I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed the bill that would have reined in the practice of “double-dipping” today.
The bill, HB 616, sought to limit the practice in which public employees retire, begin collecting their pensions, and then are rehired 90 days later by their former boss for the same job at the same salary.
In his lengthy veto message, Richardson termed the return to work of retired employees as a “second career.”
He said that he thinks the system is in general “fair and efficient,” but that he does share concerns that it’s being abused:
While in general this system is both fair and efficient — and provides for an experienced talent pool from which public agencies can hire skilled management and technical employees — in a few high profile, high salary cases there has been a perception in some quarters that this system has been abused. Frankly, I share that concern.
While he’s concerned, he said, HB 616 paints with too broad a brush, because “the fact is” that the majority of those who return to work are “devoted to public service, whose salaries in both their first and second public service careers are far from egregious.”
Richardson also said that people return to work due to financial necessity, and could make more in the private sector. This raises the issue, he said, of how government can attract and retain skilled employees.
Regarding the issue of the Public Employee Retirement Association, or PERA, being negatively impacted by the practice, Richardson said that was a misperception. In fact, he said, because they won’t receive a secondary pension, they actually subsidize the fund since they and their employers continue to pay into the fund.
Finally, he said, there are significant legal questions regarding the bill, although he didn’t specify what they were.
However, the guv continued, there are “legitimate concerns” with the law — including abuse of the system, and damage to employee morale due to perceived limitations on upward mobility.
For that reason, he’s creating a task force to consider potential legislation for the special session later this year.
Such legislation, he said, should “restrict and limit the proliferation of return to work in a fair and equitable manner that prevents egregious abuse of the system while recognizing that the majority of these employees return to work out of necessity, and while preserving the public sector’s ability to attract and retain the best and the brightest.”
