Steve Pearce

President Obama and his cabinet have infringed upon a basic private right their newest sweeping federal mandate. This violation of the longstanding concept of conscience protection breaches the safeguards for personal religious and moral convictions that have been in place since our founding.

In a recent op-ed in USA Today, Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, wrote that this latest demand “cuts against the grain of what it means to be American.” I believe the archbishop hit the nail on the head.

Violation of the Constitution

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is aligning against the constitutional protection of one’s conscience and religious beliefs. We have the First Amendment to allow everyone to practice whatever faith in whatever manner without the government dictating the God that they worship. As the National Association of Evangelicals stated in response to this edict, “No government has the right to compel its citizens to violate their conscience.”

President Obama is dismissing our Constitution, and forcing religious organizations to violate their conscience by adopting the agenda of the administration’s favored special interests. This is an abhorrent assault on our fundamental liberties, including our right to live the way our faith prescribes.

The government is interfering where it has absolutely no place — in our personal, spiritual lives.

Assault on Catholics

The administration has already inserted federal bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Now, this new overreach pushed us to a truly dangerous tipping point where a federal agency is forcing people of faith to change their interpretations of the Bible and other religious canons. So offended are many religious organizations that the Archodiocesian Healthcare and Bioethics Committee of Milwaukee submitted a comment to HHS in September that these new requirements could be seen as “a deliberate strategy by the federal government to abolish the influence of the Catholic Church in civil society.”

Secretary Sebelius justifies this assault on our freedom of religion by stating that the requirement for religious organizations to cover all FDA approved contraceptives is the policy in a majority of states. While this is true of 28 states, she ignores the truth of protections in states like in New Mexico, where a religious entity is able to offer an insurance plan that does not include contraceptives.

New Mexico’s policy is a commonsense approach that protects religious groups from arbitrary rules that violate their teachings.

This move by the administration is dangerously interfering with people of all faiths and their God. An America characterized by freedom of religion should not fall by the wayside with such an extensive government edict. This new rule from HHS is a gross violation of our rights as a free people and as people of faith.

I call on President Obama to stop this latest mandate that unfairly targets people of certain faiths with whom he disagrees. People of all faiths and even people who practice no religion should be mortified at the federal government assuming it can discriminate against anyone for their beliefs.

‘…stripped of their God given rights’

The Constitution ensures the protections of the rule of law for the poor and the disadvantaged. The rich and well-connected always get their way. When the President ignores the Constitution, he infringes upon one of the greatest protections for the 99 percent of Americans.

Thomas J. Olmsted, the Bishop of Phoenix, said it best in a recent letter to his parishioners:

“Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights.”

Amen, Bishop.

Pearce, a Republican, represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House.

Heather Wilson, left, and Greg Sowards

Heather Wilson has a half million dollars more than Greg Sowards and widespread support, but John Sanchez’s departure from the Republican U.S. Senate primary creates a narrow window of opportunity for Sowards.

The anti-Heather Wilson wing of the Republican Party cost her the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2008.

Wilson knows it, and she’s worked hard this time around to build support she didn’t have in 2008. That started the day she entered the 2012 race and announced the endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Bill Redmond, a leader among the state’s social conservatives.

Wilson has worked hard to win endorsements from across the GOP spectrum, with astonishing success. In January, N.M. House Minority Leader Tom Taylor of Farmington became the 20th state representative out of 33 Republicans to endorse Wilson.

More importantly, on Friday, State Sen. Bill Sharer of Farmington joined the rest of his caucus in endorsing her.

“Congresswoman Heather Wilson is the obvious choice for U.S. Senate,” Sharer said. “She has the experience and will be a solid voice for the people of New Mexico. I am happy to offer my endorsement. Heather has the knowledge of the issues, statesmanship and the right positions on critical issues facing our nation.”

The endorsement from one of the most socially conservative members of the Legislature is especially significant because it came 14 hours after NMPolitics.net broke the news that Lt. Gov. John Sanchez plans to end his Senate campaign.

Some of the last holdouts – those hoping for a credible option other than Wilson – appear ready to join the likely winner’s camp.

