If you haven’t already heard, recent media reports have found that 70% of New Mexico births are funded by Medicaid. Some, including former New Mexico Senator Dede Feldman don’t seem to think this is a problem.
Needless to say, there are indeed many issues with this high level of welfare dependency in New Mexico. My commentary for KUNM 89.9FM can be heard on the radio starting today and at this link.
So, it looks like the big “economic development” introduced by the majority party in Santa Fe is an increase in the minimum wage. “You can have both. You can have social justice and a strong economy,” said Rep. Brian Egolf D-Santa Fe.
Of course you can have justice or fairness and a strong economy. Free market capitalism is the fairest system available and it has done more than any other force to bring billions of people out of poverty. Not surprisingly, New Mexico, which is the least economically free state in the nation. Interestingly, New Mexico also has the most rampant income inequality among the 50 states according to the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Of course it is Egolf and his buddies who have controlled New Mexico for generations, running its economy into the ground. I’m sure a minimum wage hike is just the economic boost we need!
Oh, and lest you fall for the line that raising the minimum wage has anything to do with “social justice,” check out this exchange between then Sen. John F. Kennedy and others:
In a 1957 Senate hearing, minimum-wage advocate Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who just four years later would be President of the United States, stated,
Of course, having on the market a rather large source of cheap labor depresses wages outside of that group, too – the wages of the white worker who has to compete. And when an employer can substitute a colored worker at a lower wage – and there are, as you pointed out, these hundreds of thousands looking for decent work – it affects the whole wage structure of an area, doesn’t it?
“The witness he was addressing, Mr. Clarence Mitchell, then director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP replied,
I certainly think that is why the Southern picture is as it is today on the wage matters, that there is a constant threat that if the white people don’t accept the low wages that are being paid to them, some Negroes will come in [to] work for a lower wage. Of course, you feel it then up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, because various enterprising people decide to take their plants out of your states and take them down to the areas of cheap labor.
“Kennedy’s colleague Jacob Javits, then a U.S. Senator from New York, was similarly blunt. He said,
I point out to Senators from industrial states like my own that a minimum wage increase would also give industry in our states some measure of protection, as we have too long suffered from the unfair competition based on substandard wages and other labor conditions in effect in certain areas of the country – primarily in the South.
If anything, the minimum wage is just another left-wing plot to support their union allies by keeping the poor and minorities out of the work force.
(Albuquerque) In an effort to improve government transparency throughout New Mexico, the Rio Grande Foundation has requested and published payroll data for the 35 largest cities throughout New Mexico and all 33 counties in the state.
Some cities including Albuquerque and Rio Rancho post payroll information online. Bernalillo County also posts salary data on its website. However, few city website has a comprehensive listing of payroll data from New Mexico cities and counties. Find city data here and county data here.
Said Rio Grande Foundation President Paul Gessing of his organization’s role in releasing the data, “Taxpayers are the ultimate ‘bosses’ of government workers and should have access to this data. Government is the only ‘business’ in which the boss often doesn’t have access to the company payroll.”
Under New Mexico law, employee salary data is already public information, available on request from the county or city government. Now, thanks to legislation passed during the 2011 legislative session, this and other data must be made available in a format preferred by the requestor.
Unfortunately, being required to comply with a request and actual compliance are not the same thing. All counties complied with our requests, but several cities including Bernalillo, Las Vegas, and Roswell failed to comply.
Responding to the most likely critique of having this information online, Gessing said, “Having salary information online is not a privacy threat. The Rio Grande Foundation has had similar information posted for cities, counties, and institutions of higher education online for years and we have not heard any specific complaints.”
“We at the Rio Grande Foundation believe strongly that transparency and openness are keys to achieving a more limited, fiscally-responsible government. Information on who is hired to do what and how much they are being paid is information that must be available and accessible to the public” said Gessing.
The adoption of a Right to Work law late in 2012 (which Rio Grande Foundation supports1) was widely reported and remarked upon. Less well known is the state’s ongoing effort to enact regulatory reform.2
From the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA): Governor Rick Snyder has announced that the Office of Regulatory Reinvention (ORR) has achieved the milestone of reducing the number of administrative rules in the state by 1,000. The ORR and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently rescinded the Solid Waste Alternative Program rules that led to reaching of this milestone. This rule set was eliminated at the recommendation of the DEQ and the Advisory Rules Committee (ARC) that reviewed environmental regulations. These rules were obsolete because they covered a grant program that is closed.
