI reform for the past two legislative sessions. I've proposed that I have failed to see an active legislation that would reduce the presumed level of intoxication from 0 .10 percent to 0 .08 percent. I again favor and will work for the past job and will sign such legislation as well as legislation that will allow counties and municipalities authority to hold local option elections, on whether to close drive up windows, and to impose local exercise taxes here, Mark Farber bench and treatment and rehabilitation of alcohol offenders. I always laws alone could solve this problem, but they can't. What has to happen is nothing lasts and they completely change and galvanized attitude on the part of the public that drinking and driving is a totally unacceptable social

as well as legal behavior that will not be tolerated by society. But we can't make average to begin loud here today because it's changing the law often receives a change in public perception. You will be considering important ethics legislation this session. I fully supported. I think the committee which spent much time and effort in this area is to be highly commended. And I think this is one of those pieces of legislation that could be dealt with and sent to my desk early in the session. And let us look forward together to a very productive session that we can say is conclusion. Serve the best overall interests of all of our citizens. We as God the blessing in this endeavor and thank you very, very much. We will be analyzing his address now here at the studio in KNME, joining me, distinguished panel of those who watched the legislature closely. Ruth Hoffman is executive director of Common Cause, New Mexico and a

member of the governmental ethics task force. Marcos Martinez, his news director and anchor of KUNM Radio, the national public radio affiliate in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico. Pauline Eisenstadt is a business woman and a former four -term representative from San devol county, a veteran of the body we just witnessed. And Georgia Scott Colerone is executive producer at KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque. Let me ask you, Pauline, any surprises in this address? This was vintage Bruce King, wasn't it? Vintage King accent, vintage King generality in its substance. I think the ethics in the DWI and his recognition that something has to happen. I think the majority of the legislative body is going to understand that too. Let me quote from a philosopher named Schopenhauer. He talks about the three stages of truth. And he says the first stage is ridicule. The second stage is violent

opposition. And the third stage of truth, it becomes self -evident. I think the DWI reform laws are self -evident. And I think the ethics legislation, although I think we could argue about what's in there, but it is also self -evident to me that these are things that need to happen. The major part of a session is always dealing with the divide it up. And he did include no surprise, three different tax increases, not general taxes, but on cigarettes and changing the gas, the way the gas is taxed. Let's take each one of these. I do remember Schopenhauer at one point talking about the marriage of Porcupine. He said it was a difficult mating process. And for those who first hearing Bruce King, it may be difficult to parse what's really in this address. Let's take the last first. He ended with

what will be for many New Mexicans, the most important issues of this session, drunk driving reform. How much is really in here, George? Is King responding to the public outcry that we are hearing? The governor is definitely responding to the public outcry. His proposals are nothing new though. He recommended them last week. But I think what we're going to see now is that we have one person, Nadine Milford, who is on a crusade. And she's not a professional lobbyist and she's going to do battle or go up against these professional lobbyists who represent the liquor industry. And the public is going to see that. And the liquor lobbyists are going to be perceived. They have to watch what they're doing. And those who joined with them are going to have to whose side with the liquor lobbyists are going to be perceived as the bad guys in this situation. But there is so much emotional outcry over this topic that I think a lot of legislators are waiting for a couple of weeks for a lot of this stuff to die down. And to quote another philosopher from New Jersey saying a song,

my way, I think Manny Ergon and Senator Ergon and Representative Sanchez are going to in the end win in this battle. That's a rather grim prospect for all those people out there who are so concerned. Marcos Martinez is the governor really dodging this issue. He's dodging the tax issue. He's not really, it doesn't seem to me, endorsing the Attorney General's reform package. He says you should take a close look at it. He doesn't say, I endorse everything that Attorney General Udall wants to do. How much leadership is there here from the governor on an issue of statewide urgency? I have to say there isn't a whole lot of leadership, a lot of what the governor talked about are issues that other people have brought up, that events have sort of brought to the front pages and to the forefront. And I think that the governor is really following the leadership whether it's been put forward by the public or the Attorney General. And ultimately, I think he's going to go ahead and let the lawmakers themselves formulate the fill in the details

