(D. Villegas)

The debate around key issues facing the 60 day legislative session is gaining more clarity as we flip the calendar to February. Here are the takeaways:

--For the first time in a little noticed interview MLG drew a line in the sand on the proposal to tap the $17 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund School Fund for very early childhood programs. She said:

I have every intention of having the fight of my life on this issue. Our ‘pinch,’ I think, will be an indication that we expect about a third of what we’ll need for early child education to come out of the permanent fund. I think we might be closer to an open dialogue by folks that have said no deal.

--That "pinch" under legislation sponsored by ABQ Dem Rep. Javier Martinez would withdraw one percent of the fund's value annually, adding upwards of $150 million year to early childhood programs, but key players see negotiations taking that percentage lower.

--The fight the Governor says she has every "intention" of having will be with conservative Senate Democrats who have repeatedly blocked the amendment which, if approved by the House and Senate, would go to voters in 2020. The House is supportive of the measure that does not require a gubernatorial signature.

--However, it will require gubernatorial power to crack the conservative D's or bring them to the table. That may indeed require the "fight of her life" that she has now publicly pledged.

MINIMUM PUSH

--Conservatives aren't necessarily "cracking" over the Guv's push to hike the statewide minimum wage from $7.50 to $10 an hour, it's more like they are yielding to the political reality seen in last year's election results.

--Even conservative Senate Dem Clemente Sanchez, who has battled with minimum supporters in the past, is proposing a $10 an hour minimum, albeit his would not take effect until October 2020 while others would take effect this year.

--Sanchez is also proposing that the $2.13 minimum wage for tipped employees stay on the books, something restaurant owners are clamoring for. He and they may get it. (The tipped minimum is higher in cities with higher overall minimums).

--Interviews we've had with tipped workers in ABQ found opinion mixed but overall they expressed support for the status quo. Many are making near $20 an hour under the current structure and in no mood to rock the boat.

--Interestingly, in a Sunday op-ed piece MLG did not make mention of the debate over the minimum for tipped employees, a signal that she is not locked down on it.

--Santa Fe's minimum wage is already north of $11 an hour and would not be impacted by the $10 an hour mandate. Las Cruces is also now over the $10 an hour mark. However, ABQ is in  the low $9 an hour area so minimum workers there would benefit from the increase.

CAP OR CAPLESS?

--There are not many believers in Santa Fe that state film incentives, capped at $50 million a year, should be completely lifted. Such a move would threaten to blow a hole in the budget in future years. Because they have gone over the cap over the years, Hollywood is now owed over $300 million due from the state, a huge sum in a budget headed toward the $7 billion area.

--MLG's support of removing the incentive cap is seen more as a negotiating play than her hope for the final result, meaning an increase from $50 million a year to a yet to be determined number, but the cap stays.

--The position of Dem Senator Carlos Cisneros of Senate Finance seems likely to carry the day:
"(He) said he would support loosening the cap. The film industry, he added, has been good for the state. “A complete drop--that’s unpredictable,” he said, cautioning that the state needs to have some certainty about how much it is paying in incentives in future years, particularly in lean budget years."

THE BOTTOM LINES

Rubel

The clock will run out on the ABQ public schools mail-in election Tuesday at 7 p.m. Here's the closing arguments. First, from Amy Horowitz, a retired Realtor and education lobbyist, who says the property tax increase that would result if the ballot questions are approved is over the top. And here's Doug Majewski and Cynthia Schultz of the ABQ construction community with an argument in support of the tax. . .

Walt Rubel, 60, has been a fixture on the state journalism scene, coming to the Las Cruces Sun-News in 2002 and carving out a niche as a common sense commentator and voice of reason as the editor of the paper's opinion pages. Now that run has ended:

I now join the scores of former reporters and editors who have lost their jobs in a massive downsizing as the industry transitions from print to digital. . . I don’t know what comes next, but it will come here in Las Cruces. I’m done chasing newspaper jobs around the country . . . I’m close enough to retirement that I’m prepared financially, for which I’m thankful. . . But, I’m not sure what I am now. That has probably been the most disconcerting thing. That, and the indignity, of course. Since 1982, I’ve been a journalist. Now I’m something else.

Hasta la vista, Walt. . .

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019