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Legislative
Session Contacts for Legislators-Phone: (505) 986-4300, Letters: Senate Joint Resolution 6 Fails to Pass by One Vote! Senate Joint Resolution 6, sponsored by Senator Cynthia Nava, failed to pass the Senate late Friday. 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 the amount of the annual distribution from the Permanent Fund to public schools and other recipients of money from the Permanent Fund, providing about 80 million new dollars annually for public schools. The Governor's office and Senate Democratic leaders believed that Senate Joint Resolution 6 had the required 22 votes for passage; however after hours of debate, four democrats joined all republicans to defeat the measure. Democratic Senators Tim Jennings, Michael Sanchez, and Leonard Tsosie voted against the measure creating a 21 to 21 tie (a tie that could not be broken by the Lt. Governor, since constitutional amendments must pass by a majority of the elected Senators, 22). Senator John Arthur Smith then changed his vote from yes to no, defeating the measure by a 22 to 20 vote. Before the Senate officially rolls its clock on Monday, anyone voting on the prevailing side could move for reconsideration. If this vote seals the fate of allowing the people of New Mexico to choose to provide funding for school reform, the entire funding and reform proposals for this session are in great jeopardy. The provision of additional revenues is absolutely necessary to make up for using one-time cash reserves for spending on recurring expenses such as reform and salaries. This vote notwithstanding, we must have new revenue sources for public schools! Our urgent message must be:
Schools need adequate
new revenues, we can't find all the money need for salaries and reform
by simply reallocating current budgets (although prioritizing
salaries and the classroom over administrative costs is an important
priority). The use of cash balances and the need to fund the second year
of reform require new revenue!
Call Senators now and ask them to reconsider Senate Joint Resolution 6 before Monday! Call Senators and House Members and ask support for these other revenue resolutions. These measures simply trusts the voters to decide whether or not to support public schools! Without this money, the new money needed to fund the compromises reached on salaries and reform are just there in 2004-2005! Public Employee Bargaining Bills Return to Chambers for Final Passage The House version of the public employee bargaining bill House Bill 508, sponsored by House Speaker Ben Lujan passed the house last week. The bill now waits in the Senate, it received a do-pass from the Senate Public Affairs Committee late Thursday. It has been withdrawn from the Senate Judiciary Committee and will appear on the Senate Calendar, perhaps as early as Monday. Senate Bill 46 passed the Senate last week. This measure, sponsored by Senate President Pro-temp Richard Romero is the Senate version of public employee bargaining; it received a do-pass recommendation the House Labor and Human Resources Committee on Thursday afternoon! It was withdrawn from the House Appropriation and Finance Committee and will be on the House calendar, also perhaps as early as Monday! We need to call all House Members, and all Senators now, to urge support for House Bill 508 and Senate Bill 46. House
Passes School Funding The House passed House Bill 2 , the General Appropriations Act late Freday. The Act now includes accelerating the 6% salary increase for teachers and other certified instructional personnel to begin with the second paycheck in December and a 3% salary increase for other school employees to begin July 1. (State and higher education employees remain at 2.5% increases in the measure.) After several days of negotiations regarding school funding with our lobby team, the
NMFEE lobby team, school administrators, the Governor and leaders of the House
and Senate Education Committees, the major parts of school funding
proposals appear to be holding. However, some school administrators appear
to be backing away from the formula for spending cash balances as agreed
by the parties to the spending compromise and have had an amendment
drafted to reward cash rich districts at the expense of cash lean
districts. Currently the formula is contained in House
Bill 745, sponsored by Representative
Rick Miera. The major components of the compromise funding proposal include:
These efforts represent 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. When we consider that most of our neighboring states are dealing with deficits and proposing cuts in public education funding, this proposal seems even more substantial. The Rest of the Reform Story House Bill 212, sponsored by Representative Mimi Stewart for the Legislative Education Study Committee, representing the recommendations of the Education Reform Task Force, passed the House late Friday. Passage of this measure is also vital to completing the education reform agreements. The measure provides real reform including 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. The major components of education reform and funding are in place after the today's House action. All measures require the concurrence of the Senate, which has already passed similar funding mechanisms in different pieces of legislation. However the failure of Senate Joint Resolution 6 calls some of the funding mechanisms for this package for the future into question-stay tuned! |
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