OPINION: It's time to pay our legislators

Once again, our state Legislature is taking up the question of whether New Mexico should pay its legislators a salary. It bears repeating: New Mexico is the only state in the nation that does not pay its legislators a salary. Instead, legislators receive a per diem; essentially a reimbursement for travel and daily expenses while in session or on official business.

This is not a radical or controversial proposal. According to a recent Common Cause poll, nearly two-thirds of likely voters (64%) support paying legislators a base salary equivalent to the average household income in New Mexico. Thirty-seven percent strongly support it; another 27% somewhat support it. Public opinion on this issue is clear.

In 2022, we published a widely circulated report calling for the modernization of New Mexico’s Legislature. Our recommendations were straightforward: provide legislators with permanent staff, increase session length and pay legislators a salary. Two years ago, the Legislature took an important step by approving funding for full-time district aides. The remaining reforms — legislative pay and session length — require a constitutional amendment, which helps explain why they have taken longer.

The rationale behind these recommendations is simple. Research consistently shows that modernized legislatures have greater capacity to do their jobs well. Capacity matters. Legislatures with adequate time, staff and compensation are better able to write thoughtful and innovative policy, provide constituent services, check the executive branch, push back against lobbyists, oversee large bureaucracies and offer meaningful representation to the people they serve.

But beyond the research, paying legislators is simply the right thing to do.

As it stands, New Mexico’s legislators are among the most overworked, underappreciated and heavily criticized volunteers in American government. Most of us have wished, at one point or another, that we were paid more for our work. Now imagine doing that work with no salary at all. Expecting people to serve under those conditions is not a badge of honor — it is a barrier, and it is wrong.

We should also ask a harder question: How do we expect to recruit a new generation of leaders into positions that do not come with pay? A 2025 Harvard Youth Poll found that 4 in 10 young Americans are barely getting by financially, and fewer than half report feeling a strong sense of community. For many, unpaid legislative service is simply not a realistic option.

We believe that the ability to participate in the political life of one’s community as a representative of the people is among life’s highest callings. But reimbursement for mileage or lodging is not the same as a salary. A salary acknowledges labor, responsibility and the democratic importance of the institution itself.

A salary sends a signal. It says that the Legislature matters. It says that legislators’ work is valued. And it says that our system of checks and balances, so central to democratic governance, is worth investing in.

It is time to pay our legislators. Let’s finally give them the respect they deserve.

Michael Rocca is a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico and director of the Masters in Public Policy program. Timothy Krebs is a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico and a former department chair.