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.
Here comes the judge. More accurately, here comes a judge.
The courts on Monday were asked to settle a question raised about one of the budget fixes the Legislature passed during this year’s 60-day legislative session.
Specifically, unions representing 66,000 public employees, including state workers and school teachers, filed suit to stop increases to public employees’ contributions to pension plans expected to be into effect July 1, the Albuquerque Journal and the Santa Fe New Mexican report.
State lawmakers approved the increases, which will last two years, to save New Mexico as it navigates through bad times financially.
Both the state and state workers contribute into the pension funds. But by increasing what the employee contributes to the plan for two years, the state could decrease its contribution it pays in for each employee.
The organizations make the argument in the suit that the state is singling out public employees by imposing the increases — which will be applied against those individuals making more than $20,000 annually, the Journal reports.
But some lawmakers see the increases as a way of averting much worse fates for public employees.
“State employees and educators have to realize the Legislature is trying to save (them from) layoffs,” Albuquerque Journal reporter Dan Boyd quotes Rep. Henry “Kiki” Saavedra, chairman of the state House budget committee, as saying.
Here’s an excerpt from the Journal story:
Pension contribution hikes, which will last for two years, were crafted to save the state more than $80 million. A 1.5 percent employee contribution increase will be offset by a matching decrease in the state’s contribution.
The effect of the change varies by pay scale, but a state agency employee earning the average state salary of about $42,000 per year will take home $24 less per paycheck.
Starting next year, newly hired public employees in New Mexico will be able to retire with full benefits at any age after working for 30 years. The current time span is 25 years.
The unions claim there are other ways legislators could have plugged a $450 million gap in the state’s nearly $6 billion budget, such as revamping the state’s corporate income tax reporting requirements.
Support for the lawsuit was overwhelming among public employees, Arcy Baca, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 477, tells the Journal.
Youtz said if an injunction is issued to stop the contribution increases the state will have to come up with the $80 million, Youtz said.
Youtz acknowledged in the Journal that the salaries and jobs of public employees could be at risk if the Legislature is forced to revise the state budget, but said such cuts wouldn’t be “necessary” or “appropriate.”
