A New Mexico "Right To Work" Primer

GOP: Welcome to the Round House

I assume you brought your chain saws, crow bars and U-Hauls...

There may have been a moment of confused uncertainty in the minds of Republicans as they rolled into Santa Fe to take over the New Mexico House. These new Representatives were probably trying to "piece together" different figments of faux ideology they had heard on hate radio into something coherent enough for a news conference. Presumably, there were ALEC "educational meetings" already scheduled to rough out the Party's legislative priorities for the exceptionally slow ones.

[MeanMesa assumes that simply issuing written instructions from the ALEC "campaign benefactors" would prove to be "just too much" for some of the newly elected Texan carpet baggers, oil barons  and other right wing riff raff arriving from the New Mexico hinterlands.]

Oh, what to do? The new Republican House members were like kids in a candy store. Wing nut ideas were flying around like gnats at an abandoned picnic on a hot Los Cruces afternoon. 

New Abortion laws? Sorry, Albuquerque sent the abortion evangelicals back to Kansas.

Stand your ground laws? Sorry, New Mexico is already 2nd most violent state in the union.

Obliterate environmental regulations? Sorry, Susana has already undone most of the "coal and coughing" regulations in her first term.

Tax cuts? Sorry, New Mexico is the poorest state in the union. That means New Mexico has some of the poorest people and the lowest wages -- and, the lowest tax revenue. Even the "rainy day fund" got mangled a few years ago on Wall Street.
Dumping NM ObamaCare exchange? Sorry, too many New Mexicans finally have health insurance for the first time and more are joining -- and...some of them are Republicans.

How about a few million more for "economic development?" Darn, it's never worked before, and Susana is keeping the results of the last try secret. [There's always the chance that New Mexicans might have already forgotten the last time, the time before that, the time before that and the time before that...]

Well, since this latest bunch Republican House members is rather inexperienced at the job, the House leadership has picked something they hoped everyone would find "easily understandable:" 

union busting.

The "strategy" to accomplish this would be proposing legislation to turn New Mexico into a Right To Work state.

Very importantly, unions could be blamed for all the expensive failures of "economic development!" Plus, the oligarchs and corporations funneling the cash into ALEC already hated unions for all sorts of reasons. It would amount to "killing two birds with one stone." The plan would produce an immediate down payment on all the favors that were owed to those who made this "massive" Republican House take over possible, and -- even though the logic behind such a move was a "little flaky," it would firmly establish the old GOP "winner take all" atmosphere before anyone had time to become confused.

For years the state had invested billions of job creation dollars in bribes to a rather strange variety of industrial manufacturers with utterly dismal results, and all of this financial tragedy could be blamed on unions!

However, even though the idea looked pretty darned flashy in "right wing world," the numbers were going to need a little "tweeking."

As to the numbers, New Mexico has around 825,000 people currently employed in private sector jobs, a figure which seems to fluctuate up and down fairly regularly by around 40,000 a quarter. [Read more here - US Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Yet, in Republican "talking point world" there were hordes of grumbling, snarling New Mexico union workers -- ddefinitely "takers" -- who had consistently sabotaged every one of these "honest, forward thinking" efforts to improve the State's economy, and they had to be stopped. The problem was with the size of these "hordes." How many New Mexican union workers are there in a "horde," anyway?

Center for Economic and Policy Research

Report on Private Sector Union Membership, 2012

By John Schmitt, Janelle Jones and Milla Sanes [visit the CEPR site here]

                                                   Number of Union Members    Union Membership Rate (%)
                                           2011              2012            Change           2011     2012      Change (p.p.)

New Mexico       15,136        15,360        224         2.9       2.8           -0.1

So, it turns out that a "horde" of New Mexico private sector union members is around 15,000. [The statistics are for 2013, but the numbers haven't changed much.] So -- 15,000 unionized "bad apples" in a state labor force of 825,000 private sector workers has managed to wreck all the bright, optimistic "economic development" plans for our state's new prosperity. Darn.

MeanMesa suspects that the state's "economic development money" apparently wound up creating a crop of New Mexico millionaires instead of hundreds of New Mexico jobs. The jobs statistics definitely are not suggesting that it has created jobs.

Why Do the ALEC Billionaires Want

"Right To Work" In New Mexico

There seems to be very little here to steal...

We can begin by "clearing the air" just a little. The billionaires who own the Republican Party could not possibly be less interested in somehow "assisting" some employee working in a union shop's labor force to be able to avoid joining the union, paying union dues and still work there. The fate of individual workers has never been interesting to them.

On the other hand, what does interest them can be spelled out pretty briefly. They love low wages -- the ones that are less than union scale. These turn directly into profit and go directly into their off shore accounts. They love paltry benefit packages. The difference in cost between cheap, crappy benefits and reasonable ones turns directly into profit and go directly into their off shore accounts. They hate spending money on good, safe working conditions for the same reasons.

And, at the top of the list if things "detested" by the owners of the Republican Party, the really well heeled among those owners hate organized union campaign workers. [By "well heeled," MeanMesa is referring to the cash handy plutocrats and the "free range," unregulated corporations who can painlessly finance ALEC and other hateful, wing nut super PACs.] If they want similar campaign workers for candidates they support, they have to pay them. They are also not particularly fond of "get out the vote" efforts that union workers seem to enjoy because "all the wrong people" wind up voting.

