Dec. 26 – Instead of blaming the governor and state lawmakers for mistakes after they wrap up a legislative session, it might be productive to castigate them beforehand. Let’s give it a try.
The 112 lawmakers can begin introducing bills after New Year’s Day for their 60-day session, which begins Jan. 21. If history repeats itself, many will waste time and money by prioritizing unimportant matters at the expense of content.
A good start to avoiding this pitfall is to send all bills for specialty license plates to legislative committees who will bury them. That step would set the right tone.
The real work is waiting to be done. And tackling weighty issues requires commitment and intelligence.
The legislature’s many absconders still want to put something – anything – into law. They often come up with bills for more license plates in the hope of currying favor with one group or another.
New Mexico already has more than 40 specialty license plates. They recognize everything from bass fishing to pollinator conservation to the decommissioned Route 66. Get a thrill by wearing a license plate across the old highway.
The hunger for wasting resources to establish more license plates never ends.
With many important policy measures still awaiting hearings during the final 14 hours of the 2024 legislative session, the House of Representatives set these bills aside. Instead, time was made to pass a bill for license plates featuring Smokey Bear, the cub who burned in a 1950 New Mexico forest fire. The proposal passed 62-0, after a largely incomprehensible debate.
Only a few hours remained as senators deliberated on the Smokey Bear license plate bill. In a heroic effort, the Senate beat the clock to pass the bill, 41-0.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, vetoed a bill in 2023 for special Smokey Bear signs. This year she reversed it and passed the measure into law.
Smokey Bear’s beak made its way at lightning speed. Sen. Jeff Steinborn’s proposed constitutional amendment to reform the dysfunctional system for selecting university regents died without receiving a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, made an important but bureaucratic proposal. Under existing law, the governor has the sole authority to elect regents. The Senate can confirm or reject the nominees, although only one has been voted out in the past decade.
Steinborn wants to establish nomination committees to screen candidates for regent seats. The governor would then choose from the list of names sent to her by the committees.
My preference is for a constitutional amendment to elect regents, especially after scandals at New Mexico State University and Western New Mexico University. Boards of Regents at both institutions earn a grade of F.
NMSU regents slept while corruption overtook the men’s basketball program. Two players said they were sexually assaulted and humiliated by teammates. Still, the outgoing chancellor rewarded the athletics director with a significant pay increase and contract extension.
NMSU regents ultimately agreed to $8 million in payments to settle lawsuits from the injured players.
Western’s regents just agreed to pay university President Joseph Shepard seven figures to leave office.
Shepard and the five regents came under fire from news organizations and the state auditor for misspending at least $360,000 on travel and other items. Shepard agreed to resign as president on January 15.
In return, Western’s regents approved a contract paying Shepard a lump sum of $1.909 million. The regents also guaranteed Shepard an additional $200,000 per year for five years as a professor at the business school.
People from all over the state have called or written to me to complain about what’s going on at Western, a college of fewer than 3,600 students in Silver City.
“During my career, none of this malfeasance as demonstrated by the WNMU president would have been tolerated,” wrote Vicki Holmsten, who retired from the faculty of San Juan College in Farmington.
Frank Chambers of Santa Fe, who taught at Oklahoma State University, wrote, “That is outrageous and enabled by regents who have been complicit in the improper spending.”
Mary Beckner, also of Santa Fe, called the regents unfit. “They must be expelled,” she said.
To be cautious, Lujan Grisham made a poor choice in selecting Western’s Board of Regents. But several readers have wondered whether my proposal to elect two super boards of regents, one for research universities and the other for regional institutions, would harm education and politics.
The truth is that politics is already polluting the system. Donors and political supporters of a governor are often appointed regents.
Mary Hotvedt, chair of Western’s Board of Regents, is a former chair of the Grant County Democratic Party. She was also an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Representatives. Hotvedt ran in a heavily Republican district and took a loss for her team. The appointment to Western’s Board of Regents was a consolation prize.
After Shepard’s takeover, the students, teachers and state taxpayers are the ones who need comfort.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
