Your Legislators; 101; Sen. John Arthur Smith (D) and Sen. Lee Rawson (R)

Support for the Telecast of Your Legislators 2008 is provided by Wes and Nadine Handy, owners of little playmates and the aristocrat and Adobe assisted living communities. By the city of Las Cruces, people helping people, the Las Cruces Sun News, New Mexico State University, and by viewers like you who proudly support KRWG Broadcasting with their membership. Welcome to Your Legislators 2008, a production of KRWG Broadcasting. Your Legislators is a public service production, providing our viewing and listening audiences in Southern New Mexico the opportunity to hear about important legislative issues directly

from their elected representatives in Santa Fe. Now here is your host, Glenn Cerny. Welcome to Your Legislators 2008, I'm Glenn Cerny and it's a pleasure to be with a couple of gentlemen that will be spending a whole lot of time in Santa Fe here in another week or so, but for our opening program here for your legislators I'm very pleased to have Senator John Arthur Smith and Senator Lee Rossin with us today. Thank you gentlemen, I know it's a very, very hectic time, a very busy time that week before the short session, and I love the way you guys have referred it to as the short session that from what I can tell takes as much time as the long session for you guys, doesn't it? But both very, very high ranking in the Senate and again it's a pleasure to have you with us and as has become the tradition with your legislators, the first thing we do is ask you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your district since the area that we cover at KRWG is so broad that it may help to give some geographic perspective of what's going on.

Senator Smith, can I start with you and explain where you represent and your area and a little bit about yourself? Well, I'm John Arthur Smith and I'm originally from dimming New Mexico. I represent the high doggo county, Linda County, and Sierra County and up until last re-apportionment, I had part of Doniana County. I've been in the Senate for fixing to start my 20th year and serve as co-chair of Senate Finance. And my wife's a retired educator and I've got two sons that reside here in Las Cruces and four grandkids. So you're over here quite a bit of the time, I would guess, with the grandkids, right? Not to say the kids, but to see the grandkids, right? Now, I do have to tell you, and we were joking about a little bit earlier, but this program is his fault. When I came to Las Cruces about two years ago, he said, we need some way that we can get the word out. So if there's a complaint with the way the show's done, you can look across the aisle to Senator Ross and ask him why he started it that way. Well, I'm good at that. I like to blame Ross, Senator Ross at all the time, right there. Again, Senator, I'm very familiar face to this program last year,

but again, for those that may be tuning in and not know where your district is, could you do the same? Certainly, then, it's great to be back with you, but my senate district picks up, basically, Interstate 25 East, everything east of I-25 all the way up to Sierra County line. I pick up Elf and Butte, Senator Smith picks up Williamsburg and TRC Proper. I've got everything else in the east, everything in the east side of Doniana County, except for I also pick up up to Doniana, I got Elk's Club, a country club, and that whole strip between just straight up the left side of the highway. And I'll also let you know that if I start twisting his arm, it's because I am in his district. So there's a personal thing going on here as well. Before we start talking about the session, a very tragic untimely death this past month of Senator Ultimerano, could you to reflect briefly on what he has meant to the state of New Mexico and how that may impact what we do? Well, Senator Ultimerano was certainly a shock and a friend almost everyone in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

He had the ability to get along with virtually everybody and I often teased him, greeted the ladies where they're two weeks old or 99 years old with a kiss on the cheek. And that was sort of his style and it sort of set the tone for his demeanor and that's going to be greatly missed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, not to mention what it does to the Grant County and Catering County and Secoral County that he also represented. Any comments would you like to make on his behalf? Yeah, Benny was a real friend and a real gentleman. You don't find many of that class anymore, but he chaired Senate Finance for maybe 17 years just prior to Senator Smith and Senator Jennings and Senator Patel getting involved. So we've kind of had Senate Finance controlled from the South for quite a number of years and before that was Aubrey Dunn out of O'Gerald County. So he's kind of set the tone as to how Senate Finance should work and then of course when he moved up to Pro Tem, that's helped Senate Finance to work even a little bit more