"We have made great strides in streamlining Michigan’s regulations, while ensuring health, safety and consumer protections remain," said Gov. Rick Snyder. "We are eliminating nearly 10 rules for every one rule added. The result is that Michigan’s regulatory environment has become more favorable for business growth and job creation, and more user friendly for all of our customers."
Gov. Rick Snyder created the Office of Regulatory Reinvention in April 2011 with the goal of creating a regulatory climate that is simple, fair, efficient, transparent and supportive of business growth and job creation. At the beginning of the ORR’s review, Michigan had 19,230 administrative rules. Today, Michigan has 18,214 administrative rules.
New Mexico should embark upon the same process by closely examining and getting rid of unnecessary and conflicting rules and regulations.
I spoke to Who Said You Said New Mexico on the importance of school choice immediately following the School Choice Week celebration in Albuquerque on Saturday, January 26th in Albuquerque. This is of course prior to Secretary Skandera’s approving the charter of New Mexico Connections Academy of which I am one member of the founding board (the school is NOT a project of the Rio Grande Foundation).
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7, verse 5.
Those who know me know that I don’t quote bible verses in this space very often, but I couldn’t help but think about it when I saw this story from the Washington Post and this shrill response from the New Mexico Democratic Party.
The Post blogger relying on a story from the left wing “In the Public Interest” attempts to paint a picture of Gov. Martinez and Sec. Designate Skandera “carrying water” for some big corporate players in education reform. The Democrats, of course, jumped all over this, but seem to have forgotten their own reliance on teachers unions for cash and political support.
In other words, when you have government officials exerting control over education policy, it is inevitable that you’ll have interest groups attempting to get a piece of the action. The point that needs to be made and the question that needs to be asked is: Unions and their friends in the Democratic Party have controlled education policy in New Mexico for decades and our performance is at the very bottom. If another group wants to try something new, isn’t it time we gave them a chance?
Sure, I’d like a genuine free market where we got government out of the business of owning and managing schools themselves returned education decisions to parents and their kids. That isn’t on the table right now. Is it really a shock that private businesses who think they can do better than the unions and their friends are putting up the funding to get a foot in the door?
This regulation was brought to our attention by
one of the readers of our regulatory E-mails.
Government should almost never intervene between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Unfortunately, under New Mexico law 57-1-18, it is unlawful for stores to place a limit on retail purchases. In other words, if a retailer is selling 2 liters of Coke for 10 cents apiece, that retailer must sell you as many 2 liters as you wish to purchase. This can obviously hinder retailers’ "loss-leader" strategy of offering a few items for a below-market cost in order to get people into their stores to buy other items.
This sounds innocuous enough when it comes to 2 liters of Coke, but what about more potentially-nefarious goods like ammunition? As a store owner, if a customer wants to buy my entire stock of shotgun shells or .22 caliber ammunition, I am legally prohibited from placing limits on the number they may buy.
Clearly, this is an unnecessary and problematic regulation that hinders business owners from running their businesses as they please.
The Legislature should repeal this section of law.
One added note. Check this story out about Wal Mart. The company has set limits on ammo sales. This law is currently null and void here in New Mexico.
Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing, a founding board member of the New Mexico Connections Academy virtual charter school and president of the Rio Grande Foundation, an organization dedicated to increased educational options for New Mexico students, expressed support for the decision saying:
Secretary-designate Skandera has taken an important step on behalf of New Mexico’s children by approving this charter school, the state’s 2nd virtual charter school. As both a founding board member of the New Mexico Connections Academy and a professional supporter of educational options, this is yet another step towards reforming education in New Mexico in a way that will improve student outcomes.
With Washington raising taxes and being completely irresponsible in terms of spending and regulations and gridlock looking to be the order of the day for New Mexico’s Legislature, the potential for economic growth here in the Land of Enchantment appears to be slim. One potential bright spot involves Liquified Natural Gas exports (LNG).
There is a looming battle over this issue and it is time for New Mexicans to get educated on the issue. To that end, the American Petroleum Institute, a pro-LNG export organization is sponsoring a tele-town hall on the issue.