in some of these issues and he'll probably follow along. I would add that one thing I think is missing from this DWI package is something that would go to the bottom line which is the liquor lobby in Santa Fe and the tremendous influence that they seem to have on state lawmakers. I don't see anything that really addresses that. Well, there is, of course, the ethics legislation, which Ruth Hoffman, you've had a role in formulating. And these two issues are linked, aren't they? We're talking about the liquor lobby, but if you've got a strong ethics package, wouldn't you address the influences of lobby packages? To be frank, the ethics package which we fully support is a disclosure package. And I think once these interests and how much money they're pouring into state government, it's really disclosed. I think it will be even more frightening to some out there on this issue. I think you can never separate money and politics. And that's what happens in all issues. And

I certainly think that the liquor lobby is out there and very concerned that you can tell in the quotes in the newspaper that they're on the defensive, the kind of letters they're circulating to raise money to fight these issues where they're coming from, they're thinking of all kinds of angles, which is what lobbyists do, how to approach and how to remain that. I think one problem we have in the Mexico, not only do we have money in politics, our political circle is very small. And not only are a lot of a liquor lobbyist able to fund campaigns and make large contributions, there are also close personal friends of a lot of leaders in this state. And that adds that another dimension that's really hard to get a handle on. But even if you get disclosure, don't you still need public action or in lieu of public action, some leadership in the political arena, I mean, to disclose is one thing, to really change the attitude and the actions of a legislature or something else. I mean, I guess I'm pointing back to the kind of vacuum here which exists in this

address. He seems to be saying, we've got serious problems, I leave it to you, which is not an activist role for a governor, is it? I agree, and I think that one thing that came out of the ethics task force that I was really presently surprised at, that the task force itself, the more you get into the issue of money in politics and its insidious nature on our democracy, all roads lead to public financing. You know, politicians will be not able to say, well, we don't want to ask the public to fund our elections. That's not the question. The question is, who owns the elections? And will the public continue to allow special interests to fund those elections, or will they take that responsibility themselves? Pauline, I said, you carried the ball without much glory, I must say, for years, against great opposition in ethics reform. These issues really are linked, aren't they? It's not an accident we didn't have a tougher standards on DWI, the leadership of the House in the Senate, among the top recipients of liquor industry money in this state.

Are we going to see some change, both in DWI and in ethics legislation, how to best legislate? Well, let me do the ethics first. I've been introducing that legislation for four years, always bipartisan. The last session I had over 44 signatures, rank and file, not the leadership, foreign ethics commission. You raised the possibility of enforcement, that's the key in my mind. And the legislation being proposed is good as far as it goes, but it's disclosure. That's only a piece of what ethics legislation is about. To me, the major ingredient of ethics legislation is conflict of interest prohibitions. I mean, when you take a trip, a golfing trip, or you go to the Super Bowl or something like that, and the public wonders about it, if we had an ethics commission in place, then the commission could look at that and say, well, no, we don't think that's appropriate. Wisconsin, for example, has public financing now of the legislative races in Minnesota. I mean, other states have done this, and hasn't it made a difference, Ruth, in terms of the power and influence of special interests?