Sanchez’s departure creates an opening

There was an opportunity early on for a candidate to consolidate anti-Wilson support, but while Sanchez and Greg Sowards battled for that position, Wilson solidified and grew her base.

She’s been the obvious frontrunner all along and only grown stronger as time has passed, which is one of the reasons Sanchez’s campaign never gained traction.

But a two-person race between Wilson and Sowards could be interesting.

I’ve watched Sowards, a Las Cruces businessman and inventor, since 2008, when he ran, unsuccessfully, for the 2nd Congressional District seat in the U.S. House.

I’ve always thought Sowards is an intriguing candidate with potential. He’s genuine, he’s quirky, he has unique ideas, and he’s a true believer. As the TEA Party has risen, Sowards has emerged with it as a homegrown candidate.

But Sowards has never been able to turn that potential into success. He received the support of only 1 percent of delegates at the preprimary convention in 2008. He went on to win 17 percent of the primary vote but lost the five-way race. He later lost a county commission race.

Now he’s the only anti-Wilson candidate in the Senate race. He has more than $600,000 to spend, if he chooses. And, in the last poll of the race, 39 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided or pledged support for a candidate who is no longer in the race.

In other words, Sanchez’s departure from the race creates an opening for Sowards. But the window is narrow. Sowards has to strike now.

Because Wilson is moving quickly. Sharer’s endorsement shows that.

Sowards gets aggressive

I don’t know whether Sowards can become a serious challenger to Wilson. He has almost entirely self-financed his campaign, so he hasn’t demonstrated that he has a base of support.

But he’s trying. Sowards has become much more aggressive in recent weeks, portraying himself as a conservative outsider and Wilson as a Washington insider with a not-so-conservative record. He appears to realize the urgency of the situation.

“Heather was unelectable in 2008. Nothing has changed on that score. She is a flawed candidate. Her vote for the TARP bailout has doomed her chances for victory in November,” Sowards said last week in a news release. “Voters in the primary are starting to realize that and want a candidate without the baggage Wilson has.”

He also attacked Wilson at a recent GOP event in San Miguel County. Check out this video, provided by the Democratic Party of New Mexico:

Wilson is in an enviable position

I’m no fan of negative campaigning, but candidates sometimes use it because they believe it’s the only path to victory. The last poll had Wilson above 50 percent. Sowards won’t win without pulling support away from her.

And he has to do it now. If he doesn’t display an impressive level of support at next month’s preprimary convention, the race will be over.

Sowards isn’t likely to succeed. Wilson has half a million dollars more than Sowards, she has demonstrated widespread support by raising all of her cash from outside sources, and she has a long, long, long list of endorsements.

But Sanchez’s departure from the race creates an opening for Sowards. If he wants to seriously pursue his long-shot chance of beating Wilson, he has to start spending that $600,000 now. He has to win over preprimary delegates. He has to build a base of support and convince primary voters that he can be a credible general-election candidate.

Wilson remains in an enviable position. But it’s not quite time to call the race.

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Last week, Jim Collie, a retired Presbyterian pastor who lives in Albuquerque, donated $750 to NMPolitics.net.

“You’ve done your homework, or better said, for me, most importantly, you seem to almost always ask the next question – you don’t accept at face value an explanation or answer that has little merit, or obscures more than it clarifies,” Collie said in explaining why he supports NMPolitics.net with his money.

Collie recalls local media in West Texas during his childhood developing local stories that put the news in context. That doesn’t happen as often today.

“With localized reporting and stories of merit lost to the national homogenizers, what you are doing is so on target and so tasty as to be of great value,” he said. “Would you be insulted if I compared what you do with news to what organic gardening means to vegetable growers – the taste and value well worth the extra trouble? In other words, for this New Mexican: You pass the taste/value test.”

Not offended at all. I love the comparison.

Jim and the others who donated last week gave a combined $1,880, or just over 10 percent of the $18,000 I’m trying to raise by April 30 so I can hire a reporter. I want to publicly thank them for helping NMPolitics.net expand.

But your donations don’t just help the site grow – they keep it going.

