In September, New Mexico’s 70 representatives and 42 senators will convene to reconfigure the state’s House and Senate, Public Regulation Commission and U.S. congressional districts based on the 2010 census.
It’s a once-per-decade task that is absolutely necessary to ensure New Mexico’s voters are adequately and fairly represented in their government.
Yet beyond it being the people’s business, it amounts to politicians’ business and keeping seats in the Roundhouse “safe.” Even the Legislative Council Services’ 2011 Guide to Redistricting deems it an “impending drama.”
Make that a $50,000-a-day impending drama.
So it is imperative this special session not be larded up with additional contentious and divisive issues — even ones that are truly the people’s business — if there is no chance of them making it through the Legislature, much less past the governor’s desk.
The cynical would say that’s what a regular session is for.
Of course lawmakers must consider the unfinished business of their constituents — the economic soundness of not funding capital projects, the fiscal soundness of the state’s unemployment benefits fund, the legal soundness of providing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
But unless New Mexico’s leaders can walk into the Roundhouse with some compromise and consensus on those issues — or at the minimum a commitment to put things to a vote — the session promises to drag out as an exercise in futility that distracts all from the redistricting job at hand.
And that makes the proposal for a separate special session, or waiting for the 2012 regular session, sound better all the time.
When the 2011 Legislature adjourned without authorizing $240 million worth of capital outlay bonds for things like schools and roads, contractors warned it would cost thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue. When Gov. Susana Martinez line-item vetoed higher unemployment tax rates on businesses to shore up the dwindling benefits fund, she contended a wait-and-watch-the-recovery approach was economically responsible in the short run. And when the Democratic-controlled Senate failed to repeal the state law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, Martinez vowed “we’re never going to give up on the issue.”
She has also put education and anti-corruption reforms on a potential special session to-do list.
Meanwhile, redistricting will involve the potentially combative balancing of rural retrenchment with urban growth in the state’s three congressional districts as well as legislative seats.
Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, points out “redistricting is a huge undertaking, which in my opinion deserves our undivided attention. Certainly it’s the governor’s prerogative to include whatever she wants on the agenda, but I also think it’s the taxpayer’s prerogative to be unhappy if the session drags on because we get away from what we’re there to do.”
It is important to note that the state’s citizen lawmakers didn’t sign up for a year-round Legislature, and taxpayers didn’t sign up to foot the bill for endless debates and stalling tactics on issues they want addressed yesterday.
The people’s issues as well as the politicians’ deserve up-or-down votes, but with just three months before the special session starts, it’s important to pragmatically and realistically devise an agenda as to what can be accomplished in what kind of sessions.
Anything less does everyone involved — especially taxpayers and voters — a disservice.