efficient. And so we're seeing the way not only that the Senate operates but the way Senate Finance works in a more bipartisan effort, you've seen the Senate step out on its own the last few years since Benny's been there and we're not just an order taker but we're out there to do the people's work and Benny set the tone for that. Now thanks to your quick civic lesson on New Mexico politics I understand that there won't be a replacement named until the full session is underway. Any speculation on how that may turn out? Not at this time. The Pro Tem's position is a full four voted. It's not a caucus vote. Not to mention the fact that there's a lot of speculation taking place at this time but I do believe that that really won't be firmed up until the latter part of next week and then maybe on Tuesday morning we'll have an answer for everybody at that time. And I would agree with that Glenn and at this point I think it's best to let it rest for a while. We've barely had an opportunity for the family to bury Benny. A focus should be on him and not on replacing him and who gets his goodies. So I think it's

plenty of time and let's focus on Benny's loss and serving his family first. You mentioned the word speculation and in essence I think that's what we're kind of doing here is we're trying to look ahead take a look in the crystal ball and say okay we got a short session here four weeks what's going to happen. Let's start it off by asking what you feel the important issues that need to be tackled and I know educations there every year health care is going to be there once again transportation but are there some things that you are particularly concerned about in looking at representing Southwest Minnesota in New Mexico. Well I think on the Senate Finance Committee we're trying to take care of the entire state within our resources and the problem we're having right now is due principally the national economy but also a downturn in the forecast for natural gas that our revenues are not what they work. They're still very good but they don't even compare to what they were the prior two years and so we're somewhat apprehensive because our budget

year really doesn't start until July the 1st and so we're setting our budget on what we forecast to be our revenues after July that will run for the next 12 months after that and here we are six months out of July so we're looking at actually setting the budget that finally will be spent at the very end 18 months down the road and so we're real apprehensive that we could be in special session as my worst fear in June redoing the budget we have absolutely no idea what's going on with the national economy of never in my lifetime observed different directions different indicators going in opposite directions on that but we certainly hope that if we do have a recession it'll be short duration and hopefully New Mexico will be able to sustain it and as we look at the lost cruises southwest New Mexico area there's a lot of defense money that's going to be spent in the area so it may fare better than the rest of the state but those are the challenges.

Would you concur any any others that you wanted to throw into the hopper here as we look into that crystal ball? Well I would agree that our focus you know it shouldn't be the budget that's what this session is about is it's a budgetary session that's what the short session is so as we focus on that we have to realize that anything else that we do during this session this year with this election year and this presidential campaign and all the everything that's going on anything we do but the budget is going to be done for the wrong reasons and we're going to get the wrong answers and we're going to have a lot of problems so my my best suggestion is what I'd like to see is let's go in let's get the budget passed the first week we've already got an LFC budget that's fairly responsible let's pass that budget and get out of Dodge the longer we're there the more problems we're going to have the more political mischief this particular year we already know that the health care reforms that are on the table some of them are very controversial we can't solve that in a regular 60 day session maybe there's some minor tweaking we can do but we're sure not going to go in and create this alliance and do some of these other

things we know the governor wants to put on the call domestic violence or not domestic violence with domestic partnerships that certainly is not a short session issue a lot of these things are going to be on the call for political purposes for the election year it's a wrong time to deal with them for the public's best interest we're chatting with the senator Rossin and senator Smith and your legislators 2008 and and if I can kind of follow up there you're talking about some of the mischief that could come about is there a number of issues that you are concerned about that that may slow things down to create what you're talking about in a special session in June let me predicate my response on the basis that in the state of New Mexico we are required by law constitutionally to have a balanced budget and there's a perception out there that we have tons of money and we can run the deficit the federal government does so whenever we have new initiatives i.e. for example health care modifications we have to make certain that we can pay for that we cannot run up a debt and print more dollars and thank goodness we can't but the bottom line is

much of the public is an advocate for health care reform not recognizing the fact that we're restricted by a balanced budget requirement and so as a result you're going to see some of this moving carefully because we do not want to commit to something that's going to require a tax increase in the future right now we're getting a mixed information from the human service department on exactly what are the numbers of the uninsured and when you say whether there's not a lot of difference between 25 and 18 or 19 percent i can assure you there's a lot of difference in the dollars it costs and it's that type of data that we're going to have to have and i'm not certain that we have it at this time and we're asking in the first week we're going in session actually the finance committee will be in place next week and we're bringing in some outside third-party independent professionals trying to quantify what the actual cost is going to be but there's a belief out there that health care is going to be free and i can assure everybody

