Lawmakers push proposal to provide Legislature a salary, full-time staff

SANTA FE -- New Mexico lawmakers are reviving a long and so far unsuccessful effort to pay members of the state Legislature a base salary.

A proposal to ask voters to amend the state Constitution to establish a citizens' commission on compensation, which would have the authority to set legislators' salaries, is in the works for the upcoming legislative session.

The push to end New Mexico's status as the only state in the nation whose legislators are unsalaried is part of a larger effort to modernize the Legislature. Other bills that will be introduced in 2023 include increasing the number of year-round staff for lawmakers and lengthening legislative sessions — ideas that garnered overwhelming support in a recent survey of lawmakers and which also have been recommended in a University of New Mexico report on legislative professionalism.

"I think having a professional Legislature, which includes salaries and year-round staff, it's going to move the state forward," state Rep. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Garratt said she and Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, plan to sponsor the legislation to create a legislative salary commission, and other House members will take the lead on the two other proposals.

"I think New Mexicans deserve a professional Legislature," she said.

Rubio did not return a message seeking comment but wrote in an op-ed earlier this year that "everyday New Mexicans" are shut out of representing their communities in the state Capitol because legislators are unpaid.

"I know from firsthand experience how hard it is to serve in an office without pay," she wrote. "Like most working-class New Mexicans, I have bills and loans to pay. When I decided to run, I took a cut in pay and juggled a day job while serving in the Legislature. But not everyone can or should make the financial sacrifice I have made to run for office and serve their communities without pay."

During a legislative hearing last month, lawmakers made the case for all three proposals.

"Our governor has too much power, and I love this governor, but any governor working for the state of New Mexico ... has too much power; lobbyists have too much power," said Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo.

"You know who doesn't have the power in this body?" she said. "Our state representatives, our state senators, the people closest to the electorate. They have the least power, and it's the way the system is set up."

Maddy Hayden, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, wrote in an email she couldn't comment on legislation "that hasn't come across our desks yet." But the governor, as always, evaluates proposals as they become available, she wrote.

"The public servants in the Legislature should be supported in the critical work that they do on behalf of communities large and small around the state," Hayden wrote.

The UNM study by professors Timothy Krebs, chairman of the university's Political Science Department, and Michael Rocca ranked New Mexico near the bottom of legislative professionalism and recommended increasing the number of permanent legislative staff.

"Additional staff support is the best way to increase legislative capacity," they wrote in their report. "Among other benefits, increasing professional staff and broadening their distribution in the legislature will mean greater ability for the legislature to check executive agencies and governmental programs, and for individual legislators to build expertise on policy and to conduct constituency service vital to their constituencies."

They also recommend providing lawmakers a salary, primarily "because it is the fair thing to do."

Finally, they recommend longer legislative sessions. Currently, the Legislature meets for 60 days in odd-numbered years and 30 days in even-numbered years.

"Increasing session lengths will allow the legislature to become more involved in making policy, in shaping the budget, and running the government itself. As a result, the legislature will become a constant presence that cannot be ignored by the executive or anyone else," they wrote.

A recent survey of lawmakers found overwhelming support for all three ideas, including nearly 83 percent who said they should be paid a salary. Of those who participated in the survey, 77 percent said the current per diem and travel compensation they receive doesn't cover the expenses they incur performing their legislative duties.

Rose Elizabeth Rohrer, a research scientist with the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which conducted the survey of legislators, said during a recent meeting of the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that some lawmakers reported losses of $10,000 to $20,000 a year to serve in the Legislature.

"When I was telling people that I was doing this research, everyone's like, 'They're not paid? They're not paid? What do you mean they're not paid? Of course they're paid,' " she recalled. "Two years ago when I started this research, I didn't know."

After Rohrer presented the preliminary results of the survey, several lawmakers voiced support for each of the ideas, saying they would improve the operations and efficiency of the Legislature.

However, Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, said he had some misgivings about the proposal to pay lawmakers a salary.

"I'm really concerned that in the public eye, if we do this, it's going to tarnish the beauty, which is the sacrifice, which is the volunteer work, that we do," he said.

Members of the public "already think we make big bucks," he said.

"They already think I live in Washington, D.C.," Pirtle said. "But I have that ability to say, 'Look, this is volunteer time. I'm doing everything I can.' And if we become compensated, that's going to tarnish that a little bit. But I understand the need. I understand the concerns."

Pirtle said lawmakers need staff help more than a salary, though full-time employees may not be necessary.

"If somebody would just answer my emails once a week so I didn't have to go through them, that would be awesome," he said. "I think that would be effective because when we're up here [during legislative sessions], that's when constituent services just really is top notch because we have a full-time staff person to do those. ... I think the public would be better served and [get] better bang for their buck if that's what we did, and we can do that without a constitutional amendment."

Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, said lawmakers "cannot underscore enough" the need to create parity between the executive and legislative branches of government.

"Obviously, the executive branch has full-time employees, and they can perform all kinds of research and do all kinds of formulation of policy concepts that we struggle to do largely because of the fact that we're only here 30 days or 60 days," she said.

The executive branch of government has a "huge advantage" over the legislative branch, Chandler said.

"We need more support to be able ... to challenge them, to question them, to have alternate ideas," she said.

Chandler and others emphasized the importance of providing staff to lawmakers.

"Staff is critical," Chandler said. "I don't think ... our constituents know what we do. How many of you have had the question made to you, 'Well, I have not heard from you or you staff on this issue?' We all have gotten that email, right? And I politely write back and say, 'Many apologies. We have no staff.' And they seem very surprised by the lack of staff to be able to hunt down some piece of information for them."

Some lawmakers said they use campaign funds to pay for office support.

"All of these points just underscore the need, certainly, for staff and certainly for some reasonable salary for all of us," Chandler said. "Our constituents will benefit from it."

The proposals to provide lawmakers a salary, full-time staff and lengthen legislative sessions has the backing of a coalition of good government organizations.

Mario Jimenez III, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said the proposals would "vastly help improve the legislative process."

"We often refer to New Mexico's Legislature as a citizens' legislature, but in fact, citizens themselves do not have the opportunity to really seek office unless they have the financial means to do so," he said. "By providing a salary to our Legislature, we will be able to allow those single parents [and] those individuals who need employment and need an income to run for office and theoretically, really providing us a true citizens legislature."