Creating a "right to work" state in New Mexico would lethally degrade unions by essentially evaporating the compensation a worker pays for the benefits of union representation. If there is any remaining curiosity as the the "mechanism" right to work laws employ to neutralize the fundamental revenue stream supporting unions, this is the "mechanism."

There remains no discernible reason not to characterize the process as union busting.

Five Takes On the "Right To Work" Plan

Read through these and there will be

little question as to who now owns the media...
and why blogs have become so important.

MeanMesa roamed through the offerings in the GOOGLE a bit before selecting the following five articles. Between them, the main points to be extracted from contemporary propaganda, "academic" conclusions concerning some sort of "economic theory," local "oatmeal" reporting and "business forums" openly sympathetic the the idea. Be aware: there are a fascinating amount of "every body knows" conclusions being bandied about in these articles which should "avoid the light of day" if their authors intend to maintain their credibility.

In the fact-free morass of "right wing world" they sound as good as gold.

1. KOAT Albuquerque

[Visit the original article here - KOAT ]

MeanMesa: This is a fairly good example of what is to be found in local reporting. Notably, Republican Gentry's claim that "Right to work states" have better-paying jobs, lower "instances" of unemployment and high incomes doesn't really correlate to facts on the ground. The "token" Democrat's sole comment was that "RTW" would impact health care options is practically a paid advertisement suggesting that the real damage would be limited to this. Coverage like this fails to present the actual arguments -- or facts -- to New Mexicans.

Officials debate New Mexico

 as a right-to-work state

Republicans to push for New Mexico to become right-to-work state

by Megan Cruz Jan 3,2015

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —"Right to work" is a controversial issue that could change the future of economic development in New Mexico.

Republicans said they'll push for New Mexico to become a right-to-work state in 2015, meaning employers cannot force employees to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment.

Rep. Nate Gentry said it'll mean better-paying jobs for New Mexicans.

"Right-to-work states have lower instances of unemployment and have higher incomes," Gentry said.

But Democrats disagree, saying right-to-work legislation is wrong for New Mexico.

Sen. Michael Sanchez said weaker unions could mean "a lower income (because) they don't have as much health insurance or (any) health insurance at all," Sanchez said. "The impact it would have on families, in my opinion, would be devastating."

There's also a difference in opinion when it comes to whether or not a right-to-work law would bring more businesses to the state.

Some thought electric automaker Tesla passed up on New Mexico because it is not a right-to-work state.

"Time and time again, the fact that we're not a right-to-work state takes us off the table for a lot of businesses to consider locating here," Gentry said.

"Their priority isn't, 'Are you a right-to-work state or not?' It's based on labor skills and costs," Sanchez said.

Twenty-four states are right-to-work, including Nebraska, Mississippi, and Virginia. New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the states that are not.

2. Albuquerque Business First

[Read the original article here - Bizjournal]

MeanMesa: When a business journal's "reporter" cites arguments in favor of the right to work idea from the President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation the blind ideology is getting pretty thick, and any lingering hint of objective analysis has just flown out the window. Pay attention. Arguments in favor of right to work usually cite comparisons of various states with and without it and imply that the differences are fundamentally a result of whether or not they have right to work. Right to work is not the primary difference between current state economies, over shadowing population, industrial development, prevailing revenue levels and other measures.

ALBUQUERQUE

BUSINESS FIRST

Would ‘right-to-work’ law

make NM more competitive?

by Damon Scott

  Mar 25, 2013

A national expert on “right-to-work” laws encouraged a crowd of commercial real estate executives and government officials Monday to begin a push to pass the legislation in New Mexico.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, said the law gives workers the right to refuse to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Mix spoke at an event sponsored by the New Mexico chapter of NAIOP — Commercial Real Estate Development Association Monday at the Albuquerque Marriott at 2101 Louisiana Blvd. NE.

Right-to-work laws exist in some form in 24 states, mostly in the South and West. The laws do not, as some think, provide a guarantee of employment to people seeking work.

Mix said passing the law in New Mexico would make the state more competitive with states that have already passed versions of it. He added that he’s heard from companies that make site selections based in part on whether a state has the law on the books.

Mix said the laws do not outlaw unions, end collective bargaining or prohibit a worker from joining a union. He said states that have right-to-work enjoy a higher per capita disposable income.

“Right-to-work is not a panacea, but is a piece of the puzzle to compete with other states for jobs,” he said. “From an economic development standpoint, it’s positive to have the debate.”

Mix also serves as president of the National Right to Work Committee, a 2.6 million-member public policy organization. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, CNBC and CNN.

Those opposed to the law say, among other things, that a union’s ability to improve work conditions beyond legal minimums is weakened when membership declines.

The right-to-work issue has gotten attention in New Mexico lately. Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry said in a recent speech at NAIOP that it’s time to start talking about whether New Mexico needs right-to-work legislation.

And a National Federation of Independent Business poll recently found that 78 percent of New Mexico small business owners surveyed think New Mexico should pass a right-to-work law.

