Daily Update
Wednesday February 19

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

Funding Compromise Seems Near

After an evening and day of negotiations regarding school funding with our lobby team, the NMFEE lobby team, the Governor and leaders of the House, we have an outline of school funding. We still have agreement on the reform measures in House Bill 212, the education reform bill.   Additional agreements  and clarification reached today:

• The one time bonus idea was compromised in order to gain a 3% raise for all classified staff starting at the beginning of the next school year.  Representative Sheryl Williams-Stapleton, sponsor of the one-time bonus worked tirelessly, along with your lobby team to gain this additional benefit for classified employees, which will be added to the salary base.
  

• 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) may be accelerated to start a little earlier.
  

• A guaranteed minimum salary for beginning teachers of $30,000 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 16.4 million dollars from cash balances to help fund salary increases were also agreed to fund the 3% salary increase for classified staff.
  

• We have assurances from the Governor that he would like to accelerate the 6% teacher raise to earlier in the year, if additional money can be found.
  

• We gained assurances from all concerned, including the Governor, that they will work to secure passage of the Constitutional amendments to increase public schools' distribution from the  Land Grand Permanent Fund.

All of these agreements in principle need to be added to education funding bills currently awaiting hearing in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

The NEA-NM and NMFEE joint lobby teams worked most of last evening and today on these funding compromises.  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.

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, which when fully implemented after five years, will provide $30,000 starting salary for level I licenses, $40,000 minimum salaries for level II licenses, and $50,000 minimum salaries for level III licenses.  While the bill mainly addresses teachers, it is a good first step to comprehensive reform and is supported by most education advocacy groups. 

Bill To Add Fairness to Return to Work Program

House Bill 22, sponsored by Representative John Heaton, will allow retirees who retired before the return to work bill passed the legislature to return to work in a school district with full retirement benefits, without going a full year with no income from public school districts.  The measure will allow these retirees to return to work and continue to collect retirement benefits after only 90 days without income from substituting or other school district work.  The rationale for the bill is that these retirees could not have been influenced to retire early by the existence of the the return to work program, since they were already retired before it passed.  The measure received a do-pass recommendation in the House Education Committee  and is on its way to the House Floor.

Bargaining Bill Passes Senate

Senate Bill 46 passed the Senate Floor on Tuesday Morning, February 18.  This measure, the Senate version of public employee bargaining received now goes to the House (where an identical version awaits action on the floor). All Democratic Senators were present and voted for the bill.  Republican Senator Allen Hurt voted for the bill.  Republican Senators Cararro, Kidd, and Leavell were off the floor and not voting (apparently taking a "walk" to avoid a no vote).  All other Republicans voted against the bill.

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, possibly as early as Friday.

Contact Legislators Regarding Permanent Educational Funding

Addition funding sources is the cornerstone of education funding and reform this year.  We need  to make sure that the public has the opportunity to vote on school funding this fall.  

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

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.

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!