2006 Legislative Agenda

A Fair and Secure Future
“Where Common Sense Meets Common Ground"

The Progressive Voter Alliance supports policies and legislation that help promote secure and prosperous lives for all New Mexican families.

Economic Well-Being for All New Mexicans:

• Family and Individual Rebate (FAIR): Because New Mexico has such a broad-based gross receipts tax, lower income people pay a disproportionate percentage of their income in taxes. In 2003, low-income families received less than $26 million under the State’s Low Income Comprehensive Tax Rebate. Upper-income households received a very large tax cut in 2003, worth $360 million each year when fully enacted in 2008. In order to make the state’s tax system more fair, we support increasing the rebate so that low-income households receive up to $60 million under LICTR/FAIR.
  

• A Living Wage: New Mexico has the second highest poverty rate in the nation. An increase in New Mexico’s minimum wage to at least $7.50 per hour is both a moral and an economic imperative for New Mexico. We believe that the minimum wage should be indexed to reflect inflation, and that local ordinances at the city or county level should not be preempted by state law.
  

• Health Care Reform In New Mexico, 26% of our residents are without health care insurance, the 3rd highest proportion in the United States. We believe health care reform is critical and support the establishment of a publicly accountable health care system in New Mexico that provides everyone medical and mental health services and medications, encourages preventive care, allows everyone to choose their own health care provider, controls costs, and brings new resources to underserved areas.  We believe a state-wide single-payer health care system is the most efficient and economical way to achieve these goals.
  

• State Funding for Farmland Preservation, Open Space and Wildlife: More than 80% of New Mexicans use and enjoy wildlife and outdoor recreation areas. More than $1 billion is spent annually on wildlife recreation statewide. Yet, New Mexico lags woefully behind neighboring western states in the amount of money dedicated to farmland preservation, wildlife habitat, watersheds, viewsheds, open space, and outdoor recreation areas. Local communities are losing out on federal conservation dollars due to an inability to meet cost share requirements. We believe that New Mexico should dedicate a permanent revenue source to fund conservation of farmland, open space, wildlife habitat and water rights for public use and benefit.
  

• Legislation to Support a Healthy Rio Grande River The health of the Rio Grande ecosystem is compromised by the fact that the river lacks legal rights to its own water. This is especially a problem below Elephant Butte Dam where management of reservoir releases and irrigation diversions starve the river of water at various times of the year for approximately 400 miles downstream. Unfortunately, the newly enacted Strategic Water Reserve, while a good first step, does not apply to the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico. We support efforts to obtain permanent water rights for the Rio Grande to support instream flows and ecosystem health, and believe this can be done in a way that does not harm existing human water users.
  

• Protection of Landowners’ Surface Property Rights: Under New Mexico common law, landowners without mineral rights to their properties have limited say in how the below ground minerals, like oil and gas, will be extracted and how damage to surface property will be controlled. We believe that landowners’ surface property rights should not be trampled, nor the owners of mineral rights harmed. We support a fair and balanced process where agreements can be negotiated for access and the mitigation of surface property damage.
  

• Solar Tax Credit: High oil prices, our sun-rich state, and energy security are three good reasons to help New Mexicans power their residential and commercial buildings with solar energy. We support legislation that would provide a state tax credit for New Mexicans who install solar water heaters and solar heating systems. This will complement PNM’s buyback program and the new but limited federal solar tax credits.
  

• Protection from Hate Crimes: We support protecting all New Mexicans, from the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their sexual orientation. We support the introduction and retention of “sexual orientation” in New Mexico’s hate crime legislation.
  
• Just and Equal Treatment for Gay and Lesbians: Many couples of the same sex live in stable relationships and would like to benefit from the same advantages, rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples. We do not support defining marriage only as a union between couples of the opposite sex.
  

• State Funding for Family Planning and the Newly Formed Council on Women’s Health: Family planning ensures the sexual and reproductive health of women, which, in turn, is fundamental to the social and economic development of communities, economies and states. We support state funding for family planning and the Council on Women’s Health.
  

• Public Financing of Judicial Election Campaigns New Mexico appellate court judges interpret state legal codes of justice, but they are consistently put in the awkward position of receiving private donations during an election campaign.  A commission convened by the American Bar Association singled out publicly financed elections as its primary recommendation "to address the perceived impropriety associated with judicial candidates accepting private contributions from individuals and organizations interested in the outcomes of cases those candidates may later decide as judges."
  
• Extending the Open Meeting Law to Legislative Conference Committees Legislative committees are open to the public, so why aren't conference committees?  In states where this kind of Sunshine Law exists, there has been little negative effect on the legislative process.  This kind of legislation facilitates democracy and open government.