The Citizen Media Group

IRB Money Funds Billion $ Intel Investment

Intel will invest as much as $1.5 billion to upgrade Fab 11X at its Sandoval County plant. The money is made possible by the $16 billion industrial revenue bond the county issued to the tech giant in late 2004, says Liz Shipley, spokeswoman.

Citizen Action Kills Bomb Test: Divine Strake Canceled

It’s official. The proposed bunker-busting bomb test dubbed “Divine Strake” that seemed destined for White Sands Missile Range, is dead.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency announced it has canceled plans for the test after facing public outcry everywhere it was proposed.

Taxpayer Group Issues Call to Action

Taxpayers, unite -- The grassroots taxpayer group Stop Wasting Albuquerque Taxes, has issued a call to action for other citizens to protest the Albuquerque City Council and Mayor Martin Chavez’s determination to get a $300 million streetcar project back on track.

The call to action went out to city neighborhood associations and the media:

“We ask you to email all of the city councilors and the mayor and reiterate your objection to this project without an unbiased, comprehensive study and the direct consent of the voters. Let them know in clear terms that responsible voter-taxpayers passed the original tax, that we haven't approved a street car system, and that we demand this issue be decided by voters at the municipal election this fall.”

Small Businesses Say Yes to Limit State Spending, No to Mandatory Health Insurance, Split on Immigration Enforcement

Most New Mexico small business owners favor limiting state government spending, reject mandatory health insurance, and are split on investigating citizenship status of employees, according to an annual poll by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Results with at least a 60 percent support or opposition rate become the official lobbying position of NFIB.

House Approves Border Bills

The House approved creating a Border Security and Border Affairs Committee while agreeing to call on the U.S. Congress to create a national immigrant worker program. The bills are part of a four-part border package by Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces,

Miffed Motorists Get Senate Sympathy

Motorists miffed enough at Albuquerque’s traffic camera system to contact their lawmakers have been heard. The Senate unanimously passed a bill that would require flashing yellow warning beacons to alert motorists the light will be red by the time they enter the photographed intersections.

Citizens Empowered by Proposed Anti-Corruption Bills

Conclusion of a three-part series on ethics reform measures.

Citizens would be empowered to join the fight against public corruption with Rep. Joseph Cervantes’ Fraud Against Taxpayers Act and Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort’s Whistleblower Protection Act.

Governmental Conduct Act Like Swiss Cheese: Bill Tries to Fill Holes

Part two of a three-part series on ethics reform measures.

New Mexico’s 30-year-old law governing the conduct of politicians has so many holes, it’s more like Swiss cheese than ethical safeguard. House Bill 823 by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, would fill some of those holes by:

Ethics Reform Package Offers Key Changes: Dems Champion Bills

Part one of a three-part series on ethics reform measures.

Suddenly, being honest is “in” among the state’s politicians. More than a dozen bills dealing with political ethics have been introduced in the Legislature, almost all by Democrats. The bills include a package of key changes recommended by the Ethics Reform Task Force that Gov. Bill Richardson convened last year after a series of scandals in his administration.

They include:

SBA Sends Valentine to NM Small Businesses

Small businesses are the heart of New Mexico’s economy, and the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration is sending them this Valentine:

Ten Reasons To Love New Mexico Small Businesses

10. Small businesses make up 96.2 percent of all New Mexico employers.

9. Small businesses create more than 50 percent of the American nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

8. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.

7. The 153,800 small businesses in New Mexico are located in every community and neighborhood.

NM Studio Lands Major Film

Rio Grande Studios is the first New Mexico company to land a major motion picture deal. Owners Michael Jacobs and Ruby Handler Jacobs say they have signed an agreement with London-based Turn of the Century Productions to co-produce the $50 million action thriller “Judgement Day.”

Crime Victims Would Get Employment Protection Under Bill

A bill sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, that would protect the employment status of victims of crime passed the House with a vote of 66-0.

Petty Thieves Take Note: Small Embezzlements Become Felony Under Bill

Petty thieves and illegal drug users would face felony charges under a bill that would allow authorities to add each occurrence of embezzlement together and apply stiffer penalties.

AG Approves Gov’s Fundraising

In one of his first sticky situations since taking office last month, Attorney General Gary King today issued an opinion that says Governor Bill Richardson’s presidential run fundraising does not conflict with state law.

Republicans Propose Spending Restraint: Dems Rebuff It

Republican lawmakers Rep. Tom Taylor of Farmington and Sen. Kent Cravens of Albuquerque have proposed a constitutional amendment to limit state spending.