Heath Haussamen

NMPolitics.net is supported in part by advertising and syndication of content, but donations are essential to its survival. And while I’m highlighting today the large donation Collie made, any amount helps – even $10. Make a donation by clicking here.

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Dwight T. Pitcaithley

I recently recorded a 30-second video for the Call on Me Now campaign. In it I join other citizens in urging the president to ask us to do more in rebuilding our country.

I hope the Call on Me Now spots will help spark a national dialogue about how much we’re willing to do as individuals for our country. Everyone seems to think Americans are selfish, and only interested in feathering their own nests. In my experience, that’s not true. We all want to contribute to our country. We can do a lot more than we’ve been asked to do so far.

Personal responsibility goes a long way in building community and country. In some instances progress can only be made collectively; in others individual action will move us where we need to go.

Given the present state of things, I believe we need to be personally more thoughtful and less angry. We need to be less influenced by political provocateurs and more responsible for developing our own political philosophy. We need to acknowledge the fact that personal and corporate greed has had a debilitating effect on this nation. We need to understand that our daily personal choices – in the cars we drive and the food we eat – have ramifications far beyond our homes and towns. We need to have a dispassionate conversation about climate change before thoughtful alternatives are beyond our reach.

We need to demand that our elected officials shed more light and less heat on the critical issues facing this nation. And we need to agree that we will solve those problems not by shouting at each other or drawing lines in the sand, but by objectively analyzing our options and coming to informed and sustainable decisions.

In my video I ask the president to “Call on me. I’ll do my part.” If you have a chance, I hope you look at it, and the other short videos on the Call on Me Now website. If you agree with what we’re saying, perhaps you could forward the videos to your friends.

Dwight T. Pitcaithley was born in Carlsbad and served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1964 to 1967. He holds degrees from Eastern New Mexico University and Texas Tech University. In 1976 he entered the National Park Service, where he served as chief historian from 1995 to 2005. He lives with his wife and family in Las Cruces.

Steve Fischmann

Senate Bill 36 is a scheme to hijack funding for education, health care and public safety to finance public road improvements and infrastructure that benefits private development projects.

I just read the harmless-sounding Transportation Reinvestment Zone Act (Senate Bill 36) that is before the New Mexico State Legislature. Good transportation is important for economic development. Given that the bill has been endorsed by the Revenue and Tax Stabilization Committee, it has a real chance to pass.

But there is no glee here. I can only marvel at how development interests will use this vehicle to plunder funding for public services and simultaneously limit your civil rights.

At its core, SB 36 is a scheme to hijack funding for education, health care and public safety to finance public road improvements and infrastructure that benefits private development projects. In most cases, no legislative approval is required. Private developers are not required to contribute a penny.

Proponents claim the legislation is necessary to fund the expensive Paseo Del Norte overpass in Albuquerque, but this bill creates mechanisms that go far beyond that. It was rushed through the Senate Corporations Committee without allowing opposition testimony, and with a clause that will allow it to go into effect immediately, rather than in July.

The skids have been greased.

A democracy-free zone

SB 36 allows cities and counties to designate transportation reinvestment zones within their borders. These reinvestment zones become separate political entities to be governed by the local city council or county commission. Reinvestment zones are exempted from local ordinances, including planning and zoning.

If you live or own a business in one of these zones, you have limited opportunity to determine what laws are put in place. Rules that govern city and county operations are not in place to constrain how the governing board operates. You are in a democracy-free zone.

The reinvestment-zone board is given broad powers to launch infrastructure projects such as roads, drainage, sewers, and utility improvements. The legislation calls these projects “public,” but the intent is clearly to benefit specific private interests such as hotels and shopping centers that normally have to pay for their own street and sewer improvements.

Funding for reinvestment zone infrastructure projects would come from taking a cut of the gross receipts taxes collected in the reinvestment zone. The legislation blithely assumes that local police, fire, and other services will not be impacted by the set aside, or by the costs of supporting the new reinvestment-zone bureaucracy.

Even more alarming is the potential impact on the state treasury.  Unlimited sums of money could be redirected from core education, health care and public safety services to subsidizing infrastructure projects benefiting private businesses.