What: Liquified Natural Gas Exports
When: Friday, February 1st @11:00am EST
Who: Erik Milito, American Petroleum Institute
RSVP today for the liquefied natural gas exports telephone town hall and we’ll call you a few moments before the call starts. You can’t afford to miss it!
As a starting point in the educational process, check out this powerpoint presentation.
7 in 10 live births in New Mexico are on Medicaid. Astonishing, troubling…arguably, the most painful statistic of all for New Mexicans wondering whether their state truly is in a “death spiral.”
Medicaid is a federal/state program designed in part to assist poor and relatively poor people. When it comes to births though, the fact is that it is only the young who have kids. No amount of wealthy retirees from more economically-free states can gloss over or bring up New Mexico’s 7 of 10 number. That is the scary thing. We talk about the next generation…this is the next generation of New Mexicans and they’re being born on welfare.
Check this out from John Goodman an analyst who deals with health care policy on a national basis as he decries the fact that nationally, four out of ten Americans are born on Medicaid. They’ve got nothing on us!
Gov. Martinez has agreed to increase the number of New Mexicans on Medicaid by accepting the ObamaCare bribe of more money. What will be the dependency ratio in New Mexico once that expansion is complete?
Is this situation devoid of hope? No. Economic freedom and free markets have proven track records of reducing poverty. Government programs like Medicaid only increase dependence and exacerbate the cycle of poverty. New Mexico needs political leaders to enact policies that increase economic freedom. Will New Mexicans demand prosperity or satisfy themselves with poverty?
(Albuquerque) The Rio Grande Foundation, using Utah-based polling company, NSON, polled 400 registered voters residing in Bernalillo County over three nights from January 8-10 on the proposed $146 million expansion of University of New Mexico Hospital. Poll results available here.
The polling found both widespread concerns about the proposed UNMH expansion and questions regarding such a large investment being made in this particular project without the direct approval of voters or elected officials.
• 54.2 percent of participants stated that “Funds should be reserved for the poor/ uninsured to only 29.7 percent who wanted their money spent on a $146 million hospital;
• 61.5 percent stated that they preferred to wait to see how the shape of health care might change once “ObamaCare” takes full effect. Only 24.7 percent wanted the hospital to be built right away. 7.3 percent completely opposed building the hospital;
• 71.6 percent expressed a desire to have the Bernalillo County Commission specifically approve and oversee the UNMH expansion as opposed to just 17.5 percent who felt that such approval and oversight were unnecessary;
• 46.1 percent of respondents, when informed of the $90 million that Bernalillo County taxpayers currently spend on UNMH, expressed a desire for a system of outpatient clinics throughout the County. 16.6 percent urged the construction of a new psychiatric hospital and more behavioral services. Only 15.3 percent urged expansion of UNM Hospital;
• A bare majority, 46.3 percent, stated that their “taxes for health care and the $90 million spent on UNMH annually” were “about right,” while 42.9 percent stated that their tax burden for UNMH was “more than they could afford.”
Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation said, “It is clear that the groups pushing for expansion of UNMH have not made their case to the citizens of Bernalillo County, the people who pay the bills for the hospital and its prospective expansion. Rather than trying to ram this project through yet another unelected body, we urge proponents of this hospital expansion to make the case to County citizens and their elected representatives. This project has very little support at this time. The voters of Bernalillo County have other health care priorities.”
The margin of error of this poll is +/- 4.9 percent.
Albuquerque High School Students
The Case For Limited Government and
|
1634 University Blvd.
(just north of Indian School Road)
Speakers include:
Raffles and Door Prizes
RSVP to: cgluck@nmia.com
Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday evening to Celebrate National School Choice Week! We had a great event with lots of parents, students, and supportive members of the community showing up to express their support for school choice in New Mexico.
For a taste of what happened, check out this roundup from Andrew Campanella as well as the following video:
There are also some pictures here and here’s a photo of the Governor’s proclamation recognizing National School Choice Week.
Come celebrate “School Choice Week” in Albuquerque on January 26, 2013!
Paul Gessing discusses “School Choice Week” in New Mexico from Paul Gessing on Vimeo.
Over-regulation is a serious problem for New Mexico’s economy. Nonetheless, given the diversity and multi-faceted impacts of regulations, it is impossible to come to a conclusion on the overall economic impact if all of the regulations discussed here were eliminated or reformed. No one predicted the rise of discount airlines like Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue and others in the wake of airline deregulation. Nor did the micro-brew industry come about immediately after that industry was deregulated, rather it took nearly two decades to hit its stride.
