This session at the state capitol, lawmakers have attempted to tackle an issue that’s always a bit of a tough political sell: Giving themselves a raise.
Many of them argue their salary of $24,000 a year is just not enough to live on. We’ve seen several lawmakers leave of late, citing low pay as a reason.
But, as Gov. Katie Hobbs pointed out, it’s intended to be a part time salary. The session is supposed to last just four months, although that hasn’t happened in years.
Now, legislators have a host of ideas about how to increase their pay — maybe it’s 30% of what members of Congress are paid. Maybe it’s a bump to $35,000 a year. Maybe it should be $48,000 a year. Maybe it should be 60% of what the governor makes.
None of those proposals has made it all the way through the legislative process at this point. But that’s not the case in our neighboring state, New Mexico.
There, lawmakers at the so-called Roundhouse in Santa Fe narrowly approved a proposal to not just raise lawmaker pay but to pay them at all. That’s because New Mexico is the only state legislature in the country where lawmakers get no salary.
But that could be about to change — if voters approve it. The Show spoke more about it with the Albuquerque Journal’s Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyd.
Full conversation
DAN BOYD: Well, it in actually in New Mexico's constitution that, you know, legislators should not be paid a salary. That said, it has been an issue that's come up in recent years. There's been proposals to to pay legislators a salary, and they have increased the per diem amount that they are paid, which is intended to cover lodging and food expenses. They also can qualify for a legislative pension plan.
But this idea of actually paying legislators a salary has been kicking around for a few years, but finally kind of got across the finish line at the Roundhouse this year and it's headed to voters in November.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So, let's talk about what that proposal looks like because it's a pretty big deal, it sounds like, that voters are going to get to decide on this. In the past, voters there have not been so favorable to this idea though of paying their lawmakers, is that right?
DAN BOYD: That's right. I mean, I've done some research and it's been years since it's actually gone before voters, so I think everyone's curious here kind of what voters' view on this year's proposal is going to be.
But this would be setting legislative salaries, aligning them with the median household income in New Mexico, which currently is about $64,000 is the projection. Obviously, that could increase in future years based on inflation. But that would actually be higher than the average legislative pay nationwide.
So to go from not having any salary to kind of above the national average would be a big jump, and I think there's a lot of questions on how that might really change the nature of the Legislature here.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So, let's talk about that because having an unpaid Legislature, it seems to have shaped the way that the session works there, right? Like it sounds like they're pretty quick. People are supposed to have other jobs, other careers.
DAN BOYD: Yeah, that's right. Historically it's been a citizen legislature in New Mexico with the idea that there's farmers, there's ranchers, there's teachers — folks from all different walks of life. And they come to the Capitol for 60 days in odd-numbered years, 30 days in even-numbered years. They pass a budget, you know, they pass some other bills, but then they leave and they're kind of done for the year.
Obviously, the Governor can call them back for special sessions if there's an emergency, but that's kind of the way things have worked here for a number of years, and I really think that this, if approved by voters, could change that. There could be more of an appetite for longer sessions and maybe a more powerful legislature instead of deferring a lot of power to the executive branch.
LAUREN GILGER: Right, so having a short session like that with this citizen legislature, it does seem to probably give the Governor more power than it might in another state where the legislature is in session much longer or all year.
DAN BOYD: Yeah, I think we saw that during the the pandemic, that the Legislature just wasn't in session for a lot of it and and so it fell on the Governor to issue a lot of public health orders, emergency funding, things like that, and and it did raise some some questions about kind of how much authority the Governor should have. But ultimately, the Legislature kind of didn't insert itself in some of that. And and now with this proposal, I think that that dynamic could be changing.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, so let's talk about who's behind this proposal because it seems to have to do with who's representing the state today. Like, many lawmakers have left — and we've seen this happen in Arizona as well — where they say, “I simply can't afford to do this. I don't have a job where I can take 30 or 60 days off every year and make enough money to support my family.”
DAN BOYD: Yeah, that's right. We've seen several legislators here for exactly those reasons step down just say I can't make this work financially, I have a family, you know, I need to make ends meet and pay the bills.
And so we have seen New Mexico's Legislature in recent years increasingly um, you know, becoming uh more heavily female. We now have a House of Representatives here that's a female majority, the overall Legislature is a female majority, one of the few states.
And really, this push to pay legislators a salary has been led by female legislators. And specifically in this year's session, it was some younger women who were recently elected who really led the push and just said, “The Legislature needs to be more reflective of the state as a whole and and by doing this, it would it would allow some folks right now who can't serve in the Legislature the chance to at least consider doing that.”
LAUREN GILGER: It's interesting. What does the other side say here? Like, has there been pushback to this proposal? I know it was a party-line vote, but it's a Democratic majority Legislature, right? Those who are against it, what do they argue?
DAN BOYD: Yeah, I mean, I think that they argue that, you know, some people might then get into it for the wrong reasons, for personal enrichment rather than kind of the good of the state.
Interestingly, even the governor — who's a Democrat, Michelle Lujan Grisham — she said she had kind of mixed feelings about it, that it could change and make the Legislature feel a bit more like Congress, and maybe some of that access and things like that would change.
But she also said that maybe it would get some folks to to run for the legislature who would be good fits and who would bring some assets to the table who haven't been able to to do so for financial reasons in the past. So even some people like that, who may have kind of mixed feelings about this proposal.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I think we've seen a similar debate here from lawmakers who say sort of, if you don't pay people a living wage and expect them to be lawmakers for even part of the year, I mean, you're going to get a lot of maybe independently wealthy people, maybe retirees, things like that. Is that what you've seen there as well?
DAN BOYD: Yeah, yeah, I think that that's exactly right. And obviously some professions that maybe is easier to take 60 or 30 days off a year. There's a number of lawyers here in the New Mexico Legislature, but also a lot of retirees There's not as many, there's I think one current teacher, I don't think there's any doctors still currently in the New Mexico Legislature.
So I think this idea of a citizen legislature may be kind of rooted in the past a little bit, and it's kind of arguable how accurate it still is at this point.
LAUREN GILGER: It's interesting. So, I mean, as we mentioned, this has not been a super popular idea with voters in the past, and it is sort of a hard political sell, right? Because especially right now, prices are so high, people are grappling with cost of living issues. Do you think voters will be supportive of paying legislators right now when lots of people can't make ends meet?
DAN BOYD: Yeah, I haven't seen any polling yet, but I I think those factors you mentioned, especially with the gas prices we're seeing in recent months, I think there will be some skepticism and and I think it'll be incumbent on supporters of this idea to really try to lay out an argument of of why this is justified.
I think the fact that in past years — even though it's been a number of years ago — that these type of proposals have failed when they've gone to voters is kind of a sign that it is a tough sell politically. And even here in New Mexico, there had been previous uh proposals to set up an outside commission to pay legislators, different kind of formats, and they settled this year on this model of tying it to the median household income. So, I think it is just politically awkward for legislators to, you know, to vote on a pay raise for themselves.
LAUREN GILGER: Always is. All right, well, lots to watch for coming out of New Mexico. That is Dan Boyd, the Albuquerque Journal's Capitol Bureau chief, joining us from Santa Fe. Dan, thank you so much for coming on, interesting stuff.
DAN BOYD: Hey, thanks for having me.
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