3. The Washington Post

[Read the original article here - Washington POST ]

MeanMesa: The focus on "whether or not unions can require workers to pay union dues" is the propaganda slant aimed at workers who are or might be required to pay union dues. The prospect of bringing home a larger pay check is appealing, but with it comes the prospect of working somewhere essentially without any union representation or protection. No, these are not openly presented as a result of right to work, but the inevitable destruction of unions trying to function without the revenue of union dues should be.

Lawmakers are starting to talk

 about making New Mexico

 a right-to-work state

By Niraj Chokshi

November 14, 2014

Republicans control the New Mexico state legislature for the first time in 60 years, and lawmakers there are beginning to suggest they may use their new majority to restrict union power.

State Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle (R-Portales) told the Albuquerque Journal that now “could be the time we get it through both houses,” referring to a right-to-work bill that would allow the state to prevent unions from requiring workers to pay dues. If the legislature were to pass the law during its two-month session that starts in late January, it would become the 25th state with such a law.

In states that lack right-to-work laws, labor unions may require employees to pay dues regardless of whether they join because they benefit from the negotiations the union conducts on the behalf of all employees.

Last year, 21 states and D.C. considered right-to-work laws, though only Tennessee passed one, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The year before, 19 states considered it, and four states passed various versions of laws that expanded or established right-to-work provisions. Generally, debate has come in waves since stats began enacting right-to-work laws in the 1940s, according to NCSL:

The first right-to-work laws were passed in the 1940s and 1950s, predominantly in Southern states. Most right-to-work laws were enacted by statute but 10 states adopted them by constitutional amendments. There was a surge of interest in the issue in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, but only a handful of states have enacted right to work laws since the initial wave in the mid-20th century.

Ingle said the state’s lack of such a law puts it at an economic disadvantage because several neighboring states have such laws: “If we’re going to compete in New Mexico and draw businesses, we’re going to have to do something,” he told the Journal.

The resurgence of the right-to-work debate comes as unions suffer from waning influence, with approval near 75-year lows. More than a dozen states have curtailed collective bargaining rights in recent years, and union membership has declined in 43 states since 2003.

Gallup Poll: Do you approve of labor unions?

4. GIVE UP [a blog]

[Excerpted. Read the original article here - GIVEUPBLOG]

MeanMesa: The important point for including this excerpt from a blog is to paint a "bigger picture" of the political and economic realities of states with right to work. The two maps show that the same states which are "beating the odds" and receiving more Federal dollars than they are contributing are very often the same ones with right to work. Why would additional Federal dollars be funneled into right to work states? For starters, because poverty rates are higher, and wages are lower.

50 state "economic freedom" ratings

The map from this site.

The map from the e21 site [below]

See any similarities? [MeanMesa]

It seems as though 7 of the top ten states receive more federal dollars than they contribute, two of the three "economically free" states that contribute more than they take are blue states. Then take a look at the bottom ten and you seven of the ten pay out more than they receive (and the ones that don't nearly break even). So, in other words, the economically free states are the ones that end up bilking the blue states out of federal tax dollars because their tax incomes are inadequate to cover the costs of administering their state budgets.

Then consider this idea that "jobs are flocking" to these states. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate in Kansas, where these jobs are supposedly flocking to, is the same as in New York, and Massachusetts and New Jersey actually have lower unemployment rates. Most unemployment rates in this country are more or less the same, falling between 4 and 5 percent, highest in Mississippi at 7.9% (eight of the ten highest unemployment rates are in red states). Then consider the rate of change in these rates, and you see California and New York are decreasing their unemployment at a faster rate than Kansas (0.8 vs 0.5 percent respectively>. The states with the most rapidly increasing unemployment rates are mostly red (8 of 10 are red states). Also, check out Figure 1 and 2 on the left, of the comparison of the so-called "right-to-work" states with other states and you see these economic freedom measures simply lower wages without any great decrease in unemployment benefit. By all means, move to these "economic freedom" states to work for a lower wage, and at the same time receive fewer services from their governments. It's clearly a measure of freedom not to have healthcare, good hospitals, decent wages, or an infant mortality rate worthy of the first world. Sh*t, why stop at moving to these "economically free" red states? Why not just move all the way to Mexico, not get taxed at all, and live in a place where 50% of the labor force has to work in another country in order to pay the damn bills.

If I'm wrong, explain to me how economic freedom corresponds to taking more federal tax money than other states with higher GDPs, then claiming you are somehow economically superior? The unfree states are subsidizing their tax idiocy, and then the WSJ claims that jobs are flocking to these states, when it's clear as many or more jobs are flocking to places like California and New York. Then look at any other measure of quality of life, measurements of the efficacy of state government (summarized in some of the Give Up maps) and you see that the Blue states are providing better services and quality of life while subsidizing the regressive tax policies of the "free" states.

5. e21: The Manhattan Institute

[Excerpted. Read the entire article here - e21: The Manhattan Institute]

MeanMesa: If you've ever wondered how right to work "helps unions and economic growth," here is the answer. The Manhattan Institute tells visitors to their site about themselves, perhaps explaining why their position that right to work "helps unions." This is from their "About Us:" page.

We aim to advance free enterprise, fiscal discipline, economic growth, and the rule of law. Drawing on the expertise of practitioners, policymakers, and academics, we will encourage a spirited debate about the way forward for democratic capitalism. And we will do so in a manner that is accessible and engaging, in a way that appeals to both experts and non-experts. 