It is also worth noting that not all of these regulations have an obvious, immediate impact in terms of dollars and cents. Allowing alternative teacher certification, for example, may allow dozens or even hundreds of retired employees of the Sandia and Los Alamos Labs to get into the classroom as highly-knowledgeable teachers. These people and their hands-on expertise in various scientific fields could have a tremendous impact on New Mexico students in the field of science, thus raising our educational performance measures and making New Mexico a more attractive place to do business.
Unfortunately, you never know until you try. The more potentially-impactful the deregulation would be, the more powerful the special interest that attained that preference in the first place. Unions, incumbent businesses, and those whose jobs are made more secure and less competitive due to professional licensing will all fight hard against deregulation in their industries.
Adopting any of the regulatory reforms outlined above would increase economic freedom and spur economic growth in the Land of Enchantment. Additionally, New Mexico’s Legislature should consider adopting legislation, along the lines of SB 311 which passed Indiana’s Legislature in bi-partisan fashion during the 2012 session and would require cost-benefit analysis for new regulations.1
1http://www.in.gov/apps/lsa/session/billwatch/billinfo?year=2012&request=getBill&docno=311
See the full regulation report here.
As if our job losses, lack of economic freedom, and poor education system were not enough, United Van Lines (a major moving company) has produced a report showing that New Mexico is the only state in the west seeing a significant outflow of people. Check the report out here. KOB TV also covered the story here.
According to the report: The top-five outbound states for 2012 were:
New Jersey
Illinois
West Virginia
New York
New Mexico
The top-five inbound states of 2012 were:
District of Columbia
Oregon
Nevada
North Carolina
South Carolina
Not surprisingly, none of the five “outbound states” are Right to Work while three of the five “inbound” are. Washington, DC is almost unfair to include because their economy is based on stolen (or at least the forcible extraction) of money from the rest of us. Our leaders are in Santa Fe right now. Are they discussing any dramatic pro-economic-growth reforms that will get New Mexico out of the doldrums?
The idea that taxes and their rates don’t make a difference in economic activities is perpetuated by many on the left. Two recent examples, one from New Mexico and one national story illustrate that they do drive economic activity (or kill it). Check out this story from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association on New Mexico’s gross receipts tax. It has effectively driven the aircraft repair business out of New Mexico (thus costing our state jobs and economic activity).
The other story has been widely reported in the national media and involves pro golfer Phil Mickelson who is extremely upset by the rising tax rates that he’ll face both as a US taxpayer and as a resident of California where the top rate on income now exceeds 13 percent (the easy answer is to at move out of California and to a state like Nevada, Florida, or Texas where personal incomes are not taxed).
The fact is that taxes dictate a lot of economic activity. While not much can be done about Washington at this point, New Mexico policymakers should consider ways to create a fairer, more transparent tax code that incentivizes entrepreneurship and business formation for all New Mexicans.
From day one, the Rio Grande Foundation has been critical of the use of $209 million of New Mexicans’ tax dollars to build a spaceport.
For starters, government has a shaky track record of betting on "the next big thing." The spaceport is also a classic example of wealth redistribution from New Mexico taxpayers (arguably the poorest state in the nation) to wealthy businessman Richard Branson and the millionaires who plan to spend $200,000 to fly into space.
Despite all of this, the project was built and is now open. Thus, it makes sense to make it as successful as possible. Unfortunately, to date New Mexico’s Legislature has failed to pass a law that protects manufacturers, suppliers and everyone else who builds and maintains spacecraft from liability lawsuits. This law would cost nothing to change and will not impact any New Mexican who does not choose to fly into space.
New Mexicans have spent $209 million on the spaceport. The Legislature would be committing an act of legislative malfeasance by failing to pass these basic protections.
Although often overlooked, it is worth noting that early voting is now underway (here are the locations) for the Albuquerque Public Schools school board and the related bond measure request of $368 million. Even if you don’t have a contested race in your area (district maps can be found here), it is worth going to the polls on the bond issues. Of course, if you do have a candidate in your district, it is important to find out as much as possible about their views on issues including their views on charter schools and educational philosophy.
If you don’t make it out for early voting, the actual election is Feb. 5. Here is a list of Election Day voting centers.