When state government resorts to such drastic measures as creating democracy-free transportation reinvestment zones, you would think there would be some sizable public benefit. Well, not really. Reinvestment-zone bonds are projected to be extraordinarily expensive. An equivalent 10-year, 4 percent revenue bond backed by $10 million in cash flow would support $14 million more in proceeds.

‘Economic development?’ Don’t fall for that one

And why would the Legislature ever vote for a measure that creates expensive financing, adds a layer of government bureaucracy, and limits civil rights? Because powerful supporters will shout “this measure creates jobs.” No politician in his right mind wants to be caught voting against jobs!

The reality is that proposals like SB 36 can eliminate more jobs than they create. Funds taken from public services result in reduced employment outside reinvestment zones. And many of the jobs in reinvestment zones would not be new. Developers that would have built anyway will simply use the law to beef up their bottom lines with your tax dollars.

We don’t have to turn democracy on its head to finance road and infrastructure projects, even for Paseo del Norte. Instead of hijacking funds from core government services, we should use the state road fund or special property-tax assessment districts that were designed for infrastructure financing.

If we do not have enough money in the road fund, then let’s be honest with voters and either raise the gas tax or forego the projects. Or better yet, develop a transparent and cost-effective funding mechanism that requires up front participation and accountability from private beneficiaries.

Don’t fall for complex tax and financing policies masquerading as job creating “economic development.” Reinvestment zones create the illusion of sound finance, but they are the sub-prime mortgages and credit default swaps of the public-financing world. After all the painful financial lessons we’ve learned recently, we’re too smart to invest in schemes like that. Aren’t we?

Steve Fischmann, a Democrat, represents the Las Cruces-area District 37 in the New Mexico Senate.

Pete Campos

New Mexico’s economy is improving, a little, and the result is that the state budget is growing, a little, for the first time in years. But this is not the time to go on a big spending spree.

Our economic recovery is still very fragile. We still have 46,000 fewer jobs in New Mexico than we had in February 2008, before the economy soured. We’ve only gained back 7,000 of the 53,000 jobs we’ve lost since our peak. Consumer sales appear strong, but probably because people are dipping into their savings to buy more, and not because they’ve gotten pay raises. And the price of natural gas, which fuels our state budget, is down from last year and at its lowest level since 2002.

So while the outlook is not as gloomy as it was, this is not the time to spend freely. It is the time to invest in education, infrastructure and local job-growth and business-expansion programs. Putting New Mexicans back to work is the best thing we can do to make lasting improvements to our economy. More jobs means more spending in local stores and less poverty all across the state — we still have one of the worst poverty rates in the nation — and that translates into more money into the state’s general fund and less demand for expensive state health care and other assistance programs.

The Legislature did a remarkably good job of balancing the state’s budget over the last several years with a combination of budget cuts and cost-savings measures, modest tax increases and prudent reliance on federal stimulus funds. Many worthy state programs suffered, which meant important services to New Mexicans were cut. But it could have been even worse.

A plan worth considering

Now that the economy is showing some signs of improvement, we can begin to restore those cuts and invest in long-term solutions. A multipoint plan is worth considering.

First, we can, and should, approve a multimillion-dollar public works package that will not only put New Mexicans back to work quickly but also help build our state’s lasting infrastructure. We’re on track to approve about $130 million in capital spending backed by severance taxes and another $299 million in a general-obligation bond package that will be submitted to voters this fall.

We must continue to work toward fully funding projects that are shovel-ready and appropriating the money necessary to clear the backlog of unfinished projects. We must pursue this effective strategy of completing unfinished projects. It is also important that higher education and government projects across New Mexico be funded. Smaller communities, like Watrous and Willard, deserve these projects, as do larger cities.

Second, we should approve targeted tax incentives to businesses that are willing to hire more New Mexicans, expand their businesses and invest in new equipment. Such tax incentives cost the state general fund, of course, so we should approve a modest package worth about $20 million, rather than some of the more expensive packages supported by others.

Third, our public education system must be strengthened so that expanding businesses continue to have a talented, skilled and motivated labor pool from which to draw workers. Linking our community college system employers from Raton to Deming would be one of the best investments we could make in the state. Our vocational education schools, which are uniquely suited to preparing New Mexicans to take jobs around the state, must have our strong support.

