Speaker & Governor
New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan tells us he isn't interested in "nickel and diming" when it comes to raising $200 million in new taxes. He says he and his fellow House Dems are looking for a couple of major measures to raise the revenue to help resolve a budget deficit of at least $500 million for the budget year that starts July 1. Our interview highlights:

• He's not very interested in a a tax on sugary foods. He says it wouldn't raise much money. He remains firmly against reinstating the gross receipts tax on food which he helped repeal.

• He is amenable to an increase in the gross receipts tax of up to half a percent which he says would raise $250 million a year. He says local governments have been raising the gross receipts tax and keeping all the revenues. He believes it's the state's turn.

• He fleshed out details of that proposed surtax we blogged about Wednesday. He said it would be a surtax of one percent on individuals making over $75,000 a year and $150,000 for joint filers. He would like it to last two to three years and says it would bring in about $76 million a year.
  

• He is open to closing the loophole that allows big box chains like Wal-Mart to avoid some state taxes. That would raise anywhere from $25 to $100 million a year.

• He says the capital gains tax may be low, but raising it would not do much good because not many taxpayers are showing capital gains after the stock and real estate crashes
  
  
• He believes it is foolhardy to cut Medicaid, the health insurance plan for the poor, because each dollar it gets is matched with three dollars from the feds.

• He knows a tax increase of any kind will be a tough sell in the more conservative Senate and says he wants to work closer with Senators than in past sessions in crafting a tax package.

• He is "not interested" in the proposal for a two percent across the board cut in state worker salaries. Either is Rep. Lucky Varela. We can probably count that one dead.

Our take: We sense some support for an increase in the state gross receipts tax among conservative Dem senators. Even a quarter cent would raise over $100 million a year. It may be hard to resist if Lujan can get it through the House, but will Big Bill sign it? If it is labeled "temporary" he could.

The 30 day session starts next Tuesday.

PRE-SESSION POSITIONING

Liberal legislators from ABQ's SE Heights and Lt. Governor Denish had a pre-session gathering this week. One of our readers takes you there:

I was at the "Rt 66 Forum" last night at Plumbers Hall in ABQ and organized by nearby Dem ward leaders. The gathering had a forum addressing the upcoming session, moderated by Sen. Cisco McSorley, with presentations and Q & A from Diane Denish, Sen. Tim Keller and Rep. Gail Chasey and others.

There was lots of hand-wringing about our economic woes and the Legislative Finance Committee directives, which are deemed to most harm the needy and disabled, public school children, and medicaid recipients.

But I found the most interesting insight came in response to a question asking the legislators what they would be doing about the mess that the University of New Mexico has become, with overpaid, and top-heavy VPs and administration. Legislators stated there were budget methods they could and would be employing to control the VP salary and staffing growth that has occurred in the current administration.

The legislators at that event represent the UNM community or vicinity. If these traditional defenders of the school are finally fed up with the UNM administrative bloat, there might be some change.

And some more on this meeting from another reader:

I asked the Lt. Gov, and the legislators, what's the chance to re-write and change the tax code altogether. They all looked at each other, and Cisco blurted out that there isn't time in the present 30-day session, and the agenda has pretty much been already set. But, next year, with the 60-day session, and the elections over with, maybe that's much more of a possibility.

Senator McSorley made a bold prediction at the meeting. He said he did not believe the Senate would approve the renomination of UNM Regent Jamie Koch. Koch told us this week he expects the Senate Rules Committee to conduct a confirmation hearing in the upcoming session. The hearing was delayed last year and Koch has yet to be confirmed for a second term.

THE RICHARDSON 59

The names of the 59 exempt employees let go this month by Big Bill, but kept secret by the administration, continue to trickle into us. This time it's a public information officer position we learn that has been eliminated. From our insider:

The PIO position is for the Indian Affairs Department has been eliminated. The former PIO's name was David Harwell. According to the ABQ Journal employee listing he was making $60,000/year.

The Legislature ordered a cutback in the number of exempt employees which have proliferated in recent years.

LIGHT GUV TV

The word "integrity" is among those flashed in large script across the screen as Lawrence Rael becomes the first of the give Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor to go up with paid television (Ad is here). The ethics and integrity issue lurks in this campaign and Rael supporters have been arguing that Brian Colon, another leading contender for the nomination, has ties that are too close to Big Bill's campaign apparatus which have been the subject of numerous investigations. Colon was treasurer for a Richardson political action committee.

Rael did not say how much time he was buying but called it a "major" and that it would run on ABQ broadcast stations as well as cable. The ad, produced by ABQ based Vaughn Wedeen Kuhn, was not expensively produced.It shows Rael standing against an autumnal backdrop narrating his accomplishments. There was immediate push back from the Alligators on Rael's contention that this was a major buy. From one of them:

...To call his TV buy "major," is a joke. It's less than $10,000 on broadcast this week and under 4K on cable. A weak broadcast buy from a real campaign would be around 50K. And a buy to really move poll numbers would be 80-100K. I don't know where anyone gets the idea that this is a good use of money. It'll have virtually no impact on his name ID.

ANALYSIS AND CONTEXT

The use of early TV at this stage is debatable. The Light Guv race will largely come down to organizing for the March pre-primary convention where several thousand Dems will gather to decide who gets sanctioned for the June 1 primary ballot. If a candidate gets 20 percent, they are on. If not, they can still get on by submitting additional petition signatures, but that has never been the path to winning. Analysts expect perhaps three of the five candidates to be able to muster at least 20 percent.

So the Rael TV and any other that comes from the other candidates is largely aimed at bolstering them within the party ranks. If delegates like the TV spot, it could give them more confidence in making Rael their choice for second banana. Or so the reasoning must go when you start writing TV checks in January.