It has made a difference. You have to, there is 100 % solution, which we don't necessarily support. You need to demonstrate that you, we think people should go out and collect small contributions from their constituents and from people within the state, and that be matched with public funds. And then put a cap on how much any one person can give, any pack, that sort of thing, aggregate pack limits. It's a very complex issue, but public financing and the public has to understand that that's in their best interest, and that's how you get special interest money out of politics is public financing. Let's move on, Marcos, to some of the other aspects of this address. The governor talked about raising taxes on cigarettes. That's going to invite, I would guess, the wrath of the tobacco lobby, already very powerful in New Mexico. He's talking about raising gas, gas, natural gas, and coal taxes, as well, which I would guess will invite those lobbies. Are we going to see a fight on the

floor in what even these relatively modest revenue, revenue enhancements that Governor King has proposed? I think there's a good chance of that. There really hasn't been, in my view, any real fundamental change in the attitudes that dominate at the legislature, and I think that one could expect that there would be those fights, and that it would be very difficult to get these taxes that the governor has brought up enacted. I think in some instances, and the most notable one, again, is DWI, where you have this tremendous public outcry, perhaps there's a chance that you could get some momentum built up behind that. Nothing will get done unless this ethics reform bill, or something strong gets passed. For instance, I don't think the tobacco lobby is going to sit still, obviously we know that, and I think it will be accomplished on that. As far as the natural gas deal, the people who will be paying that tax anyway are not in this state, so I don't see a big battle there, but I do see a big battle in tobacco. I do see a big battle

with the DWI issue, and I think that because of that, the state will suffer. Everyone suffers because of these two issues, because the lobbyists have select few people are going to be able to persuade or sway evoke. How do we break through that cycle? I mean, we know now what's going to happen, don't we? And I think, I think, former Representative, I just said here, we do need some kind of enforcement commission. We do need some kind of conflict of interest law along those lines. I don't think people really understand how important ethics is, how it affects everybody down the line. But do legislators understand? Do they get it? Because I often, it seems to me we're often confronted with this kind of moral bafflement on the part of some of these people. I saw Manny Eragon, the president of the Senate, and Ray Sanchez, the Speaker of the House, the other day on television, looking confused, almost befuddled at the public outrage over DWI. Well, people forget. It took this incident

over Christmas Eve because of the timing, because the legislators come and close, because of the holidays, to make people really think, be outraged by this. But a lot of legislators, Manny and Ray, are hoping towards the end of the 60 -day session, people are going to start forgetting, or just these DWI reform bills are going to get watered down, and the other two can get watered down. They count. They count on the apathy of the voters. But I think this time around, they're mistaken because of what we seen in November with Perot, and that people are really generally concerned in outrage. And did you find that Ruth, and going around the state with this task force, people really are fed up? I attended most of it. We did meet around the state, and there were people, people are fed up, and people can, we can call them fickle, but people have lives, and I think they, we want to trust their public officials to do the right thing, and not to have to be looking over their shoulders all the time. They are delegating this responsibility. This is a representative democracy. I

think part of the bafflement that you spoke of is the changing of the rule. No one has ever comfortable with change as much as we may want it. And I think the changing public wants more accountability. They're holding their public officials to a higher standard, and some people have been around that arena for a long time. They're going, wait a minute, this isn't, these aren't the rules. I don't understand. Oh, you're changing the game in midstream, and I think, and that's what they're not coming to understand. But isn't there, Marcos, in Santa Fe, a good deal of hypocrisy and cynicism on the part of some of our colleagues in the press, and certainly among the politicians? They know that they have been in effect on the take in terms of campaign contributions. They know that the Speaker's fund, for example, that House Speaker Sanchez has, is a slush fund, which gets its contributions from vested interests. They know how the system works, and they've always applied a double standard, haven't they? What they say to the public is one

thing, but really happens in Santa Fe is something else. Well, yeah, I've always noticed when journalists get together to talk, and other people who are sort of insiders, that the level of conversation and the things that we talk about is much different from what we print or what we broadcast. And I think part of that is because we don't want to get sued for saying things that can't necessarily be substantiated, et cetera. But I think there is some level of agreement sort of passive agreement with the status quo. And I suppose one could argue that the media, on some level, benefits from advertising money that is spent by some of these lobbies, as well as by the candidates, when they're running for office. So I think that it's worth looking at, I think that in this DWI situation, this is a story that needs to be covered and has to be covered, but it's also a story that generates newspaper sales and ratings and so on. So that's a very tricky issue. Pauline, is there a culture of complicity

