Letters

Remove politics from insurance

The New Mexico Legislature has a rare opportunity to improve New Mexico’s regulation of insurance by passing House Bill 45.

This bill, which is sponsored by Speaker Ken Martinez, D-Grants, Rep. Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, and Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal, implements a constitutional amendment that was approved by voters last fall to remove insurance regulation from the Public Regulation Commission.

The idea behind this legislation came out of a report by the independent think tank Think New Mexico. The bill is carefully designed to insulate insurance regulation from politics.

It creates an independent committee that will be responsible for appointing future superintendents of insurance. This committee will be made up of bipartisan members appointed by the Legislature and governor, subject to strict requirements that it fairly balance the interests of insurance businesses and consumers.

House Bill 45 also includes numerous accountability measures, including a new prohibition on financial conflicts of interest, annual reports to the Legislature, governor and nominating committee, and a provision allowing the committee to remove the superintendent for any malfeasance in office. Additional accountability arises from the fact that the superintendent will be required to comply with about 800 pages of insurance statutes.

Finally, once insurance regulation is separated from the PRC, the new department will be required to have an annual, independent audit, which will result in more transparency.

I support House Bill 45 because it will insulate the regulation of insurance from political interference.

I speak from experience, as I was the first superintendent of insurance appointed by the PRC in 1999, shortly after the commission was created. I frequently saw politics interfere with decisions that should have been made on the technical merits. For example, past PRC commissioners pressured the Insurance Division to hire unqualified but politically connected staff, which in turn led to the division being placed on probation by its national accrediting agency three times in the past 16 years.

As a result, under the PRC, the position of superintendent of insurance has been something of a revolving door. Every insurance superintendent who has ever served under the PRC (other than the one currently serving) has either been fired or forced to resign.

On Feb. 25, the House unanimously (64-0) approved House Bill 45. The bill must now be approved by the Senate, where it has been assigned to three committees. It must get through in the remaining days before the session concludes.

Don Letherer

Former Insurance Superintendent

No incentives needed for business

There have been a series of both regular Journal and Business Outlook Section articles discussing why the New Mexico economy is not more robust and why businesses are not creating jobs. Everything has been blamed from tax rates to minimum wage requirements to lack of capable workers, etc., etc. However, all these protestations by business owners are trumped by the fact that new businesses, local and national chains, keep opening establishments in Albuquerque all the time.

There have been announcements about the openings of the new Target in Uptown as well as the brew pub/restaurant and Gengis Grille there, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Freddy’s, a Kansas chain, Kohl’s opening a store in Coronado Mall, etc., etc. These successful businesses and others like them must have found the Albuquerque and New Mexico business climate warm and friendly to make the investment necessary to open here — higher tax rates, minimum wage requirements and all. So, perhaps the city and state economic departments should be pursuing the businesses that support those businesses — product manufacturing, warehousing, service centers, etc., in place of the quest of the more “impressive” technology companies. Yes, our workforce could be more capable, but it is certainly more than capable of handling the jobs of those types of industries. Further, addition of more of that type of capable workforce and support systems will draw more advanced businesses.

As for job creation, there is only one absolute bottom-line reason why New Mexico businesses are not adding jobs — lack of sales/increase in product demand. Whether it is the corner convenience store, local grocery store, or the electronics manufacturers, their business model is to have just enough staff to handle the expected sales. Sales increase (and stay increased), they hire. Sales are flat, they don’t hire. Yes, tax structures and wage structures affect the number of persons employed by a business — lowered and the business might reduce prices thereby increasing sales — but no business creates jobs just because the economy might get better. Well, maybe they do, but not for long unless it does get better — otherwise they fold.

Christopher M. Timm

Albuquerque

More facts, less opinion please

Thursday’s Albuquerque Journal (2/14/2013) had a small article in the Business section under “The Nation” which illustrates a problem that often occurs in business reporting. The headline is “New payroll tax nips retail sales.”

This headline and the statements in the article that follow are stated as facts, when in reality they are simply someone’s opinions. It does the public a disservice to pretend that opinions are facts. It isn’t clear who writes these kind of articles, but the Journal should not report them as facts when they are simply the best guess of whomever wrote the story. There are enough natural fluctuations in economic activity, and many variables responsible for these fluctuations, which makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint a specific reason for any particular fluctuation.

Edward Birnbaum

Los Alamos

Get your fracking facts straight

With reference to Donald R. Baucom’s Letter to the Editor, “Fracking expertise no cause for attack,” Business Outlook, Feb 18, 2013:

Baucom seems to have missed the point of my … Feb. 11 Outlook letter to the editor responding to Professor Alex Ritchie’s Jan. 28 article.

I agree with Baucom, Ritchie’s credentials are impressive. The fact is, one needs to dig to learn that Ritchie’s credentials cause one to be suspicious of his suggestion that “State legislators should consider … action to make clear that the New Mexico Oil and Gas Act preempts local regulation….” This suggestion comes not from an unbiased law academic at UNM. Professor Ritchie apparently has an extensive background in fighting for the interest of gas and oil corporations.

I realize Ritchie is not a scientist, he is a lawyer, and in effect he legally defends that which oil and gas do with science. The Center for Science in the Public Interest conducts a project titled “Integrity in Science.” CSPI’s mission, in part, is to recognize that “partnerships between industry and the research community … entail conflicts of interest that may compromise the judgment of trusted professionals…”

It is unfortunate there is no “Integrity in Law” webpage at www.unm.edu or at www.americanbarassociation.org.

One more CSPI goal (is) encouraging “journalists to routinely ask scientists and others about their possible conflicts of interests and to provide this information to the public.”

Ron Wooten-Green

Las Vegas, N.M.