We must have a sound state budget

Approval of a sound state budget is the foundation for this entire plan. A budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 that does not commit the state to spending more money than it can afford is critical to our economic recovery. We must continue to provide for basic services without growing government spending to an unsustainable level.

By setting aside politics, the Legislature and the governor can work together to meet the needs of the poor, improve education, assist small businesses and offer a hand to the most vulnerable and the elderly.

Campos is a Democratic state senator from Las Vegas and president of Luna Community College.

Michelle Lujan Grisham

Last year alone there were over 400 accidents in the Paseo del Norte interchange area in Albuquerque. Since 1995, it has been a priority in this community to rebuild this interchange and bring the needed upgrades to promote public safety and reduce congestion, accidents, air pollution and, last, but not least, driver frustration.

Thanks to cooperation from city, county and state governments, this important project may become reality at last.

In these times of tight budgets and political bickering at every level of government, people become justifiably skeptical of their public officials’ ability to get anything done. However, I believe that our progress on the Paseo project demonstrates that those of us in public service can accomplish great things when we set aside our differences and work together on what matters to the community.

The rebuilding of Paseo has long presented financial challenges, as the cost of Phase I of rebuilding the Paseo Interchange is estimated at $93 million. However, last week we saw the county, the city and state each find a way to help solve this problem and pledge significant funds to this effort.

Since the county commission supported my call to pledge bond money to fund this project on Jan. 24, we have seen enormous support and positive reaction to our efforts. Now, with $50 million from the city and $30 million from the state added to the $5 million committed by my colleagues and me on the county commission, we are on the way to accomplishing our common goal and making our community safer. I hope the federal government will also share this responsibility, as I-25 is part of the national interstate system.

Improving the Paseo del Norte interchange is a win-win situation for Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico. Not only will this address long-overdue traffic and safety issues, the re-design and construction of this interchange will have a broad, positive impact on our community. It will create many needed jobs during the design and construction phases.

Furthermore, after the necessary improvements, fewer accidents will lead to fewer injuries and fewer insurance claims. Law enforcement officers from the county and the City of Albuquerque will have more time and energy to attend to other duties.

We are so close. I salute my partners in this effort, Republicans and Democrats, at the state and local level. Without their commitment of funds, success would not be in our sights. Let’s all work together to get this across the finish line and make this happen.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, is a Bernalillo County commissioner and a candidate for the 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House.

Hanna Skandera

According to one report, New Mexico loses 71 students every school day. We cannot maintain the status quo – it’s not working.

The passion for truly educating our children in New Mexico goes without question. I know this is true, despite our current ranking (48th in the nation).

So it’s now time to take notice of our failing school system, examine the opportunities for positive change and give our public education system the chance to live up to its potential. And it’s time for our parents, our communities and our legislators to embrace the reforms necessary to make it so.

In the past year I have visited nearly 50 of our 89 school districts. I have heard the resounding voices of adults and children – all eager to see our schools and students succeed. With each visit to every school, and in every classroom, I have witnessed the optimism, desire and hope on the faces of every student across the state. Our students, educators and parents deserve to be recognized for their continued trust in our public school system and deserve to realize true progress as a result of their faith.

There is no magic solution to our current status, but there are a few key initiatives that will have a lasting impact on our students’ futures. Two bills before the Legislature right now will, when passed, dramatically and positively impact our students.

Two important initiatives

Bills to assess and advance reading proficiency (House Bill 69 and Senate Bill 96) are being considered by our legislators. The news media calls this initiative the “No Social Promotion” bill and while, yes, 3rd grade retention is part of it, that label demeans the bill’s true purpose and character. This initiative would, for the first time, gauge the reading skills of our children from Kindergarten through the 3rd grade, something many schools don’t do now. This provides us – parents, teachers, administrators – the opportunity to help our children with progressive reading interventions years before they reach the 3rd grade.

We have proposed $17 million for this program. While this may seem like a large sum, the cost is insignificant in comparison to the cost to our children and their future if we fail to intervene on their behalves now. Only if they learn to read will our children have the chance to excel in subjects like math, science and social studies, and be empowered in all aspects of their lives. We know if a child can’t read by the end of 3rd grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of school.

