Public service gets pricey (Updated)

Illustration by Keith Lewis

ALBUQUERQUE — Once again the nature of New Mexico’s unpaid, volunteer legislature is threatening to limit the kind of people who are able to serve. Case in point: Karen Giannini, the upset Democratic winner of a House seat in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights.

Last week she told friends that she was having trouble getting time off from work to serve in the Legislature. Her request for a 60-day leave of absence had been denied, she wrote in an e-mail.

While Giannini’s predicament is unusual, it is not unheard of. Because New Mexico’s legislators are unpaid and work only part time, it’s hard for many to figure out how to serve while earning a living and taking care of family responsibilities.

The difficulties, in turn, threaten to stifle diversity in the body, legislators and observers say. Being a senator or representative requires an extraordinary juggling act that is harder still for women than men, as they try to manage the demands of work, family and constituents.

Compared to other states with similar systems, New Mexico puts a greater squeeze on its volunteer legislators. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are about a dozen states in which legislators spend about as much time on their jobs as ours do (about a half a full-time job, on average), but they receive an average of $15,984 per year for doing it.

New Mexico senators and representatives are paid a daily $144 per diem while serving in Santa Fe, money that must cover food and lodging in one of the most expensive areas in the state. New Mexico lawmakers collect the same per diem while attending interim committee meetings when the Legislature is not in session.

Of the 10 other states NCSL puts in the same category (working about half-time), New Mexico legislators have the worst compensation. Even most states whose legislators work less are paid more.

‘The age-old balance thing’

In an interview with NMI, Giannini, a single mother of three, said that while she did not talk to her supervisors about a leave of absence before running for office, she had carefully consulted the company policy and believed that she would qualify for leave. She said she is determined to work out a solution that allows her to keep her job and serve in Santa Fe.

“I fully intend to take my seat, but I also have an obligation to my family and my children,” she said. “It’s the age-old balance thing for women who are single and trying to work and raise a family.”

If Giannini were to resign her seat, formerly occupied by Republican Justine Fox-Young, a replacement would be appointed by the Bernalillo County Commission, said James Flores, a spokesman for Secretary of State Mary Herrera. But Giannini, a former Air Force officer with a degree in physics who now works as a quality assurance engineer for an aerospace firm, would not discuss the possibility of resigning.

Janice Arnold-Jones is a Republican representative who works for a nuclear fuel company and describes her job there as similar to Giannini’s. “When I was first elected, I was a part-time person, but it turned out that [allowing me to serve] cost my small company a lot of money because there was no one to take over my responsibility,” Arnold-Jones said. “Still, they didn’t fire me, and I’ve always appreciated that.”

When the small company she worked for was bought by a larger one, Arnold-Jones recalled, the new bosses weren’t quite sure how to deal with a part-time worker who needed to take off 30 or 60 days each year. But eventually they decided to keep her and allow her time to serve in the Legislature.

“I appreciate that I have access to benefits and 401(k), but I had to promise to give them a level of hours that is sometimes excruciating. When the session is in, I simply can’t work those hours, but I still have to meet deadlines,” Arnold-Jones said.

When she’s in Santa Fe for the legislative session, she must take leave without pay. She also takes unpaid leave for committee hearings and events between sessions, Arnold-Jones said.

For some, the demands of the job are best met with full-time attention. state Sen. Tim Eichenberg, an Albuquerque Democrat whose district overlaps Giannini’s, retired from his job with the state in order to focus all his effort on legislative duties. His wife still works, however.

“I’m hoping not to have to take a day job at any time in the future,” he said. “If I have to, I’ll do this full time.”

The cost of service

“For a lot of people it’s a challenge to figure out how you’re going to take off 30 or 60 days,” says Neri Holguin, a political consultant who is a veteran of many races in New Mexico.

Although some legislators’ employers allow them to take unpaid leave during legislative sessions, many potential candidates can’t afford to work without pay for weeks or months out of the year.

“This is one of the reasons we should be a paid legislature. Because [as it is] we get people who are wealthy, retired, ranchers, bankers, attorneys, all of whom who have enough time or money to do it,” said Mimi Stewart, an educator and state representative from Albuquerque.

Stewart is one of the lucky. Because of terms negotiated by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, APS teachers who are elected to the Legislature are entitled to leave with pay for the session and committee meetings.

“Because of the way it’s set up we lose out on a diversity of people. We have either the highly paid or people with a lot of time on their hands. There’s a middle ground we’re missing, and I think that’s unfortunate,” Arnold-Jones said.

But a state law that would require employers to allow their workers leave to serve in elected office would put an undue burden on business, Arnold-Jones said. While she would not support pay for legislators, she would appreciate pay for staff members.

New Mexico legislators, unlike those in many other states, do not have any year-round paid staff.

Changing the way government works

So why don’t New Mexico representatives and senators just vote to give themselves a salary?

“There’s not a lot of public support for this… and that’s partly our fault,” said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

“We really have to talk about this more and help people understand. People need to think through what it’s going to take to change the way government works in the United States, in New Mexico and on the local level. Part of that is realizing that public officials are just like everyone else. Most are good people — most want to do the right thing, and I don’t think there’s much potential for abuse if we give them some nominal amount of pay for their service,” Allen said.

In the 2008 legislative session, Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, a Republican from southern New Mexico, sponsored a bill that would have given legislators an annual salary of approximately $25,000 (calculated as 15 percent of what members of Congress earn). The bill’s fiscal impact report noted that the 2006 Governor’s Task Force on Ethics Reform recommended $10,000 annually for legislative expense reimbursement accounts and the December 2007 Final Report of The Legislative Structure and Process Study Task Force recommended a “Legislative Compensation Commission” to set the compensation of members of the legislature every 10 years. Nevertheless, Rawson’s bill died in committee.

“We’d be talking about a barely livable wage. They would not be raking in cash hand over fist. Folks who are interested in making a lot of money have much more effective ways of doing that than becoming state legislators,” Allen said.

But even a salary wouldn’t help Karen Giannini now. With the next session little more than a month away, she still has to figure out how to persuade her bosses to let her go to Santa Fe and work for free.

Update: Rep. Mimi Stewart writes to clarify: “I have retired from APS, specifically because of the amount of work it takes to be a responsible legislator.  I was making myself sick trying to do what seems like two full time jobs.  The story makes it sound like I still work full time for APS, but I quit this past July 1.  I am working quarter time, which is all that’s allowed when you retire, coaching 12 special education teachers on how to teach reading.  I have to do this because it’s hard to live on the retirement salary.”