And, while APS officials will repeatedly state that your taxes will not go up if their bond measure is approved, your property taxes would drop if it were defeated. This school district recently went with HIGHEST bidder on a major school construction project.
Lastly, in the Wall Street Journal, Texas comptroller made an excellent point when she wrote: “Most people don’t have the first idea of how new proposed debt fits into the total debt being carried by their local governments. Every ballot in an election for new bonded indebtedness should state, at minimum, the current amount of outstanding debt and and annual debt-service payments, and show how the proposed debt will affect the tally.”
Education “Alternatives” Truly Alternative
According to Merriam-Webster, charter schools are: A tax-supported school established by a charter between a granting body (as a school board) and an outside group (as of teachers and parents) which operates the school without most local and state educational regulations so as to achieve set goals.1 Unfortunately, in New Mexico, charter schools are still beholden to large numbers of rules and regulations associated with traditional public schools.
According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, New Mexico law requires charter school teachers to have the same certification requirements as traditional public school teachers. It requires charter schools to adhere to the same three-tiered salary schedule as traditional public schools and, for teachers who have been employed at the school for three consecutive years, adherence to the NM School Personnel Act is required as well.2
Charter schools are supposed to act as an alternative to traditional public schools. While New Mexico’s charters have attempted to do this, they have been hamstrung by regulations that force them to adhere to similar, strict regulations, thus making charters less of a real choice for parents and students.
New Mexico’s Legislature should eliminate certification requirements, adherence to the three-tiered salary schedule, and tenure for all charters. These regulations are generally problematic for traditional public schools (as outlined above on the certification issue). Giving charters the freedom to avoid these regulations would allow for the gathering of real-world evidence as to the benefits or detriments of these policies.
1Merriam-Webster, definition of “charter school”
2National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, “Measuring up to the Model,” http://www.publiccharters.org/law/ViewComponent.aspx?comp=16
Like the “Three-Tiered Licensure” system now in place for teachers, New Mexico mostly measures inputs as opposed to outputs when it comes to licensing principals. For example, New Mexico requires a master’s degree and at least six years of teaching experience before it is possible to become a principal.
Of course, being a teacher and being a principal are two completely different jobs requiring vastly different skill sets. Also, limiting the pool of potential principals reduces significantly the talent available, removes potentially excellent teachers from the classroom, and results in a distinct lack of innovative ideas and promotes a relatively homogeneous mindset.
After all, teachers have all been through schools of education, the same certification programs, and grown acclimated to teaching in today’s classrooms. The ability for innovative and visionary outsiders to bring new ideas to the schools as administrators is quite limited.
Additionally, principal pay (like that of teachers) is highly inflexible and determined by various statewide formulae based on inputs rather than outputs like student achievement. These rigid formulas and the lengthy service requirements only serve to make finding good school principals more difficult given the widely-reported, ongoing principal shortage.1
The final problem with principal licensing in New Mexico is the same overriding problem we have with the state’s teacher licensing system, which is an emphasis on inputs in the form of credentials rather than outputs in the form of more educated students.
1Jimmy Guterman, “Where have all the principals gone?: the acute school-leader shortage,” Edutopia, http://www.edutopia.org/principal-shortage
School Choice Week is right around the corner. This year’s celebration includes a special cross-country “whistle stop” train tour with stops in 14 cities from coast-to-coast, including Albuquerque. Our celebration takes place on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Albuquerque Museum in Old Town. More information is available on the Rio Grande Foundation’s website. Please come out to support school choice in New Mexico!
School choice is working here in New Mexico. Only 10 percent of New Mexico’s public schools are charters, yet charters made up 25 percent of the top 40 public schools that received an “A” grade under our new school grading system. In fact, four of the top 10 schools are charters.
Compare this with New Mexico’s overall education system, which is ranked 46th out of 47 by the US Department of Education. Just 63 percent of New Mexico students in the 2010-2011 school year finished secondary school. It is no secret our state’s education system is in need of significant improvements and reform. School choice can and should be a major part of these reforms.
For starters, New Mexico’s current charter schools must be preserved, expanded, and improved upon. Today, over 14,000 New Mexico students attend one of 82 charter schools across the state. Charter schools provide a healthy, publicly funded alternative to the traditional public school.