Realize that a steady stream of this is the sort of arcane nonsense is what voters in the Republican base are hearing -- and believing. The grossly "detail-free" comparisons of state economies -- each time implying that the presence or absence of right to work laws is responsible -- saturates the narrative, culminating in the "data" and calculations which purportedly have yielded the "map." Case in point: "...map displaying how much each state lost in per capita income because it did not have RTW." Now, that is a piece of real research, right?

If you have -- quite sensibly -- decided to engage Pro-Right To Work sentiments in the New Mexico debate, you can anticipate encountering conversations in which material such as this will be tacitly considered "fact."

How Right to Work Helps

 Unions and Economic Growth

Jason Russell

 08/27/2014

With steadily declining membership, unions are shifting their public relations and political contributions into overdrive in hopes of wooing new members to their cause. Many of these political contributions have been spent opposing Right to Work (RTW) laws, which give workers the right to not join a union even if their workplace is unionized.

This is a mistake. States with RTW laws have faster economic growth, and union membership is growing in RTW states. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, from 2004 to 2013 total union membership rose by 0.5 percent in RTW states but declined by 4.6 percent in non-RTW states. RTW is win-win for the economy and for unions.

Twenty-four states have RTW laws today. Over time, people and assets have migrated from non-RTW states to RTW states, causing their economic growth to increase. New research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute suggests that states that have relatively recent or no RTW laws experienced slower economic growth over the past 35 years.

...

...

Researchers Richard K. Vedder and Jonathan Robe examined economic growth in RTW states versus non-RTW states from 1977-2012, while controlling for outside factors, such as the rate of population growth and the percentage of the employed in manufacturing, that might alter their results. They concluded that RTW laws alone created an extra 11.5 percentage points of economic growth per state over that time period. Vedder and Robe then examined how much economic growth each state had lost as a result of its non-RTW status. Below [the map is "above"] is a map displaying how much each state lost in per capita income because it did not have RTW.

...

As with any economic research, these results are not definitive. However, they suggest that RTW attracts businesses, which then create jobs, adding to economic growth. 

...

Although conservative Alaska has seen the largest loss of per capita income growth ($5,238), its particular situation should not be extrapolated to other states because its climate and size make it difficult to grow a business. Connecticut, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, and Maryland immediately follow Alaska, leaving many liberal strongholds with the most to gain from passing RTW laws. It is likely that small-government states, such as Kentucky and Montana, are offsetting their non-RTW status with other policies that increase growth.

...

If unions want to gain more members and make them better off, they should flip their anti-RTW position and give workers the right to choose whether or not to join.

MeanMesa Will Imitate the NRA

Acknowledging that Republican Congresses

 don't actually listen to anybody who actually votes...

let's go ahead and "score" the right to work votes.

Since the newly seated New Mexico State House majority has already taken a page from the national Republican "play book," and begun, helter skelter, their frantic run to implement every single talking point which has ever issued forth from a FOX pundit without any regard whatsoever about what "normal" citizens might want, the rest of us may as well jump on the "band wagon." After all, when polls showed that 80%+ of American voters wanted back ground checks after Newtown, the US Congress effortlessly ignored the clear will of the people.

The reason for this was what is called "scoring." The NRA gleefully informed all the cravenly cowardly Congressmen that it would be "scoring" the vote on back ground checks. Any Congressman who voted for the background check bill would get a "bad score." 

That threat wouldn't have amounted to much if it had not also included the additional threat of millions of NRA gun manufacturer dollars going to the campaign war chest of absolutely anybody who was running against one of these "poorly scoring" Congressman in the next primary election.

Well, after hearing that some New Mexico Democrats in Santa Fe are "considering" voting for this ALEC right to work bill, MeanMesa has grown just grumpy enough to think that this NRA "scoring," campaign extortion idea may have some merit after all, that is, it may be useful to us, too.

So, for what it's worth, MeanMesa will be "scoring" any vote on a New Mexico right to work bill in the Round House. Any New Mexico Democratic Representative or Senator who votes for this piece of ALEC detritus should expect a "robust" treatment from this blog, certainly including "naming names."

MeanMesa has a GOOGLE and isn't afraid to use it.

MeanMesa has never been a union member, but MeanMesa has benefited plenty from what unions have accomplished. The same can be said for most New Mexicans. This can also be said for the State of New Mexico's economy

New Mexico needs more private sector union jobs 

-- not fewer!

New Mexico needs more union trained skilled laborers 

-- not fewer!

New Mexico needs more workers drawing union scale pay checks -- not fewer!

Daily KOS: New Mexico Education Scandal

First, Just A Quick Note About New Mexico ALEC

Think of it as making weekly, over due, 
dentist payments...for an endless toothache.

Frequent visitors to MeanMesa are quite aware that there is "little love lost" between this blog and the New Mexico infestation of the national American Legislative Exchange Council -- ALEC. More traditional media, even those generally opposed to ALEC's state level machinations, are apparently reluctant to "really just let go" when it comes time for "clearing the air."