“I have talked to people on both sides of the aisle who recognize we are spending too much money,” Taylor says.

The goal is twofold: control the growth of state government and thereby control tax increases on the public; and to provide the Legislature with a reason to prioritize spending.

But leading Democrats were swift to rebuff the proposal.

Ethics Reform Deserves Support

By Sen. Pete Campos, D-Albuquerque

New Mexicans are understandably weary of hearing tales of ethical lapses by their public officials. The New Mexico Legislature has an opportunity during this year’s legislative session to strengthen our ethics laws and restore the public’s faith in its democracy.

The public should not believe that government is unethical and that every elected official and bureaucrat has a hand out. Far from it, the overwhelming majority of New Mexico’s elected official and public employees work hard and are dedicated to the high ideals of public service. The public is well-served by its government in New Mexico.

Unfortunately, there are and always will be a few people who choose to act unethically. Their bad acts are doubly abusive. Not only is the immediate victim of their act harmed, but the public’s faith in its democracy is shaken every time an unethical public official is exposed.

The cynicism that results grows and spreads through our society and can take years to eradicate.

The New Mexico Legislature can and should respond to this problem this year. I support the following measure designed to curb corruption and restore the public’s faith in its government:

First, the New Mexico Legislature should create an independent ethics commission to enforce the state’s ethics laws and advise public officials, lobbyists and political candidates about their provisions.

The commission and its staff should be equally devoted to educating public officials and others about the principles of ethical behavior and their requirements under our ethics laws, as well as to investigating potential violations and enforcing the those laws.

At the same time, the New Mexico Legislature, itself, should strengthen ethics rules to give its existing ethics committees the tools they need to investigate complaints about legislative misbehavior.

While ethical lapses are relatively rare, they are damaging, and a mechanism should be in place to investigate allegations and resolve them quickly.

Second, campaign contributions and gifts should be eliminated. It is an unfortunate perception that large campaign contributions and gifts to elected officials and candidates for office influence official decisions.

While I believe this perception is overstated, the perception is nevertheless widely held, and for that reason it should be addressed. The best option is to strengthen our laws requiring all campaign contributions and most gifts to be public reported by limiting the amounts that can be given.

A good starting point was recommended by Governor Richardson’s Task Force on Ethics Reform: limit individual campaign contributions to statewide candidates to $2,1000 and to candidates for district office to half that -- $1,050.

This limit, or something reasonably similar, would ensure that no single individual, corporation, union or political action committee would be able to disproportionately influence a candidate.

Gifts should also be limited. Lobbyists and their clients should not be allowed to give elected officials or public employees expensive gifts, whether in the form of an all-expense-paid trip to the Super Bowl or a dinner at an expensive restaurant.

At the same time, the limit should be reasonable enough – say $50 or $75 – to allow for lunches, reasonably-priced dinners or relatively small gifts.

Ethical lapses and corruption slowly but steadily erode the foundation of our democracy. Elected officials and concerned citizens, alike, must work hard to fight corruption and the appearance of impropriety so we can restore faith in our fundamental democratic institutions.

See Senate Bill 815 by Sen. Campos establishing an independent ethics commission.

Eminent Domain Laws So Broad, Every Property At Risk

By Walter Bradley, former Lt. Governor

Since last year's U.S. Supreme Court 's infamous Kelo v. City of New London decision, citizens across the nation have declared, in no uncertain terms, their support for private property rights and
opposition to the use of eminent domain for private gain.

Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property against the owner's wishes; both our state and federal constitutions restrict that power only to circumstances where the
government is taking the private property for "public use."

In Kelo, however, the U.S. Supreme Court redefined "public use" and allowed the government to condemn property to take from one private owner and hand it directly to another private interest.

Shortly before the one-year anniversary of Kelo, Governor Richardson convened a task force to study the issue of eminent domain in the Land of Enchantment.

Although Kelo now allows for eminent domain abuse under the federal constitution, the task force members came together to study whether current law in New Mexico allows for eminent domain abuse and, if so, that could be done to fix New Mexico's laws and protect our citizens' private property rights.

Alarmingly, we discovered some of New Mexico 's eminent domain laws are so broadly written that currently every property in the state is at risk for a Kelo-like taking. Local governments are free to use New Mexico 's incredibly broad condemnation authority to take virtually any property in the state and hand it over to private developers.

