Q&A: NM Senator Stuart Ingle

It was a night of celebration for state Sen. Stuart Ingle Thursday, when New Mexico Senate Republicans voted to keep him as their minority floor leader in Santa Fe, a post he's held for more than a decade.

The Portales farmer and rancher took office in 1985 and also served as minority whip and minority caucus chair.

As Ingle prepares to enter another legislative session, he answered questions about his re-election and the upcoming session:

What was your initial reaction when you found out you were re-elected?

Well, I was real pleased to think this caucus had this much confidence in me. They nominated me by acclamation and there was no opposition. I was real tickled about it.

As a state Senate vet, what do you predict will be the most challenging and most rewarding tasks to get done in this legislative session?

Well, probably the most rewarding and challenging is trying to get our retirement programs back on real solid grounds. We got the best retirement as far as state employees and teachers. Normally, the money that we make from the stock market is not keeping up with the amount of money we're earning, as far as what's paid in and what you get out. We're going to have to make some changes. The cost of living adjustment may be reduced somewhat on folks that will be retiring in the future. We're trying to tackle this before we get into a situation that other states are in. Those are always complicated issues and the budget itself is the main focus of the legislature, but the retirement programs have to be taken care of this year too.

What issues do you think will bring out bipartisanship?

Those things are difficult to say. The main issues are of course keeping the various parts of state government going. That's a question that's hard to answer because until you see a bill introduced, you don't know what the response will be. What people don't see is that 90 percent of the bills presented on the senate floor are voted on unanimously and passed.

Will the repeal of the law that allows the issuing of driver's licenses to immigrants be on this year's agenda? What is your stance on that?

I imagine so. It's the same as it's always been, we need to quit the sale of driver's licenses to immigrants. If you can't prove you're a citizen, you can't get a driver's license. When 30 people are obtaining licenses from the same address, there's something obviously a little bit wrong.

What advice do you have for new senators in their first legislative session?

Don't think you're going to change the whole world in the first year your here. Don't be surprised if some great ideas you had were thought of 30 years earlier. There's a lot of things people introduce that people think is brand new.

What is your one hope for this legislative session?

I hope we can work together, both sides of the aisle in the Senate as far as the budget and matters concerning education. We've been very careful over the last couple of years in our spending. Our highway department is in need of real funds. We also have to make sure kiddos can read, and for some reason we can't seem to pass legislation to do that. I look forward to working with superintendents, teachers, legislators and of course the governor's office to come up with a plan that works.

Regarding the New Mexico state lottery scholarships, what do you think is the best solution to address a depleting fund?

There's a lot of ideas out there, as far as how to maybe fix some things. It's been suggested to make it on a need-basis, which I hope we don't do that. We need to figure out how to make it so universities can't raise tuition. (Lottery scholarships) worked well for a while, but there's so many kids that need that help. You get to a point there where there's not enough. Either the person is going to pay more, or we have to see how we can make the funds go further.