For example, we can consider the local "newspaper" in Albuquerque, the tragic, tattered remains of what was, at one time, apparently, an actual newspaper. The Albuquerque Journal has always remained suspiciously silent on the topic of ALEC. This shouldn't surprise anyone who has had the misfortune of accidentally picking up the rag, no doubt thinking it might be a good fit for the bottom of a parakeet cage. The Journal is famous for publishing right wing op-eds on its front page as if they were news.

Well, relax. MeanMesa isn't nearly as reluctant as the Journal to post on this topic, and, although this post is primarily about some financial shenanigans being pulled by the sold out Martinez administration, just about any time "financial shenanigans" begin to emerge from Santa Fe, it's almost a sure bet that somewhere down the line the cash will, sooner or later, begin to dance to an ALEC tune.

ALEC titles itself an "exchange" council, but that seemingly reasonable description is about as misleading as the rest of what ALEC is and what ALEC does.  NM ALEC is populated by Republicans. There might be a heavily soiled Democrat or two in the mix, but they would only be there if, as they say, "the price was right." In that case, they would fit into the crowd just swimmingly because that is precisely the reason the Republicans are there.

The ALEC Republicans are bold faced looters. The particular loot causing them to salivate so much in this case is the part of the State of New Mexico legislative education budget which is intended to pay for special education. These ALEC looters don't arrive in 1920's phaetons like Al Capone, or suddenly appear on the horizon like the Dark Age army of Gustavus Adolphus. Instead, ALEC is far more likely to meet and greet sympathetic state legislators at one of its famously lavish, fully hosted "legislative affairs conventions."

This is where the "exchange" part of the American Legislative Exchange Council is "exchanged." In some distant think tank bunker -- long before the "convention" even begins -- the oligarchs have ordered their minions to prepare "proposed legislation," that is, to prepare fully complete legislative "bills" which can be introduced effortlessly by the "sympathetic" state legislators who have become even more "sympathetic" amid all the wining and dining at the big ALEC "doin's," not to mention the theoretically unspoken promise of substantial campaign contributions.

ALEC is designed to be the "ultimate middle man." Corporations are understandably "gun shy" about visiting the Round House in the light of day, check books in hand, so ALEC handles the dirty work for them. After purchasing a nice clutch of promisingly cooperative state legislative Republicans, ALEC disappears from public sight. The "fix" is in. The anti-democracy rerouting of public funds is underway.

[MeanMesa has posted about ALEC NM before. ALEC NM - Anti-Democracy in the High Desert]

Introducing Albuquerque to 

DAILY KOS

For political junkies such as MeanMesa, Daily KOS merits an eager, daily visit. If you would like to visit the site yourself, just click on this link: http://www.dailykos.com/. You will find a truly refreshing treatment of many of the major news stories unfolding in the country. Although it presents an unabashedly liberal slant in its articles, you will enjoy both its editorial honesty and the thoughtful depth typically found in Daily KOS reporting.

MeanMesa suspects that most Americans have abandoned the alphabet networks by this time, and while this list may certainly begin with Murdoch's FOX, it now solidly includes ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and much of MSNBC. So far as the "informed electorate" goes, we're flying blind.

The excellent Daily KOS reporting which follows is presented in its entirety. While you read it, bear in mind these thoughts about ALEC and the twisted, tormented route the ALEC Republicans in the New Mexico state government seem to take as they wheedle away funds from the place where legislators thought they were putting them to somewhere else.

Think about precisely where that "somewhere else" might be on your way to the polls in November. At the moment, these pikers think that they're doing just great.

Daily KOS

WED MAY 21, 2014 AT 12:51 PM PDT

Susana Martinez' PED May Owe Districts 

Millions for Special Education

by Boogiemania

[Link to the original Daily KOS article  here.]

Monday night a crowd of worried teachers and parents converged on the APS administrative building in uptown Albuquerque. Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) Superintendent Winston Brooks had convened a special public forum to discuss the proposed APS response to a ruling that the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) violated federal law in 2011-2012 by reducing special education funding from 2009 levels. At the forum, attended by other superintendents and legislators (but notably no state employees), Brooks revealed his plan to ask Arnie Duncan to require the state to create a payment plan to reimburse all the school districts that have been meeting their obligations to special education students. (PDF of APS presentation)

The metaphorical milk has been spilled in more ways than one. On May 8, Judge O'Hair ruled that the PED's argument had no merit, and the state would lose $34.12 million dollars in federal funding, an equivalent amount to the appropriation the state should have made in that year. This is only the beginning of the story; the state has continued to fund special education at the lower levels, despite repeated warnings about losing federal education subsidies. Indeed, the loss of subsidies is non-negotiable; the law is clear that no alternative is permitted.

Federal law on Maintenance of Effort (MOE) is pretty simple (click images for full size). The state must appropriate funds for special education equal to or more than the funds spent the previous fiscal year. Local school districts must spend funds on special education equal to or more than what was spent the previous year. APS and several other districts in New Mexico have kept their side of the bargain—keeping special education funding—mostly by dipping into the general education fund. During the year in question that meant that all Albuquerque students in the system were shorted about $8.8 million (and indeed APS lost hundreds of jobs during this time).

Gutting Special Needs Education - the timeline [image source]

[Take a moment to expand this chart in a new window and take a close look. The story told here is worth knowing.]