there is a price tag and i think what you're going to see this session is a continued growing of the breach between the executive the governor and legislature and you know the road department we've seen misrepresentation of values there of amounts we've made decisions based on information that's given us when we're deliberately defrauded with those numbers we get to sometimes the wrong conclusions so the question we have here is what confidence do we have from this governor that those numbers on health care are real or they just dreamed up numbers to try to move us to a given answer and i think you're going to see that that breach in relationship develop a little further as we go through some of the confirmation processes this session you mentioned the governor's involvement with with his preoccupation with with the presidential election how does that affect how the dynamics will be during this short session in 2008 will it affect well i think you know what you see with this governor and i've had disagreements with lots of governors but i've always told them up front rather than surprise them

the real positive said about this governor this governor is a workaholic spends a lot of time at his job and he is in constant touch when he's out of state i don't perceive that there's going to be a lot of difference whether he's here or whether he's not because his staff will be marching to his music rather than anyone else's and so as a result he will be here toward the end and i do believe he'll be there on opening day so i i don't see a lot of difference because his staff fully knows what his initiatives are and they're going to be pursued aggressively so i i think we're going to be all right i agree completely can i take a look at it at a question from a little different angle as we approach this session and through internet through programs like this through through a number of venues the newspaper coverage residents of southwestern new mexico will have access to what's

going on what should we be looking for to get some kind of idea on what will be accomplished during this short session and senator ross and can i start with you on that one well i think you know what we've got to look at is what's on the call and what the governor puts on the call and of course what we can address simply is the budget what the governor puts on the call we know that to be domestic partnerships we know it to be the health care we know there'll be a little bit domestic violence there'll be a little DWI those are the things that his office has kind of revealed so far and then we can put on things such as constitutional amendments and that's where we're pretty well restricted as to what we can address during the session so in terms of watching what's going to be coming forward it's not so much watching bills that are introduced because all those bills may or may not be germane the question is watch the executive orders that come out of the the governor's office in terms of what he's going to put on that call which brings another issue in terms of this breach in relationship is the executive orders that this governor has passed in the last number of months whether it's regarding health care whether it's auto emissions

or whether it's the clandestine drug labs issues that he hasn't been able to get through the legislature he's now putting in an executive order and telling his departments to put in place that's causing a real breach between what is the legislative branch of government's responsibility and what is the executives to run state government so I think that plays in there with those so watch the executive orders that's where the behind the scene stuff will happen well and follow up on that when we talk about putting it on the call that means the governor sends a message to the legislator and said in addition to fiscal issues we want to discuss this issue and see if you can't pass this law for me but the you know I think the Senate and I'm speaking specifically of the Senate as as tried to be out in front of the what's happened at the federal level we've legit believed in the check and balance system between the executive and the legislative branch and it's not that we disagree with the executive by any means but the fact is that we have a constitutional charge of exercising that check and balance and I submit that the president of the United States would not be in the position is he's in right now if Congress

had it exercised that check and balance like they're constitutionally charged rather than walking down and marching down party lines and as a result we think it's better government when we do have that right for you check and balance and one of the ones that we actually exercise is when we look at the cost of the state in out years on particular issues and can we sustain that because once again we go back to the balanced budget if there's a postponed or a delayed executive order that will cost money in the out years we have a constitutional responsibility to challenge that and so we're sort of going back to what our founding fathers perceived as government and I think as a nation and as a state for many years we moved away from that. We're spending some time on your legislators 2000 H&N with Senator Lee Rossin from the Las Cruces area and Senator John Arthur Smith from the Deming area and you mentioned the the interaction between the House, the Senate and the Executive Branch,

you two gentlemen appear to be getting along wonderfully here on this half hour interview program can we expect that same kind of cooperation for the four weeks? Well we both are very fortunate having wonderful wives and they told us to be nice before we came in but no we've worked and I think Lee will tell you that we've tried to open up the process in a bipartisan fashion specifically in Senate finance and with Senator Ultramarano's help I think that's flowed over to the floor prior to that I mean it was highly partisan, highly partisan and that's not good for the state. And I would say not only that but the entire delegation with the House members in Donana County as well we're working well as a group to make sure that Donana County is well represented we get the resources and the needs taken care of down here as a group so we really don't see that partisanship either in the Senate or with the local delegation. I know you've never heard this statement being made that the southern end of the state seems to get the short stick on quite a few things how do you counteract that?

