Daily Update
Monday February 17

Hotlines
Return to Legislature 2003

Legislative Session Contacts for Legislators-Phone: (505) 986-4300, Letters:
New Mexico State Capitol Building, Santa Fe, NM 87503, or Fax: (505) 986-4610.

[The "Hotlines Link"  will take you to our daily hotline archive.  You may view previous hotlines to place current events in perspective.]

Legislative Education Study Committee Listing of All Introduced Education Legislation as .pdf Document

Governor Speaks Out on Funding Efforts as Compromise Seems Near

The House, Senate, and the Governor’s office have apparently agreed to a broad outline for education funding similar to that found in House Bill 212, the education reform bill, as the central part of this year’s public education funding. In addition to language already contained the bill, amendments were added in House Education Committee Friday Morning to provide:

¨A 6% raise for all teachers and instructional staff (such as librarians, counselors, special ed ancillary, etc.) starting in December of 2003 (about 1/3 of the way through the year).

¨  A guaranteed minimum salary for beginning teachers of $30,000 starting at the beginning of the next school year.

¨   A 2% raise for all classified staff starting at the beginning of the next school year.

¨ Caps on school district cash balances and the requirement that school districts use 1% of non-instructional budgets along with 1/2 % from cash balances to help fund salary increases were also included in the amendments.

House Education Chair Rick Miera released this information on Friday morning as the House Education Committee gave a unanimous do-pass recommendation to House Bill 212, amended to reflect the above. On Monday the House Education Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to House Bill 3, the Education Appropriations Act, containing the same funding increases found in House Bill 212.  Additionally House Bill 3 contains funding for the school district's share of health insurance premiums.  Both measures go next to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, probably as early as Wednesday.

The NEA-NM and NMFEE joint lobby teams spoke in support of the funding compromise.  The effort is the foundation of fundamental changes in education for the state.  If we remember that early proposals provided only teachers with any salary increase and the potential for cuts in school district non-instructional personnel, this compromise is a great step in the right direction.

Governor Richardson Speaks Out on Teacher Salaries

On Monday, Governor Richardson held a press conference to give his view of the progress of education funding.  His view did not differ fundamentally with the description provided above, except he indicated a need for more funding from school district cash balances.  NEA Government Relations staff member Jack Polidori provided the following detailed rundown of the press conference:

Governor Bill Richardson forcefully sounded the clarion call again today for his proposed 6 percent pay raise for New Mexico's teachers.

Richardson pressed school administrators to cough up millions of dollars in school district "free cash" accounts to fund the bulk of these pay raises.

"If we can't attract and keep high quality teachers then we've wasted a lot of
effort and money," Richardson said in defense of his campaign to raise teacher pay. "We're providing a 2 percent increase for all other educational employees and that's the best we can do at this time."

Richardson strongly challenged school administrators to come up with millions of dollars from their so-called "cash balance" accounts. The Governor claimed that there is a total of $115 million in these accounts in the aggregate statewide among all New Mexico school districts.

The Governor started off by saying that the three top priorities of his new
administration are:

• The improvement of public schools;

• Additional jobs for New Mexicans; and

• Putting more money in the pockets of New Mexicans through tax cuts.

"The most important of these issues is education ... that has to be our top focus," Richardson said. "That's why we are working to provide our teachers with a 6 percent salary increase next year."

Richardson said that a 6 percent pay raise would move the average pay of New Mexico's teachers from 46^th to 29^th in the country.

"Shift the money from the bureaucracy to the classroom," Richardson said. "We want and need school administrators to do better.

"There are too many fat [administrator] salaries," Richardson claimed. "There are multiple assistant administrators."

The Governor also warned superintendents and other administrators not to
threaten teacher aides and other school professionals (e.g., speech pathologists, counselors) with the loss of their jobs in order to find the money to meet his call for a 6 percent pay raise for teachers.

"This is no time for scare tactics," Richardson warned.

"I want more of the cash balances used," Richardson said repeatedly. "I want
school administrators to do more. I am not satisfied with their effort to date."

Flanked by Lt. Governor Diane Denish, Senate Education Chair Sen. Cynthia Nava (D-Dona Ana), and House Education Chair Rep. Rick Miera (D-Bernalillo), Richardson stated that he expects language in the state budget bill that requires local school districts to certify that the 6 percent pay raises for teachers have been implemented in the 2003-04 school year.

More Details of Proposals

We will continue to pursue help with insurance premiums and a supplemental salary increase for the current year as described below.

Couple these efforts with the almost realized public employee bargaining bill, and we have a pretty successful outcome for public schools.  Especially when we consider that most of our neighboring states are dealing with deficits and proposing cuts in public education funding.