The unacknowledged truth (hinted at during the public forum) is that Governor Martinez—and her unconfirmed Secretary-Designate Hanna Skandera—dropped the ball administratively and don't want to acknowledge their mistake. Indeed, the state's response is to file a lawsuit against the government (draining away even more special education dollars in attorney's fees). The state PED started cutting special education funding in response to the recession, and the Department of Education granted a waiver for the first year, when the state was in a desperate cash crunch. In subsequent years the economy has recovered somewhat, but Governor Susana Martinez's education department has continued to fund special education at lower levels, claiming that the year for which the waiver was granted should have set a new baseline.

Superintendent Brooks' sensible and creative response to what has become a chronic problem ("darn near criminal" according to one insider at the forum; "verging on malfeasance" according to another), is to ask Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan to force the state to pay the school districts back the millions they failed to appropriate. One activist parent, Katie Stone, recommended that they incorporate language to put the New Mexico PED under a corrective action plan, which won warm applause from the crowd, and will probably be included in the draft presented to the school board tonight for approval.

The legislators present, Representative Mimi Stewart and Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto, were quick to point out that they were the ones who had inadvertently discovered what PED was doing, and how many years this problem had gone unaddressed. They assured the crowd that the legislature is now fully aware of the issue and that the most recent budget had appropriated supplemental funds to meet MOE for last year and this year but that they ultimately fell far short of the underfunding.

Whether it was malice or neglect that caused this administrative failure, the most disabled children did not suffer the consequences. It's been the top 90% of students—and particularly the top 5%—who have felt the repercussions. Gifted students, who are part of the special education program under state law, have seen more barriers to entry and less reliable service. The reason became somewhat clearer at the meeting (although the APS people would not address this directly). Federal funds for special education are earmarked for students with disabilities so they counted toward MOE expenditures, but could not be used for gifted, so the district's solution has been to provide fewer services to fewer children (which may explain Governor Martinez' claim that the state doesn't have to spend so much money because the number of special education children needing services has dropped).

Other issues that were raised at the meeting hint at a broader tangle of problems at PED that needs to be unwound. Governor Martinez wants to see most of the money "below the line," meaning that her department has discretion over the expenditure of funds. The school districts and parents were vocal about wanting the funds "above the line," and earmarked for specific programs. One of the problems with tracking the MOE expenditures has been that education spending has become steadily less transparent under Martinez' administration.

During her public comment period, Ms. Stone mentioned that the root of the education funding problem in New Mexico is the root of many other issues, including oil spills and nuclear leaks, namely that Governor Martinez has allowed employment vacancies to undermine the function of the government. Like the critically understaffed environment department, 50-75 positions in the PED go unfilled.

It's hard to see how Governor Martinez can equate the obstinate, ideological malfeasance of her education department with making educational achievement the cornerstone of her current gubernatorial campaign. Susana Martinez craves a national stage where she can trumpet her educational achievements and her conservative credentials. The special education funding fiasco is something she would like to see swept under the rug and tied up in endless appeals and arbitration until she is re-elected in November.

In trying to shortchange the most needy of our students, she ended up hurting the majority of students in the state, including the highest achieving. In trying to save money on the backs of disabled children, she is costing the state untold millions in fines and legal fees. Rather than taking responsibility for the actions of her administration, she is doubling down, going on the offensive—and still not funding special education at mandatory levels.

Tonight, the Albuquerque Board of Education will discuss the letter to Secretary Duncan and decide whether to press ahead with recovering funds for our students.

If you are an Albuquerque resident and read this story today, contact your school board member and ask them to support a repayment plan as well as a corrective action plan for PED.

If you are anywhere in New Mexico, contact your school board and ask them what their response is going to be. Contact your US Senators and Representatives to ask them to lean on Secretary Duncan. Write the press, tell your friends and let teachers know how much PED has been shortchanging them. The press has been reluctant to pick up on this story, so it's up to people who care about adequate funding for kids to make a stink.

Thu May 22, 2014 at 6:05 PM PT: Update: the final letter was approved by the board for everyone to sign and send to Arnie Duncan, including a new section regarding a corrective action plan.

See:

http://www.aps.edu/...

Thanks to everyone who has supported this issue by spreading the word! Now we need to get our legislators to support the plan too!

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO BOOGIEMAMA ON WED MAY 21, 2014 AT 12:51 PM PDT.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY NEW MEXICO KOSSAKS.

© Kos Media, LLCSite content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified

“Kos” and “Daily Kos” are registered trademarks of Kos Media, LLC

[Links transferred from the original article remain enabled.]

A Final Note

Trying to influence the legislative action in the Round House can be a tricky business. A few of us may be "connected" to NM State legislators willing to stand up to this sort of business, and there are, actually, Representatives and Senators in Santa Fe who might be inclined to act in the public interest on such matters, but MeanMesa is saddened to concede that these men and women will comprise only a minority.

In a State already crippled by the crushing poverty of the 2008 Great Republican Recession resources for the legislative budget are tight amid what is now widely considered to be a "double dip" impact. However, these factors do not present an excuse for subverting lawful allocations of resources for public education.

If we can't find the money for public education, it's already past time to figure out why.

