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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Lawmaker Compensation, Ethics Commission Get Green Light

By Deborah Baker/
Associated Press
      Compensation for lawmakers, an independent ethics commission and an appointed state treasurer and auditor got the green light Tuesday from an ethics task force.
    The panel endorsed the separate proposals in concept, leaving the difficult details — how to cap the compensation, for example — to be worked out later.
    The task force agreed the state constitution should be changed to allow lawmakers to get salaries or expenses or some combination of the two, but only if the law also is changed to ban the use of campaign funds for anything other than campaigning.
    Currently, House and Senate members get per diem and mileage payments for attending legislative sessions and committee meetings. That wouldn't change, under the task force proposal.
    The proposed recommendation would allow legislators also to be paid salaries or get money for constituent-related expenses, such as phone calls or gasoline or office space.
    That would reduce the motivation "to squeeze money from the wrong places,'' said state Treasurer Doug Brown, a task force member.
    Former Gov. Garrey Carruthers, co-chairman of the task force, said it was time for New Mexico to "grow up as a state'' and fairly compensate lawmakers.
    "We're trying to run a multi-billion-dollar business with free labor. I wouldn't run a business that way,'' Carruthers, who is dean of business at New Mexico State University, said in an interview.
    Panel members tossed around the idea of recommending a $24,000 cap on salaries and-or expenses for lawmakers, but didn't make a final decision. The committee meets again next month.
    At an earlier meeting, Carruthers told members that half the state's 112 lawmakers earned more than $16,000 in per diem last year and that the lowest amount paid to a lawmaker was about $8,000.
    The task force plans to give its recommendations to Gov. Bill Richardson in October. He, in turn, would make proposals to the 2007 Legislature.
    The task force endorsed the creation of an independent, eight-member ethics commission that would investigate complaints against elected state officials, state employees and lawmakers. It likely would have some enforcement powers — to censure or reprimand or impose fines, for example — but not the authority to remove officials from office or yank their pensions.
    "It's a place where the public can go to say, 'Hey, so-and-so is doing something that's not quite right,''' said task force member Jim Noel, who is executive director of the Judicial Standards Commission.
    Noel said a watchdog ethics commission — appointed by the governor and legislative leaders — should have a full-time staff, an adequate budget and subpoena powers and should conduct mandatory ethics training for state employees, state contractors and lobbyists.
    The third proposal approved by the task force was a recommendation that the state treasurer and state auditor be appointed by the governor, rather than elected. That would require a change in the state constitution.
    Brown said the treasurer and auditor are specialized positions, and that having them appointed would mean better qualified and more accountable officials.
    Brown was appointed treasurer after the resignation of Robert Vigil, who was indicted last year for allegedly taking kickbacks and who stayed on the job until the Legislature was in the midst of impeachment proceedings against him.
    "It is very difficult to remove an elected official who is engaged in misconduct,'' Brown said. "There ought to be some other way.''
   

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