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.
After an outside review of the State Investment Council recommended significantly reducing the governor’s power over the agency, Governor Bill Richardson said Tuesday he left “all decisions all decisions to my state investment board. I hardly attended meetings. I felt that I shouldn’t be a part of decisions.”
Richardson made the comments following a Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce meeting in Albuquerque.
A review conducted by Chicago-based consulting firm EnnisKnupp, which was hired to study the agency late last year, found that Richardson’s influence over the State Investment Council “is more far-reaching than it is for governors in most of the 14 other states with similar funds,” the Journal reported in a story today.
The EnnisKnupp review also recommended more legislative appointments to the council, further diluting the chief executive’s power.
Richardson said he was O.K. with more legislative appointments.
“I am going to propose a bill that contains legislative appointments and representation in some form,” he said Tuesday, referring to this year’s legislative session, which starts next week. “Structurally, the recommendations make sense that there should be a broader base of oversight of representation, legislators, businessmen. The governor needs to retain an important role.”
In addition to the findings above, the EnnisKnupp review found that decisions on how to invest New Mexico’s $13 billion worth of endowment funds were made internally and largely without scrutiny from the board appointed to oversee the state’s portfolio, the Journal explained.