Well you know I think that's one that's going to go into perpetuity but I remind them that regardless of which side they're on there is there's quite a bit of a state money being spent on the spaceport and when you start looking at the capital public school capital outlay when you start adding up those numbers I think our respective districts have done quite quite well compared to the rest of state and even though we hear that remark when we come back into district we're forgotten we walk into the chambers of Santa Fe and they want to know why we're doing so well in our districts. You know it's kind of a tough issue because I think we really are getting more than our fair share down here and that's because the delegations working together as well as the local governments to make things happen but we do want to some extent everyone to think that we're not getting our fair share so we can get more so it's kind of hard as how do we portray because we want the constituents to know that certainly we are doing very well but the same token we want the northern Mexicans to feel like we're getting gipped so it's a two-sided sword there. Well the other issue that happens you know local government put in there they constantly put

in requests for their capital outlay I think the federal government calls it earmarking we're going to call it capital outlay and quite frankly we're not going to have as much capital outlay this year as we've had in the past we've got about 40% of what we've had in the past and we have a lot of statewide initiatives that we need to be moving ahead with where in fact they've been put on the back burner and let the local communities take care of their needs first but right here in Las Cruces we have a state police headquarters that obviously needs to be enlarged over in Lord'sburg we also have a department of transportation as you enter the the port right there with trucking they've had a temporary facility for like 17 years 18 wheeler drove right through it here many many years ago and it's supposed to be replaced and so we've tried to focus on statewide issues we're trying to go ahead on an issue that's already been started in TRC and expand the Alzheimer's facility but that's a statewide initiative because it's a state facility there and then Fort Barrett up in Senator Ultramarano's

area we need to have that when replaced that great historical value but no longer is can it be credentialed and so as a result we're working and we already have some money in place to replace that so statewide initiatives will be probably taken president this year versus local initiatives and two other local statewide projects are going to be the border authorities building down in Santa Teresa which we need to complete in the motor transportation division which is an offshoot of the state police and the department of public safety we need to complete out those projects but we do want to recognize too that the university border regions and president Martin and their staff has worked very well with with the state in terms of getting the state police headquarters relocated and there's some other issues in terms of the access at another interchange down at i-25 and i-10 for the university and of course the new convention center all working together so there's a lot of opportunity going on right now can we spend a moment

taking a look at what's going to be happening in Washington and New Mexico's in a pivotal situation this November where four of our five representatives will be will be changing hands here as you look to what you're trying to do in this session and developing long-term plans is it safe to assume or are you taking into consideration that that wonderful seniority we have enjoyed in this state will be dissipating to a large degree and the impact that we'll have on what we do on a state level as well well the state in New Mexico has always recognized their the benefit of seniority at the federal level and and the initiative to encourage term limits has not been real successful in in New Mexico obviously we're in somewhat of a unique situation here in the state that we've never experienced before and there will be a lot of chair shifting and and hopefully what seniority we still have up there will be able to hold on to to the initiatives that have been started and we'll be able to complete that but it's also

compounded with the fact that the federal finances are in pretty bad shape and as a result they're turning to the state government to supplant the federal monies that are being withdrawn and highways prime example federal highway fund is basically bankrupt and so when we look at the problems that we have with funding highways in this state that's going to be a challenge for all the people and specifically here in the Las Cruces area because as you have this mushrooming growth the transportation systems have to be recognized and have to be paid for any comments well I would think you know certainly we're going to have three new freshmen congressmen but when we look at the senate side we've got the seniority of Senator Bingham has been there a good number of years and done a fine job but he's going to be supplemented or the diminishing will be replaced by either Tom Utah Heather Wilson or Steve Pierce all of who have substantial legislative experience in Congress so it's not maybe it's officially a freshman but they're not really a freshman so they're going to bring a lot of experience in

