Senator Siah Correa Hemphill is up for reelection in her district that encompasses her hometown of Silver City. She’s an active member of the legislature as a member of two standing committees and six interim committees. But she decided against running again, citing monetary and familial costs.
“There were several times where I would leave the house at four in the morning and drive several hours – six, seven hours to a committee, chair the committee for eight to nine hours, and then drive all the way home,” she said.
“My son, he’s 17 now, won the state championship for mountain biking last year, and I hardly had time to go to his races. And I have a son who was born with a genetic syndrome, he had bone cancer when he was four and he was born with a lot of physical differences. He had to have bladder surgery right before the session. It was really challenging being available to him and making sure he recovered well after his surgery. The time away from family is certainly a huge sacrifice, but also being away from earning money and being able to earn retirement, all of those were big sacrifices.”
The freshman senator said she was actually losing money to serve, and argued that establishing a salary for legislators would help bring in more working-class citizens to represent their communities without having to worry about juggling legislative work with a full time job.
“If we really want to address the root cause for a lot of the social problems that have historically plagued New Mexico, we have to make sure that those voices are elevated. And we do that by investing in our legislature, making sure that our lawmakers have the resources and have the staff to be able to serve their constituents in an equitable way.”
The legislators in New Mexico are not paid a salary, they are paid on a per-diem basis based on when the session is happening, and how many miles that they must travel across the state to get to Santa Fe. But otherwise, they’re not paid for the actual legislative work that they do, and some lawmakers say that these reimbursements aren’t enough to cover the costs of a 30 or 60-day legislative session.
But not all lawmakers see it the same way. Representative Jim Townsend said the Legislative Retirement Plan paid to New Mexico’s lawmakers is already sufficient to compensate the state’s elected officials.
“If you look at education, if you look at crime, if you look at statistics of New Mexico, the legislature has not performed very good. And nor has the executive. I mean, we have a history of nonperformance.
“I don't mean to be hypercritical on it. It's a hard process. I get it. But I think to me, the biggest deal is that there is a very lucrative retirement package. The legislative retirement plan is funded primarily by out of state royalties that come back into the state of New Mexico. So it’s a good deal for legislators. I think it’s a reasonable deal for taxpayers.”
The retirement plan, which is optional for legislators, requires a contribution of $1,000 per year, with eligibility for normal retirement after 10 years. In its current state, a retiring legislator of 10 years would receive a pension of roughly $29,000 per year.
Additionally, in an effort to modernize the legislature, New Mexico’s Legislative Council this summer unanimously adopted a policy that allows legislators to hire full-time staff members. Townsend said that while he’s not in favor of the measure, he’s going to use it.
“I didn’t vote for it. Probably wouldn’t vote for it again, but I’m going to utilize it because my constituents deserve the best possible representation that I can afford [to] them.”
But proponents of hiring paid staff say the new influx of workers will help balance the power within the state government. Dr. Michael Rocca is a political science researcher and directs the University of New Mexico’s Public Policy Master’s Program, and explained that more resources and longer sessions for legislators could shift power away from the governor’s office as well as special interest groups.
“One of the most important jobs that [the legislature] does, besides providing representation to the people of New Mexico, is checking the executive branch,” Rocca said. “The state legislature is at a disadvantage compared to other states on things like being able to push back against the executive branch, pushing back against interest groups and lobbyists. But also it puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to writing and creating innovative new policies.”
For Dr. Rocca, increasing staff, expanding the number of days in session, and adding salary to the state’s legislature is what’s needed to reform New Mexico’s areas of struggle, including education, housing, and child welfare.
“While it’s not going to solve all our problems, I think helping our legislature and providing them with the resources that they need, is a step in the right direction when it comes to getting the policies that we need,” he said. “The policy challenges that face our state today need legislators who have the resources to solve those problems. It’s just too complicated, I feel like the state itself has outgrown that citizen legislature.”
Representative Angelica Rubio has represented New Mexico’s House District 35 for the last seven years. For that whole time, she’s advocated for paying state legislators, and the idea has been gaining momentum.
“I think the misconception is that Rep. Rubio wants a salary, where my intention is that I just want to pass this legislation and move on. It's really an issue around democracy that we just need to be able to allow more people that have lived experiences in our community to be able to serve.
"I have student loans. I’m a renter. I'm never going to be able to afford to buy a home. And I think this is a reality that a lot of people experience on a day-to-day basis. We are able to provide some insight on what public policy should look like, but we're being left out of that process because we're not provided a salary to do this work.”
Even if the legislation does pass during the next session, it would mean the beginning of a long process that wouldn’t see legislators receiving a salary until at least 2028.
“For the last couple of years, we have introduced a constitutional amendment in the House that does two things. One, it removes the prohibition around us not being able to receive a salary. And then the second thing is that voters would have an opportunity to decide if we should create a commission that would establish salaries,” Rubio said. “That is our goal this next year, is that we do get to have this debate in the Senate, because I don’t think we’ve been provided that opportunity.”
During New Mexico’s most recent 60-day session,the amendment was passed by New Mexico’s House of Representatives in a 40-24 vote, but failed to reach the Senate Floor before the session’s close.
Next year, Rubio’s goal is to get a hearing from the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Joseph Cervantes. An attorney in Las Cruces, Cervantes said he’s in favor of bringing legislators paid staff as well as reforming session lengths. But the Senator said he’s skeptical of the legislation that would pave the way to bringing the state’s lawmakers a salary.
“It’s possible that we’d get a hearing in the Senate. I haven’t really followed the developments of that in the House. I just haven't ever seen that legislation get to a place where I think it may have some promise at large,” Cervantes said.
“Many of us took these positions knowing it was a public service and accepted that at the time and embraced that. And I continue to do so. I see this as my public service and so I think a lot of people understandably are concerned about taking a position as a public servant and then going to the public and saying, yeah, now I want you to pay me for it. And I think some are rightfully concerned that there would be a political backlash to that.”
Cervantes went on to say that he believes the legislature has been effective as a counterbalance to the executive branch, and that lawmakers that are reliant on salaries could end up causing more harm than good.
“The legislature of late has begun to really reassert its proper role as a check and balance on the executive branch. We've done so recently in the special session. We've done so with lawsuits against the executive where the legislature has prevailed consistently. So we have the authority, we have the responsibility. We have the oath to act as a check and balance. And whether you pay me or don't pay me, I'm going to do my job to the best of my ability. That's the oath I took.”
As New Mexico’s 60-day session approaches, the push for a paid legislature will continue. How far the amendment will make it is unclear, but with voices on both sides debating the implications, the question remains whether lawmakers will take the step toward approving their own compensation, or continue to navigate the challenges of serving without a salary.