The second initiative now before the Legislature would re-design the system for evaluating our teachers and principals. We need to identify our greatest teachers, celebrate them and, yes, pay them more. New Mexico’s current teacher evaluation system places nearly zero weight on student performance, which means that those teachers working miracles in our classrooms receive no credit for their heroic efforts.

New Mexico teachers can reach the ceiling for pay in just seven years based only on years of experience and number of college degrees – not how successful they are in teaching our kids. Our teachers deserve the satisfaction of being rewarded for their efforts. If a teacher continues to demonstrate excellence through improved student achievement, then she or he deserves a system that continues to reward those strides.

We all should expect, and our children deserve, an evaluation that ensures our students are learning and excelling.

We cannot maintain the status quo

According to the 2011 Diplomas Count report, New Mexico loses 71 students every school day. When we say “lost,” we mean these students will fail to graduate with a diploma. These children are our loved ones, our neighbors, our future, and ultimately our responsibility. We cannot maintain the status quo – it’s not working. If we’re going to push education forward in New Mexico, we’re going to need to speak up for these reforms.

If these ideas sound like the kind of reform you want for our children, I urge you to join us. Please e-mail us at school.success@state.nm.us and we’ll keep you updated on opportunities to support these initiatives. And please don’t hesitate to call your legislator!

I love this Land of Enchantment because of its rich culture, history and passionate people. These three factors play an enormous role in our education system. Let’s make sure we continue to honor the diversity of our state, learn from our history and move forward with real change for our children.

Skandera is the secretary-designate for the N.M. Public Education Department.

Heath Haussamen

As long as lawmakers refuse to webcast and archive all their proceedings, the governor and others will do it for them. And those others will be champions of open government, while legislators will continue to look like they have something to hide.

I’m really tired of senators who refuse to webcast their own proceedings complaining about the governor doing it.

Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, complained this week that Gov. Susana Martinez’s webcasting is intended to “catch us for political purpose,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.

And Sen. Linda Lopez, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, said, “in addition to transparency, most of it will be used for campaigning, and we all know that.”

The governor started out last year assigning one employee to webcasting. That employee was stretched thin simply catching pieces of hearings that focused on the governor’s agenda.

Martinez has dramatically expanded her office’s webcasting this year. Two employees and an intern are pointing cameras at every hearing they can attend and posting everything they film online. The video is archived. Markers placed in the video help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

It’s an impressive and incredibly useful service that you can find here.

By contrast, the Senate still isn’t webcasting committee meetings. Thank goodness the governor is doing it, or New Mexicans who can’t travel to Santa Fe would have no access to critical hearings on important legislation.

Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, is sponsoring legislation this session that would require audio and video webcasting of Senate committees. That would bring the Senate up to the level of webcasting already in place in the House.

But if the Senate follows past precedent, Feldman’s resolution is headed for the trash heap. If the comments from Jennings and Lopez are any indication, they haven’t changed their tunes.

Technology gives people better access

The most egregious aspect of all of this is that lawmakers like Jennings and Lopez appear more concerned about politics than making government accessible to their constituents. Both represent districts outside Santa Fe, where those who voted for them may not be able to travel to the Roundhouse.

Do they care? If they do, they should support expanded webcasting.

In fact, the entire Legislature still falls short in this area. The House may webcast everything, but it doesn’t archive. You watch it live or you don’t watch it at all.

Most hearings take place during hours when most people are at work and can’t watch.

That’s why the governor’s webcasting is so useful. People can watch live or they can come back to it when they have time. People can watch an entire hearing or, using the markers Martinez’s staff has placed in the video, they can find the discussion of a specific piece of legislation or other issue and skip right to that.

That is a true use of technology to give people better access to their so-called “citizen” Legislature, which some would say is not all that citizen-friendly.

Anyone can use the video

Of course Martinez could use the video for campaigning. The video is in the public domain and anyone can use it.