The special needs requirements are not discretionary spending. The NM plan to handle this part of the education funding has threads running to the Federal Department of Education. Eliminating this Department is one of the favorites of the drooling right wingers' "policy platforms" for "reducing the size of government and lowering taxes." [Read a sample  here.]

The budget for this part of the State's public education commitment is not to be left unattended for the ALEC GOP "schemers," although it appears that this is exactly where we are now.

While it is unlikely that the scam reported in the Daily KOS article can be stopped or even mitigated in the foreseeable future, just remember that the money which is NOT going to special needs education is still, in fact, GOING SOMEWHERE.

"No Choice" Outsiders Import Phony "Christian" Sharia to Subjugate Albuquerque Women

The Psycho Reality

of NM's "No Choice" Army From Kansas

Normally, MeanMesa is a very genteel, soft spoken sort of blog, but in this instance a tiny bit of the old fire has found a home in these geriatric bones.  When that tantalizing fragrance of bodies burning on the stake and that alluring thud of stones "redeeming" a fallen woman reach these old nose and ears, the exquisitely simple thought of "enough is enough" seems to become an inescapable conclusion.

Enough is enough.  Give me a break,

The holy army of "Christian Love." (image source)

Of course, we have all seen the medieval depths to which our neighboring state, that is, Kansas, has plunged in its faux Old Testament legislative "tent  revival," but oozing that fetid ancient hatred and fear into Albuquerque is, well, the "enough" part of...

"enough is enough."

There are plenty of single issue "no choice" voters in Albuquerque -- more than enough to slide this regurgitated, imported, legislative trash onto a local ballot.  There is also a more than adequate cess pool of political cynicism on the suspiciously ALEC controlled -- now sporting an unelected Republican majority -- city council to shoe horn this monstrosity into a cravenly scheduled single issue election most likely to be held very, very, extremely, quietly on a day lost amid the long dreary doldrums of a New Mexico November chill.

It's nothing new. This is a "perfect wave" of the same old, sickening, ALEC machinations that are designed to ram pre-written, "contracted" laws straight from wing nut think tanks down the throats of a distracted electorate.  Quite aside from the local "no choice" band wagon, this same outfit brought the "stand your ground law" to Florida just in time for the killer, Zimmerman, to do his handiwork.  

ALEC is writing state laws so fast that you'd think you were reading a roll of toilet paper -- "sponsored" laws to disenfranchise registered voters, break unions and cut public education spending in two dozen states.  The anti-democracy, ALEC cracker running Michigan is trying to auction off the contents of the Detroit Museum of Fine Art to his billionaire cronies for a dime on the dollar.

Disabuse yourselves of any lingering possibility that these Kansan "vaginal control carpet baggers" have any shade of legitimacy in their origins.  The corporate sponsors are in control of ALEC, and ALEC is essentially in direct control of the State of Kansas, now pumping, under direct ALEC orders no doubt, car loads of equally crazed anti-abortion zealots into Albuquerque.

And in New Mexico the state wide and Bernalillo County GOP ALEC gangs are salivating over the prospect of injecting themselves even further into the local government in Albuquerque -- an action in direct contradiction to the majority Party affiliations seen in the votes in Albuquerque elections.  The NM Catholic Bishops are "carrying the water" for these smelly, rag tag invaders.

"Operation Rescue?" Abortion, Inc.

The puppet masters who are pulling the strings on this rolling gypsy passion play LOVE abortion, anti-abortion, early term abortion, late term abortion, rape and incest abortion -- or, no rape and incest abortion,  the shimmering violence of burning abortion clinics and the bullet riddled corpses of abortion doctors assassinated in their church pews.  All this high drama stuff is the proprietary work product of "Abortion, Inc." think tanks.

This is a hack political career opportunity for them -- just keep the single issue hill billies frothing at the mouth, do a little cynical gerrymandering and your client "candidate" will be in office for all eternity -- regardless of the voters.

Sometimes, while pondering the nature of the "home nest" of these state-to-state travelling trailer park weirdos, our fantasy fixes on a serene monastery at the top of some mountain or a hard working crowd in a busy community organizing office deep in some city.  Forget it.  The home office of "Abortion Inc." is in the board room of some billionaire's "hobby lobby" or the tactics room of some combo lawyer/PR firm.

It's all business.

Above the rank of second lieutenant in this organization none of these busy little hate merchants has ever worried a single moment about a fetus.  They know that the franchise operation that signs their pay checks sells boiling hot or, perhaps, hysterically sobbing, anti-abortionists of every possible ilk who can be used to populate their heavily subsidized "protest rallies,"  you know, the ones where 100 people show up in buses with pre-printed signs to parade their "spontaneous outrage" in front of 200 television cameras which were also furnished by the franchise.

Think of them as something similar to the tea bags, but the owners of "Abortion, Inc." know better than to let any of the "bus riding little people" do the spelling.

Facing Facts

Fact 1:  For the mortally wounded, heavily soiled, NM state GOP anti-abortion zealots are a dependable bloc of base voters which requires astonishingly little maintenance. MeanMesa is a close acquaintance with one of these dependable "walking ballots."  

Her vote is a sure thing.  It will be right there -- regardless of a candidate's campaign, record, abilities or anything else -- on election day.  This friend has a shocking antipathy to any information about the US economy, US foreign policy, US Congressional activity and even today's reports of US weather patterns, but when a drawling cracker utters the words "anti-abortion," he can count on her vote.

