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.
The legislative Government Restructuring Task Force has drafted a constitutional amendment and legislation to abolish the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), according to documents obtained by The Independent.
A draft Senate joint resolution would strip the troubled Commission, which is the state’s most powerful regulatory agency, of its constitutional authority.
If approved by lawmakers, the proposed amendment would be submitted to voters at “the next general election or at any special election prior to that date that may be called for that purpose,” according to the draft resolution.
Passage of the amendment would open the door to the Legislature passing a companion draft bill that would establish a legislative committee task force to determine how best to dismember the PRC and reallocate its divisions, jurisdictions and authorities to other executive-branch agencies.
Most of the PRC’s divisions and bureaus would be sent to existing executive branch agencies like the Regulation and Licensing Department. The Division of Insurance may become part of a stand-alone insurance regulation agency that would also include the Risk Management Division and other state insurance programs, Task Force vice-chair Rep. Patricia A. Lundstrom (D-Gallup) suggested at a Restructuring Task Force meeting Friday.
Unlike the constitutional amendment, the draft bill to create a PRC Task Force has yet to be formally approved by the Government Restructuring Task Force.
According to the draft bill, if the constitutional amendment is approved by voters, a PRC Task Force would be created April 1, 2013 and would have to conclude the restructuring of PRC divisions by July 1, 2014.
But even if the amendment is approved by voters, the companion bill must pass muster with the Legislature, which convenes in January.
Commissioners were angry that the Task Force had not told them of the bills, they said Thursday.
“We need to let them know we’re finding out about things in a round-about way,” an irritated Commissioner Theresa Becenti-Aguilar said. “I think it’s time we sent a message we would like to see the complete material. Once we’ve seen that, they’ll have our response at their very next meeting.”
The legislative council would appoint 12 members to the committee to divvy up the PRC to other agencies. Six members would be selected from the House and six from the Senate, according to the draft bill.
Especially troubling is the wording in the companion bill regarding the composition of an advisory panel that would assist that committee on technical matters, according to Commissioner Jason Marks.
According to the draft bill:
The legislative council, in consultation with the governor, shall appoint an advisory panel of experts in the areas regulated by the Public Regulation Commission and those knowledgeable about the organizational structure of the executive branch of government. The advisory panel shall assist the committee and make recommendations on technical aspects of the committee’s work.
“That task force (advisory panel) will include people from regulated industry, but the bill didn’t say anything about consumer advocates,” Marks noted. “It’s unusually blatant.”
The Legislature might lose enthusiasm for abolishing the PRC if Susana Martinez is elected governor, Commission chairman David King suggested.
“Every four or five years since we started the PRC, there have been bills to do in the commission,” King said. “I doubt they want to give the new governor a lot of new authority if that governor happens to be Martinez. When I first ran for the Commission, Speaker (Ben) Lujan (Sr.) told me I may not serve a full four years because the Legislature might abolish the PRC. But then after a year or two, his son ran and Lujan really changed dramatically. We grew quite a bit after that.”
U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan served as a Commissioner until 2008.
“I wouldn’t get carried away with restructuring until I saw who the new governor is and who the new legislators are,” King told The Independent. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Central to legislators’ concerns is the mismanagement of the Division of Insurance, King acknowledged.
“That (Division) is an albatross for us,” King said. “But the process isn’t there for more oversight by us. They’ve tied our hand behind our backs on Insurance. That needs to be changed – but not by creating more bureaucracies. Changing insurance under the PRC is the most responsive thing we can do.”
Commissioners want the Legislature to leave the Division at the PRC, but to empower the Commission to fire the state Superintendent of Insurance at will and to hear appeals of insurance rate appeals rather than those appeals going to district court, as is currently done.
Insisting that the commission is the best agency for all of its divisions and bureaus will “go over with a thud” at the Legislature, Marks warned other commissioners Thursday.
“That won’t be perceived as credible,” Marks said.
Only Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr., was absent during the Commission’s Thursday discussion of the draft constitutional amendment and bill.