We need to urge all legislators to pass House Bill 212 as amended and thank House Education Committee Members, especially Chair Miera, for their leadership in this important school reform process.

Additionally, the bill sponsored by Representative Mimi Stewart for the Legislative Education Study Committee, will provide a new licensure system for teachers tied to minimum salary levels.  While the bill mainly addresses teachers, it is a good first step to comprehensive reform and is supported by most education advocacy groups. 

Contact Legislators Regarding Permanent Educational Funding

Senate Joint Resolution 6, sponsored by Senator Cynthia Nava, received a do-pass recommendation from the Senate Education Committee on Monday afternoon.  The measure will place a constitutional amendment before the voters  to amend the state constitution to increase from 4.7 percent to 6.0 percent (as amended in the Senate Education Committee on Monday) the amount of the annual distribution from the Permanent Fund to public schools and other recipients of money from the Permanent Fund; Provides about 80 million new dollars annually for public schools. 

The vote in the Senate Education Committee was:

Senator	Party	Vote
Cynthia Nava	Democrat	YES
Mary Kay Papen	Democrat	YES
Mark Boitano	Republican	NO
Kent L. Cravens	Republican	NO
Mary Jane M. Garcia	Democrat	YES
Gay G. Kernan	Republican	NO
Richard M. Romero	Democrat	YES
Bernadette M. Sanchez	Democrat	YES
William E. Sharer	Republican	NO

  Bargaining Bill Moves to Senate Floor

Senate Bill 46 will be on the Senate Floor on Tuesday Morning, February 18 . This measure, the Senate version of public employee bargaining received a do-pass recommendation in the Senate Finance Committee Thursday afternoon.  Ask all  Senators to support school employees' (and other public employees) collective bargaining rights by voting for Senate Bill 46.

The vote in the Finance Committee was:

The legislation contains language that:

(1) forces local board policies adopted since 1991 to comply with most provisions of the new law; 
(2)adopts a scope of bargaining that forces school management to talk about professional and instructional concerns; and 
(3)an impasse resolution procedure that ends in final binding arbitration.
  
These three issues are the heart of the new legislation for school employees. 

The House version of the public employee bargaining bill House Bill 508, sponsored by House Speaker Ben Lujan received a do-pass recommendation from the House Appropriations and Finance Committee Monday Afternoon. It goes next to the floor of the House. 

The vote in  House Appropriations and Finance Committee was:

Representative	Party	Vote
Max Coll	Democrat	YES
Luciano "Lucky" Varela	Democrat	YES
Henry Kiki Saavedra	Democrat	YES
Ray Begaye	Democrat	YES
Donald E. Bratton	Republican	NO
Mary Helen Garcia	Democrat	YES
John A. Heaton	Democrat	YES
Rhonda S. King	Democrat	YES
Larry A. Larranaga	Republican	NO
Patricia A. Lundstrom	Democrat	YES
Terry T. Marquardt	Republican	NO
Brian K. Moore	Republican	NO
Rory J. Ogle	Republican	NO
Pauline J. Ponce	Democrat	YES
Nick L. Salazar	Democrat	YES
J. Paul Taylor	Democrat	YES
Sandra L. Townsend	Republican	YES
Jeannette O. Wallace	Republican	YES

The measure goes to the House floor next.  Call all House Members and ask them to support House Bill 508.

Bill to Help with Health Insurance Premiums Gets Do-Pass

House Bill 276, State Contribution to Group Insurance, introduced by Representative Pauline Ponce, received a do-pass recommendation from the House Education Committee  on Wednesday.  This bill will increase the employer contribution for group insurance to 75% of premium for the lowest paid employees and will increase the premium amount for everyone else by 5% next year. The rate gradually increases to 80% for all employees over the next several years.  The measure goes next to the   House Appropriation and Finance Committee, ask committee members to support this important financial benefit for employees in this year of inflated health insurance premiums.

Teacher Salaries

House Bill 451, providing 18 million dollars from school district cash reserves for a one-time one percent increase for all school employees in the current school year received a do-pass recommendation in the House Education Committee Monday morning.  The bill was introduced by Representative Sheryl Williams-Stapleton. This legislation fulfills House Democrats pledge to provide supplemental salary funding this year, following their approval of the Budget negotiated in the Extraordinary Session of the Legislature last summer. Urge Democratic House Members to keep their pledge and support this token salary increase now.  The measure's next goes to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Speak Up for Our Friends

Ask members to not be fooled by Republican party "robo" calls into the districts of House members who voted for the Governor's tax package and for protection of school funding against revenue shortfalls.  It has come to our attention that calls critical of Representatives Ponce, Cordova, and Swisstack have been made.  These representatives voted for your interests by supporting Speaker Lujan's proposal to protect school funds against unforeseen consequences of the tax cut!