Wednesday, March 03, 2021Reader Vox Populi: They Write of Grocerygate, Redistricting, Troubled State Bureaucracy, Managing Marijuana, A Vow Of Poverty And More Joe, Really?! "Jewelrygate" and "Grocerygate" is all the Rebublicans have to talk about in regards to MLG? The R's are really digging deep to find something on the Gov. Its absurd and ridiculous. These may have been a minor violation of the Covid protocols at the time and an inappropriate spending of her gubernatorial budget but really!
Come On Man! These are minor discretions for which she apologized. Would a Republican in her shoes ever apologize? Trump wouldn't. There is just so much positive to talk about given her leadership during the pandemic. . . DOING REDISTRICTING Reader Frances Gonzales with the Adelante Progressive Caucus of the NM Dem Party writes of this year's redistricting bills in Santa Fe: Joe, You expect southern GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell to lose her seat due to redistricting. Well, maybe she’ll lose it for other reasons, and we’ll have fair redistricting this year. HB 211 and SB 199 would reform redistricting for congressional and legislative seats. The bills would establish a commission to develop redistricting plans for the Legislature to choose from. Among other aspects, the bills would also ban the use of partisan data and prohibit the favoring of any political party or incumbent legislator or member of Congress. And another on redistricting from Cheryl Harris, president of the Adelante Progressive Caucus: Joe, You have mentioned redistricting, envisioning battle lines being drawn for CD2. It's very macho to think of it as the spoils of war. But it’s time for redistricting to stop being a partisan issue or an incumbent protection program. The legislature may just do that. HB 211 has 21 co-sponsors who support redistricting reform. SB 199 is sponsored by respected Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino. They are willing to turn away from the punitive and legally expensive practices of the past. This reform bill. . . would create a 7 member, bi-partisan commission which will follow guidelines of communication with constituents, open meetings act, and federal law. It would allow for the hiring of professional consultants and use of census data and other relevant community information. It should, as a reformative bill, create political subdivisions based on voters and their communities, not based on elected officials' needs and preferences. And it would be nice to see redistricting completed by the bipartisan committee for a change, and not by the courts.
HONORED TO BE HONORED Joe, though I've never lived in New Mexico, I read your blog regularly. It's fun and a breezy informative hit on what's going on in La Politica. But you really outdid yourself with your Feb. 23 blog on how fiscal conservatism perseveres in New Mexico, especially the legislature. It was a quite insightful glimpse into the process of co-optation of state legislators who can be well-intentioned; but are under-informed, under-resourced, & often less experienced than the bureaucrats(or lobbyists!). But you're really onto something critically important in your ongoing coverage of why a state that's sitting on billions in the Permanent Fund from oil and gas as well as currently quite plump with reserves under-invests in its huge numbers of impoverished people, especially youth. Even right-wing economists will attest to the extremely favorable cost-benefit analysis regarding funding early-childhood education (humanitarian concerns of course as well). The pay-off in human potential fulfilled is huge! And these vast sums being hoarded by the state aren't doing anybody any good whatsoever. If New Mexico's abysmal rankings on social indices that shriek of human despair combined with the additional devastation of Covid-19 aren't an emergency, I don't know what is.
But you know all this. You've been great at repeatedly circling back to what's arguably one of the most important and least covered stories of how exactly great poverty and its attendant socio-pathologies persist in the richest country in human history. I honor you for that. Hey Joshua, I am honored to be honored. DVR TROUBLE A Senior Alligator writes from the Roundhouse of what he says is the troubled state agency, DVR: For many years the state agency responsible for assisting people return to the workforce after dealing with injuries, disabilities or addictions, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), has been chronically mis-administered. The average tenure of heads of DVR has been counted in months, not years. The agency has not been responsive to the needs of the people it is supposed to serve and has been under pressure to clean up its act.
Ms. Brown is African-American, one of the small number of Black agency heads. Ordinarily you would think that a minority woman who had done such a fine job would become one of this Administration's shining exemplars. But, instead, last week, she was stunned to receive a terse, two paragraph letter from the Governor's Chief of Staff terminating her. She was told that her status as an exempt employee meant she didn't have to be given any reason for this unbelievable action. Many in the African-American community have been deeply upset by this. And many legislators have begun trying to get the Governor to reconsider. It is a complete head-scratcher why the hard-won success Ms. Brown has achieved in setting DVR on the right track has not been celebrated. Instead, she has been terminated. And a lot of people are wondering why. DVR has come a long way under her guidance. Watching it slip backward will be a serious gaffe for a Governor whose personnel choices have largely been successful so far. VOW OF POVERTY An ABQ reader writes of the accumulation of a $2.7 billion general fund budget reserve and the over $20 billion that has accumulated in the Land Grant Permanent Fund: Joe, It just blows my mind and just angers me that we as a state sit on billions of dollars when we are continually ranked as one of the poorest states in the union. Collectively, we have a taken a Vow of Poverty and it surely shows! This conservative notion that we must save for the rainy day has to go . . . it has been raining in New Mexico for the past 50 years. NMSU Economist Chris Erickson has it right. Spend some of the money. Not only will the poor benefit but so will all of us, including the middle class and those above. When one does well, we all do! Even at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a legitimate concern over the downturn in the economy with high unemployment and businesses closing. Yet, due to the stimulus dollars injected into the economy, we are now looking at higher revenues and we continue to sit on the money. Its time to disavow our Vow of Poverty and invest in the people of New Mexico! Reader Gordon Glass writes: Joe, While I emphatically agree with the focus on expanding broadband, it would seem that some of this fossil fuel generated state surplus should be plowed right back into jobs that reclaim the land from abandoned and/or leaking well sites. And some of that should be billed to irresponsible producers who need to be held accountable. And what about those skinny budgets for the state environment department and Oil and Gas Division? ELECTION 2022 A Republican reader writes: These are my comments on the anti-MLG ad from the Republican Governors Association that you blogged of this week and the Governor's race in 2022. The RGA sees an opportunity to set the table in '22. MLG is beatable with the right GOP opponent, and the RGA wants to to see where they can be most impactful. However, don’t forget that the RGA spent approximately $1 million in New Mexico in the '18 governor's race and we saw how that turned out. Unless what's left of the moderate Republicans comes up with a candidate (and I haven’t heard anything yet) MLG and the Democrats have nothing to worry about because they are smart enough make up for their mistakes by following an unwritten rule in politics: never get in the way of a train wreck. In this case that is the Republican Party of New Mexico train wreck.” MANAGING MARIJUANA  Hi Joe, I read with interest your blog post on 1/7 re: recreational pot hurdles. My neighborhood in the North Valley has a tremendous problem with a medical cannabis company which has a dispensary on property zoned C-1, but their growing and processing is on R-1 residential property right next to our homes. Yes, BernCo let them put their greenhouses on R-1. Dispensaries are not usually a huge problem, other than increased traffic and potential for burglary. But growing and processing are very stinky and our neighborhood is assaulted by the smells. This is in the unincorporated part of BernCo, and communication over several years has not alleviated the problem. It would be very wise if the state legalization legislation would stipulate not only where dispensaries can be located, but make sure that cannabis growing and processing facilities are far from residential areas, have stringent odor regulations and also apply to existing medical cannabis facilities. Cannabis emits terpenes which are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which become ground level ozone. Many of us feel physically ill from the pungent odors. Colorado knows about this and takes measures to control cannabis emissions. This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021 |
  |