there a lot of relationships that already exist and so I don't think anything that we we might miss in Congress I think we'll be able to pick up in the US Senate so there's hope there even with that absolutely we've got about three minutes left and if if we were to reconvene here in five six weeks and you you look at the the session that has passed in this instance what would you like to say happen what would be your ideal situation in Senator Ross can we start with you well I would probably go back to some of the opening concerns is that if we pass a responsible budget they would have no more than a six percent increase I think that's probably the best we can do for the state over the last five years we have a 40 percent budget increase in this under this administration in five years do we have 40 percent more services to the public I think not so if we can hold that budget growth down to six percent this year not expand programs not create new programs but but service the ones we have and not pass a bunch of legislation that's not related to the budget then I think we've had a pretty darn successful session

Senator Smith well I pretty much concur with that you know it's and the other challenge is let's let's hope the national economy turns around and let's hope that the natural gas prices will move forward and we will not be back here in special session trying to redo the budget process if we have a special session let the debate take place on on other issues other than budget items but but my biggest fear is that because it really jeopardizes contracts that are going out in June educators need to know what they're going to have as far as budget and money's available and complete it creates real chaos if we're back here in June trying to redo what we've already done so let's hope for stable economy gentlemen I assume the oil's been changed in the automobile the bags are packed you're ready for that long siege actually the short siege we should say I really do appreciate you all taking the time to chat with us here on our opening program for your legislators 2008 the work you put in I know from my just my short time here

of running up to Santa Fe and other places is very much appreciated and we want to make sure we encourage the listener and the viewer to be aware that you are available that there are ways to contact with you all but Senator Rossin and Senator Smith thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us and we look forward to talking to you again maybe in in six weeks and hopefully we won't be doing this in in June correct that's right that's right and we thank you clear well and again I want to remind everyone that we'll be doing this every week on Saturday evening on KRWGFM and airing it on Sunday and Monday on KRWGTV we certainly hope it's a program that allows you to have some insight on what's happening in Santa Fe and we greatly appreciate you're taking the time to learn more about what's happening in Santa Fe on behalf of Senator Rossin and Senator Smith I'm Glenn Cerney thank you very much for joining us on your legislators 2008 thank you for watching your legislators 2008 a public service production of KRWG Broadcasting

providing our viewing and listening audiences in southern New Mexico the opportunity to hear about important legislative issues directly from their elected representatives in Santa Fe support for the telecast of your legislators 2008 is provided by Wes and Nadine Handy owners of little playmates and the aristocrat and adobe assisted living communities by the city of Los Cruces people helping people the Los Cruces Sun News New Mexico State University and by viewers like you who proudly support KRWG Broadcasting with their membership at www.interweave.com and by Coats and Clark America's Source for Home Sowing and Needle Crafts

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Tonight on American Experience their music includes the sound of America I have a very hard time picturing American music without the Carter family their songs of hope and love loss and heartbreak echo the lives they led all the effort to make this the first family of country music cost him more than he could have ever imagined the Carter family will the circle be unbroken tonight on American Experience American Experience is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who enhanced public understanding of the role of technology the foundation also seeks to portray the lives of the men and women engaged in scientific and technological pursuit imagine what the world would be like if everyone did the right thing responsibility what your policy

at the Scots Company we help make gardens more beautiful lawns greener trees taller if there's a better business to be in please let us know American Experience is also made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you more than 60 years ago this house served as the backdrop for the Carter family as they proudly posed for the most popular weekly in the country life magazine would feature the musical family on the cover of its next issue they were at the top of their game they were known across America they were in people's homes day after day after day on the radio Carter family patriarch AP Carter had worked towards this moment for 15 years he was instrument when everything that happened

it was his ambition his drive his dream that made them do what they do he had assembled the most influential group in American country and roots music but as the demand for their music grew so did the tensions and the AP Carter household his vision brought life magazine to his doorstep but the moment of his greatest triumph was not what he dreamed all the drive and all the push and all the effort that it took to make this the first family of country music uh cost him you know more than he could have ever guessed or imagined the Lord in the stride

our fear the hearts of men are failing for these are later days we know the great depression now is spreading God's words declared it would be so I'm going where there's no depression to the lovely love