Each bill costs more than a house

Feb. 19, 2012

Each bill costs more than a house

If I was any good at math I'd probably be doing something else for a living, so you may want to check me on this, but if my division is correct, New Mexico taxpayers shelled out $261,039 per bill that was successfully passed this year in the just-concluded 30-day session.

Now, before going any further I should add two important caveats. First, the vast majority of the $20.1 million appropriated in the feed bill goes, not to the part-time legislators, but to the full-time staff, who are quite competent and should not be held responsible for the many shortcomings of the lawmakers they work for.

And second, all legislative sessions should be judged by the quality of the bills passed, not the quantity. I'm not suggesting that taxpayers would have been better served had the Legislature passed a slew of horrendous new laws adding more government intrusion into our lives.

But there were a number of pretty good bills addressing critical problems that went down in flames. And the reason many of them did not get passed was not because they were deemed insufficient following careful deliberation, but rather because one member of the House had a snit when his bill was defeated on the final day.

The New Mexico Legislature, unlike the U.S. Senate — where 60 votes are needed to allow most bills to proceed to a final vote — does not have a filibuster. Until the final morning of the session, when state law mandates that all action must be wrapped up by the time the clock strikes noon. That gives lawmakers the opportunity to talk out the clock to defeat any particular bill — and, as collateral damage, any other bill that may be stuck behind it.

As Milan Simonich reported, Democrats and a handful of Republicans blocked an attempt by Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Texico, to pass a bill allowing for the retention of students who cannot read at grade level. In retaliation, Roch held the floor for one hour and 14 minutes as the clock ticked closer to noon.

House GOP leaders convinced him to relent for long enough to get a package of constitutional amendments to reform the Public Regulation Commission in just under the wire.

Following the session, Gov. Susana Martinez and legislative leaders did their best to put a happy face on the failed meeting.

“We had a very deliberative session and we have produced a good budget for the state,” Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle said.

"We didn't get everything we wanted. I don't think any governor ever has gotten everything that they wanted," Martinez added.

Leave it Rod Adair, the always blunt senator from Roswell, to provide a more accurate assessment, calling the session “the biggest do-nothing year I’ve ever seen.”

It's probably not surprising that Adair, a Republican, finds the Democrats in the majority to be at fault.

“We now, habitually, especially in the years of a Republican governor ... come here and do nothing. And everybody knows the reason that is done is to try to prevent any achievements by the Republican governor. It’s the very worst of motives,” Adair told The Associated Press.

That's a bit of a stretch. The Legislature proved when Bill Richrdson was governor that it was perfectly capable of dysfunction regardless of party affiliation.

And it's hard to portray Martinez as the victim after she vetoed a whopping 98 bills last year (that's 21 more than were passed this year), including 12 that had sailed through with unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate. The governor acknowledged after this session that she needs to improve her communications with the Legislature.

There's enough blame to go around.

Walter Rubel is managing editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.