That means lawmakers who are being filmed could pull some of their best moments out of the governor’s video and use it on the campaign trail. Political committees on the left and right could pull moments out of the video to campaign for or against lawmakers or issues. Challengers could use it to attack incumbents.

But even the legislative webcasting can be used for such purposes, despite the bogus disclaimer below the livefeed that political use is “prohibited.”

That’s called life in the 21st Century. There are cameras around you, be they official webcasting cameras in the backs of the House and Senate chambers or smartphones in people’s hands. That video can end up on the Internet.

It might be used against lawmakers, but they can also use it to promote themselves.

Embrace reality

I know that many of our lawmakers have a difficult time grasping this new reality and don’t want to change. But that isn’t an option.

Lawmakers need to embrace the fact that we live in the 21st Century. If they webcast every hearing themselves and archived the video, does anyone think the governor would continue spending her limited resources to duplicate their work? I don’t. I believe she’s doing this because they aren’t.

And she’s earning a reputation as a populist who is bringing government to the people in the process.

It’s telling that, on Wednesday, the progressive blog Clearly New Mexico, a project of the left-leaning Center for Civic Policy, promoted the governor’s webcasting of a hearing in a liveblog about that hearing. In spite of their differing views on the corporate tax bill being discussed, Republican governor and progressive nonprofit came together to bring transparency to a committee hearing that otherwise would have been off limits to anyone outside the Roundhouse.

This is not a partisan issue. It’s a about transparency, accessibility and accountability. As long as senators like Jennings and Lopez complain about webcasting, I can only assume they don’t want their constituents to know what they’re doing in Santa Fe.

What the senators need to do is quit whining and pass Feldman’s resolution. Then the Senate and House should pass resolutions implementing archiving of all webcasting.

As long as lawmakers refuse to webcast and archive all their proceedings, the governor and others will do it for them. And those others will be champions of open government, while legislators will continue to look like they have something to hide.

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Daniel Ulibarri

Enacting tax-credit scholarship legislation will enable lower-income and special-needs students to attend schools that will better meet their needs.

Education reform is on the governor’s agenda for the 2012 legislative session. Aside from bills being be introduced on teacher evaluation and reading, efforts are underway to establish the Equal Opportunity Scholarship Act (introduced in the Senate by Pete Campos) and the Special Needs Student Scholarship Act (introduced in the Senate by Jerry Ortiz y Pino).

These bills would allow for tax credits for individuals and businesses that donate funds for scholarships. Organizations can then give scholarships to lower-income and special-needs students to attend the private, parochial and public schools of their parents’ choice.

Passing these bills is important for New Mexico’s economic vitality and our children’s future. Here’s why:

• More than one-third of our students drop out before graduating from high school.
• This must be turned around in order to attract new businesses and business growth in our state and to give our children the opportunities they need to succeed in school.
• This legislation will help provide scholarships that will enable lower-income and special-needs students to attend schools that will better meet their needs. They will be much more likely to stay in school and to develop a solid educational foundation.

According to recent polling data, more than 70 percent of N.M. voters support tax-credit scholarships for children from low-income families. For special-needs students, the support for tax-credit scholarships rose to an astonishing 78 percent in the poll.

High levels of popularity have been experienced wherever tax credit scholarships have been enacted. In 1997, Arizona created an individual tax-credit scholarship program. Within two years the program became revenue neutral and is projected to raise an estimated $58 million annually by 2015 for scholarship donations. Just last year, 30,000 Arizona children used tax-credit-financed scholarships to improve their educations.

Arizona’s program has been seen as a great success for both providing increased education opportunities as well as being a revenue-neutral program for the state.

While money is still tight, the good news is that these tax credit bills will actually have a slight, positive impact on New Mexico’s budget. Rather than sucking resources out of the budget, these bills would give greater educational choice to parents and students, all while slightly improving the budget.

Education tax credits are not a partisan issue. While the bills this session have been introduced by Democrats, many Republicans, including Gov. Susana Martinez, have pledged their support.

This pattern has held in other states that have considered education tax credits. In addition to Arizona, the states of Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Rhode Island saw bipartisan coalitions of legislators and governors work successfully to set up tax-credit scholarship programs.

Ulibarri is executive director of Educate New Mexico.