in Santa Fe? Is there a tendency to deal with a double standard? What's acceptable to the public and the public will go away, then we'll do it the way we've always done it? There is definitely some of that. What happens is most of us go up there with certain issues, certain agendas that we're interested in working on. I've always worked on the children's issues and the economic development issues, the energy issues. We have certain areas that we are comfortable with and we want to work on, and then there are people who work as lobbyists in those areas. So what happens, and it's almost a natural symbiosis, you get to know the people who are the advocates in those areas, and you begin working together and you begin helping one another, and that does happen. It's a natural kind of a thing, and while we can't stop it entirely, what we need to say is it has to be regulated to some degree, and when it gets bad is

when Ruth referred to it early, when money becomes a part of it. Well, but in Georgia, it's been saying, and Ruth also, the people are largely absent from this process. I mean, Ruth Hoffman from Common Cards or other public interest groups may be up there, but that's a tiny minority compared to all the corporate interests and the moneyed interests that are in Santa Fe. Roger, the decisions are not made in the committees and the open hearings. The 15 % of the tough issues are not decided in the open hearings. I remember bringing mammography, mandating testing for mammography, for breast cancer, for the insurance. Well, I had two hours of testimony. I had people from all over the state, you know how hard it is for a woman to come up and say, I have breast cancer, you know, but they did, because it was so important to them. Well, I didn't realize before the hearing, but the committee had already met for breakfast with one of the healthcare people, groups, and made a decision on how they were going to treat this. Now, I objected strongly,

and I raised plenty of heck about that, and I turned it over on the floor of the house, but that's very unusual. It doesn't happen very much. But it doesn't that require an effect, a kind of conspiracy of silence then. I mean, the committee really then has to conceal that decision from the public. The media is not present at that breakfast. They're usually not told about it even afterwards. And the system doesn't work unless there is - Unless there are people willing to go and say, that's not right. You made a decision before we had a chance to have our hearing, and I went and talked with the leadership, and I went on the floor, and I turned it around, but not many people are willing to do that. Aren't you, as long as that system is in place, always going to be captive to the interests that have the money, that have the cloud? Some will be more captive than others. Everyone believes that the legislature, as a whole, is corrupt or lack of a better word, have a bad public perception, but they think their particular representative is doing a good job. So they always send them back. The people in the legislature are really

operating from this place of watching your back and trying to do in your enemies. And that seems to really get in the way of taking care of business, taking care of these important public policy issues. There's a lot of pettiness here, isn't there? I mean, we know that it goes on in the floor and behind the scenes. And I don't really see any signs that that's going to let up, but I think that if someone were to come along with really a vision, and with a program that rejected the traditional kinds of policies that we've had in New Mexico, that that kind of person could get in and would have some chance of possibly making some changes, and of course the other side is dealing with the state legislature. I think when you're elected, there's that partnership, and you have to be listening to the people and hearing what they're saying and trying to do it together. The public also pays it to be part. They must hold people accountable if they say they want to hold people accountable, they must do so, and they must

become informed. If we have disclosure, it's going to be incumbent on the public to read those disclosure statements, to pay attention to the media outlets, see who's getting what, and then how that's all playing out, and respond accordingly. And it's essential for us to continue as a democracy. You're just last word, and it is the media's responsibility, as well, isn't it? Don't we have an obligation here? Yeah, I think so, and she is right. I hope the public listens to what we have to say, because if it falls on deaf ears, and it's just the same old story. I hope they've been listening to these good comments from all of you. Thank you, Ruby Talkman, Marcus Martinez, Pauline Eisenstadt, and George Scott, told her own. And thank you for joining us for this special report on the governor's state of the state. For K &M -E, I'm Roger Morris. For more information on ethics and legislation, call Common Cause at 266 -2800. If you would like to express your comments, please write. At

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