While most people recognize the need for eminent domain to accomplish traditional public uses, such as schools, roads, utilities and so on, based on the public comments our task force received, the
overwhelming majority (99 percent) of our citizens made their position undeniably clear:

New Mexico should respect the rights of individuals to keep what they have worked so hard to own, and should protect its citizens from eminent domain abuse.

New Mexicans are not alone in this situation. This fall, voters passed every one of the 10 proposed ballot measures solely reforming state eminent domain laws. All told, 34 states have seen fit to better protect their citizens from the use of eminent domain for private profit.

I am pleased to report that the majority of the task force recommended to the Governor that New Mexico 's Metropolitan Redevelopment Act be amended to prohibit the use of eminent domain
for private economic development. This is the only New Mexico law that has used eminent domain purely for economic development purposes.

To ensure that our citizens' rights will be protected in the future, the task force unanimously agreed that certain procedural protections should be adopted as well. The task force made the following the following recommendations to Governor Richardson and our state legislature:

• Clearly prohibit the power to use eminent domain for private
economic development purposes by removing it from the Metropolitan
Redevelopment Act;

• Rewrite the New Mexico Metropolitan Redevelopment Act to remove
existing language that indicates that the interests of private
developers outweigh the interests of the private property owners;

• Increase notice and hearing requirements so that property owners
have earlier notice and a more secure opportunity to participate in
the decision-making and planning process;

The Governor has already voiced his support of our recommendations. It is my hope that the Legislature will respect the rights of New Mexico 's citizens and take the opportunity the upcoming legislative session provides to ensure our citizens will be protected from eminent domain abuse in the years to come.

Bush Budget Whacks NM

Everything from New Mexico's national labs to health care, and education to law enforcement got whacked in President Bush’s $2.9 trillion budget unveiled Monday. Both of the state’s federal senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman lament the proposed cuts.

“I’m not happy about this budget’s recommendations for the national labs, education and health care,” says Domenici. “It is clear that we will have to work hard to make up funding where we think it is most needed.”

Bill Would Give More Warning, Fewer Tickets to Motorists

Calling red light cameras “a guise to raise money for the city of Albuquerque,” Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque, is proposing an advanced warning system that he says will cut down on tickets while making intersections safer.

Eminent Domain Abuse Addressed

Will the government take your home, land or business? It’s already happened to people in Rio Rancho, and may happen to a private water company too.

New Mexico’s laws on eminent domain are so broadly written, virtually anyone’s property can become a takeover target, says former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley. Bradley served on Gov. Bill Richardson’s task force charged with reviewing state laws on the matter.

“The definitions of blight and slum are so broad Rio Rancho used them to declare vacant land a blight,” he says. “That’s stretchin’ it, in my opinion.”

Ethics Reform Bill Dies

An ethics reform bill that would have increased penalties on government officials convicted of felonies committed in office died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 4, “Enhancing Penalties for Felonies Committed by Elected Officials,” was sponsored by Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe. The bill would have allowed courts to add fines up to the value of an official’s salary and fringe benefits accrued from the time the crime is committed to expulsion from office.

U.S. Senate Passes Minimum Wage: NM Bills in Limbo

Both of New Mexico's federal senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman have voted to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 within two years. The Fair Minimum Wage Act passed Thursday by 94-3. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar bill a few weeks ago by 315-116.

The U.S. Senate bill includes a tax package that was supported by the National Federation of Independent Business. The U.S. House version does not. The two chambers must now hammer out their differences before the bill can be sent to President Bush.

The federal bills put New Mexico lawmakers’ minimum wage bills in limbo.

Secretary of State Discloses Deficits: Federal Audit Under Way

Secretary of State Mary Herrera disclosed to a Senate Rules Committee Wednesday that her office was left $3.5 million in debt from her predecessor Rebecca Vigil-Giron.

Before leaving office, Vigil-Giron had requested $3 million from the Legislative Finance Committee: $2.2 million to cover outstanding debts and $800,000 to meet the federal Help America Vote Act requirements. HAVA funds are grants to the states to help citizens with disabilities vote.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Inspector General Curtis Crider confirmed his office is conducting an audit of HAVA funds. The audit started Jan. 22 and should be completed in March. Herrera requested the audit, he said.

At issue are whether Vigil-Giron inappropriately used HAVA funds, creating a shortfall, and whether she violated the state’s “50 percent rule” that requires outgoing officials to leave at least half of an agency’s budget in tact for their successors.