Presently, charters must adhere to many of the same rules and regulations as the public school system such as certification requirements, three-tiered salary schedule, and tenure, policies that hinder innovation. It limits the effectiveness of an educational institution that is intended to be outside the realm of the traditional system, thereby giving parents an actual distinctive choice.
Of course, charter schools are not the only way to enhance school choice. Education tax credits can be an effective school choice policy and their popularity continues to grow nationwide with bi-partisan support.
Unlike school vouchers where the government sends a check to parents to send their kids to a voucher-approved school, education tax credits reduces the amount of money a taxpayer owes the government for every dollar he or she spends on a child’s education.
Tax credits allow for their recipients to donate to scholarship funds that give low-income and needy families education choices including those of private or parochial schools. Such a policy can even save the state money. According to a nonpartisan study of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, for every $1 spent on the tax credit program, Florida taxpayers saved an estimated $1.49. Florida is one of many states to have embraced tax credits as a tool for creating school choice.
Virtual education is yet another form of school choice with great potential for New Mexico. The term describes a type of schooling that entirely or primarily uses online methods. It is a relatively new innovative development in education with enormous potential. Technology has improved many facets of our lives and it is only natural to extend those benefits to education. Virtual learning provides an enhanced and customized delivery of education that would benefit New Mexico by providing individualized learning opportunities to students.
The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is a great example of the success of an online learning alternative. A report by the Florida TaxWatch Center for Educational Performance and Accountability found that students in the Florida Virtual School outperformed their peers in traditional public school on the Advanced Placement exam. FLVS students scored an average of 3.05 on AP exams versus an average score of 2.49 for public-school students. In a survey conducted by the FLVS, 53 percent of parents said that their students learned more in their FLVS courses than in the traditional classroom.
These are but a few of many reform options that could benefit our children by improving their educational outcomes. We owe it to the current and future generations of New Mexico children to allow for the best possible educational environment. We should implement policies that allow for the decisions to be made at the ground level — on the frontlines — by parents, educators, and local communities.
Join the National School Choice Week celebration in New Mexico on Jan. 26 so that we may shine a spotlight on effective education options for every child.
Marcos Portillo is a policy analyst with New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation, an independent, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility.
It is not often that the Rio Grande Foundation argues on behalf of lawyers, but on the issue of reciprocity, New Mexico’s “anti-free market” restriction of the supply of lawyers is economically-harmful. Regulations on lawyers are not made the Legislature or some administrative body, but by the five member New Mexico Supreme Court itself.
New Mexico finds itself sandwiched between our adjoining and more enlightened States of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. It is bound by states that foster the free movement of legal professionals, and encourages the free flow of legal commerce. When businesses are looking to locate their headquarters or large offices, they want the flexibility to bring in their own experienced legal departments without the burden of time consuming, expensive, delaying, wasteful or redundant bar examinations rather than having their hiring pool artificially limited.
The state is one of only eleven jurisdictions in the United States that has not adopted what is called “admission-by-motion procedure” that enhances reciprocity.1 New Mexico requires experienced and competent lawyers to take a bar examination administered by New Mexico to gain admission. New Mexico does not impose the same requirement for other professions such as doctors, other medical professionals and certified public accountants.2
The American Bar Association has commented in its commission on ethics that the effect of requiring attorneys already licensed and experienced in legal practice to take another bar exam is an “erection of an excessive barrier” that is “lengthy, expensive and burdensome”; and while reciprocity was not necessarily needed when the rules were originally promulgated because people maintained law offices in a single jurisdiction over their entire careers, geographic mobility and the increasing demands of multi-state clients make this an obvious reform.
New Mexico’s Supreme Court should end its economically-harmful, regulatory provincialism, and adopt the American Bar Association’s “Admission by Motion” procedure.
1American Bar Association, “Model Rule for Admission by Motion,” http://www.americanbar.org/…pdf
2House Memorial 2 to Adopt the American Bar Association’s Model Rule on “Admission by Motion,” http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/12%20Regular/memorials/house/HM002.pdf
Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing recently explained in a 2 minute editorial for KUNM 89.9FM that raising the minimum wage actually harms the very people it is meant to help.
Interestingly enough, Santa Fe’s minimum wage will be rising to a nation’s-highest rate of $10.51 an hour in March.
Having just taken effect at the beginning of 2013, Albuquerque’s minimum wage hike is already forcing businesses to make tough decisions and resulting in worker layoffs. Check out stories here and here.