Fact 2:  The Bishops have a gigantic stake in this election issue.  They may be fairly quiet in the public commercial airwaves, but sitting deep in their fully funded, tax exempt cloisters they can see the writing on the wall.  The congregation populations in their parishes decline year after year, and their historically suffocating authority over "the faithful" is in tatters.

For example, an estimated 80% of Catholic women in New Mexico routinely use "Liturgically prohibited" birth control.

The Romans have shown no hesitation in forming an "unholy" pact with any politician or religion willing to assist their authoritarian anti-abortion, anti-gay agenda.  After all, during the medieval propaganda extravaganza in California's Proposition 8, the Bishops eagerly added their "campaign contributions" to the Mormon's envelope.

The Roman tactical frenzy in that affair was so apoplectic that none of them showed any remorse for the fact that Pope Urban II was probably turning over in his grave at the alliance.

Fact 3:  The title of this post includes the term "Sharia."  This is not merely an inconsequential product of MeanMesa's over indulgent, geriatric, strident hyperbole.

Sharia Law -- among many other echoes of the Dark Ages -- contains an extensive collection of Islamic "woman control" tenets.  While the focus is very purposefully directed at fetuses in the public discourse of the anti-abortionists, we find an expanded interest lurking just below that odious surface.

The sheep herding patriarchs who cooked up this scheme wanted to a.) preserve the dominant authority of their tribal roles and b.) maintain and reaffirm social authority over the sexual lives of all those in their tribal domains.  The anti-abortion incendiaries are meant to prepare the way for forcing all sexual activity into conformance with Old Testament Mosaic law under judicial enforcement.

In the Bishop's dreams a legally enforced policy of no condoms, no birth control and no abortions builds a fence within which there will be no sex without their patriarchal approval.  The control of sex presents an opportunity for the ultimate preservation of this patriarchal authority.  Beyond the Romans it can be violently promoted by the wildly insecure Wahabists in Saudi Arabia or simply by the dirty shirt preachers from the fields of Kansas, the game -- and the goal -- is the same.

No Problem.  We know how to control women. (image source)

Uttering these forbidden thoughts so openly is -- suspiciously -- considered an almost unforgivable social faux pas in modern culture, but MeanMesa very comfortably "steps up to the plate," as usual.

Albuquerque's Young Men Have a "Dog in This Fight"

MeanMesa is posting these thoughts here as a result of being contacted by a telephone call from RESPECT ABQ WOMEN, the local organization which is working to make certain this wretched proposal doesn't become law by winning an election. [Visit the RESPECT ABQ WOMEN web site by following this link.]

If you happen to be a "non-celibate" Albuquerque young man, go help them out with their public contact campaign. There's no real need to explain why YOU might be working in your own personal interests, not to mention participating in the wider democratic process for your neighbors and your city.

Think of it this way.  If you've met the anti-abortion lady carrying the ultra gross,  super sized, full color poster, squealing like Joshua's trumpet at Jericho and passing out nearly incomprehensible tracts, understand that this is the same woman who wants the law -- her version of what's "right" for you -- to control your choices if you and your girlfriend ever wind up needing one.




The right wing's "war on women" can very easily become a "war on you." Just as much as these -- religious or political -- derelicts from the past are obsessed with controlling women, they are equally obsessed with controlling you.

Make sure that you are registered to vote in this election.

The date for this vote has not been set.  This is straight from the ALEC play book.  If a lot of Albuquerque citizens go the polls, this abortion control law will lose.  If hardly voters any turn out, it will be approved by a few dozen of the "faithful," but it will become law for everyone living here.

The Supreme Court ruled that your girlfriend -- and you -- have legal access to safe, medical abortion if and when you need it, but the Supreme Court, now populated by a majority of wing nut Bush W. political creatures and a majority of Catholics, cannot be counted on to protect your rights.

The current Supreme Court cannot even be counted on to support its previous decisions -- especially not if cash and political favors are involved.  Don't be hypnotized into automatically thinking that you and your girlfriend have access to family planning services -- including abortion.  The anti-abortion thugs from Kansas have other plans for you two.  In their dream the law and the courts will force you to live in accordance to their barely Biblical religious ideas.

Stand with our New Mexico women.  They cannot successfully face this challenge without our active support and active participation.  Fundamentalists, regardless of which religion or which issue, are brutal, functioning on an alien value system, and this is no exception.

Please Send These Crazies Back to Kansas

See, people in Kansas like folks like this bunch.  Folks in Kansas think it's just swell to send this pack of Biblical thugs anywhere that will have them.

It's not.

Defeating this ballot initiative will be worth a thousand words.  The first four of those thousand words will be:

No thanks.

Go home.

Additional Reading

The New York Times has covered the Operation Rescue scam in Albuquerque.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/us/albuquerque-becomes-latest-focal-point-in-abortion-wars.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/28albuquerque.html

Here's what the "pro-life" ["no choice"] bunch has on their site.

http://www.prolifenm.com/2013/08/the-abortion-issue-remains-front-and.html

This is a previous post from MeanMesa concerning ALEC New Mexico.

ALEC NM: Anti-Democracy in the High Desert