By Nicole Maxwell
The state government is a three-legged stool with executive and judiciary branches paid while the legislative branch is unpaid.
This means the stool is unstable, according to Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque. That’s her reasoning behind sponsoring a Senate joint resolution aimed at creating a legislative salary commission.
“I just wanted to note that we have three co-equal branches of government in New Mexico: executive, judiciary, legislative. Because we only have professionalized two of those branches, they are not truly co-equal,” Duhigg said during the Senate Rules Committee meeting Wednesday morning. “One of [the] legs of our three-legged stool is cut off. [SJR 1] would professionalize our Legislature, make us a truly co-equal branch, and allow the Legislature to perform the really important oversight function that we are supposed to be performing that we truly can’t do.”
Duhigg and Sen. Natalie Figueroa, D-Albuquerque, presented the bill.
“This would create an independent citizen commission that would be responsible for establishing and limiting the salaries for legislators, so there would be no self dealing. We would not be involved in making those decisions about salaries,” Duhigg said.
Per diem and mileage would remain active, Duhigg said.
The commission would be made up of nine members of the public who would determine what they deem as an appropriate legislative salary and to adjust that salary periodically.
The political makeup would be no more than four members of one political party at the time of appointment.
The resolution is sponsored by Figueroa, Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, Rep. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, and Duhigg.
Currently, New Mexico legislators are not paid but they do receive a stipend and mileage for the session, interim meetings and other events around the state.
Related: Is this the year for a paid Legislature and open primaries?
Legislators can also earn retirement benefits based on age and years of service. These benefits are funded by oil and gas taxes, the resolution’s Fiscal Impact Report states.
If approved by both the House and Senate, the joint resolution would be put on the November 2028 general election ballot as a proposed constitutional amendment. Joint resolutions do not require the governor’s signature.
Initially, the ballot question would have been on the November 2026 ballot, but a substitute bill moved that ballot question to 2028 to allow the Legislature to work on enabling legislation over the following three legislative sessions, Duhigg said.
“This is a constitutional amendment. All the details about how everything will work are not and should not be in our Constitution. Those will come in the enabling legislation that comes afterwards,” Duhigg said.
Should voters approve the amendment, the commission would file its first report with the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office by Oct. 1, 2028.
The determined salaries would go into effect the following July, the report states.
“A recurring general fund appropriation for FY29 would then be needed. The exact cost of salaries for 112 legislators is unknown; but the cost of a base salary of $50,000, for instance, for a part-time legislator would be approximately $5.6 million annually. The long-term benefits of reducing corruption and improving policymaking may help offset those costs, however,” the Fiscal Impact Report states.
Republican committee members opposed the resolution because it did not include legislative term limits.
Duhigg and Figueroa said term limits are a different topic and the resolution is only about setting up a committee to determine legislative salaries.
The resolution passed on a 7-2 vote with Ranking Member Sen. James Townsend, R-Artesia, and Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, voting against it.
An important aspect of this evaluation is what is the current per diem, hotel costs, and cost of retirement funding (what portion is owed by the legislator.
They are elected positions whereby each knew there was no salary other than the stipend and mileage. They ran for the office knowing that so I don’t think they should get any more than the mileage and stipend for a 30 or 60 day yearly meeting. What happens when the state does not have money to pay them??? Raise our taxes???? My thoughts
This is an article I wrote on the subject three years ago. Retirement benefits after 10 years are even MORE generous today. If legislators want a salary, will they be willing to give up their fabulous defined benefit pension plan?
By Charles Sullivan
Sep 21, 2022
Although NM legislators are the only state legislators in the country not to receive a salary (they do receive a per diem living expense), if they serve at least 10 years, they receive a golden parachute retirement. This year, the legislators voted themselves an increase to an already extremely generous plan. The golden parachute is now made of platinum.
The primary statutes controlling legislators’ retirement pay are contained in NMSA 10-11-43.1 to NMSA 10-11-43.5. For a legislator who has served at least 10 years, his or her pension is computed by multiplying the IRS per diem for Santa Fe times 14% (increased this year from 11%) times 60 times years of service. After leaving, the former legislator may immediately begin receiving his pension – regardless of age It is common for former legislators in their 30s and 40s to begin receiving payments. NM is the only state in the country that has a legislator pension plan with no minimum age limit to begin receiving payments.
Here’s a hypothetical to show how generous the 10- year plan is. If you have high blood pressure, you may want to take your medication.
Male legislator begins service in 2009 and retires at the end of 2022 after 14 years. He will be 46 years old when he retires and has a life expectancy of 29.74 years. The IRS per diem for Santa Fe is $202. Legislator starts receiving his pension in 2023. We multiply $202 times 14% for $28.28. We next multiply $28.28 by 60 for $1696.80 We next multiply $1696.80 by the 14 years of service for an annual payment of $23,755.20. If we then multiply that number by a life expectancy of 29.74, we have a total of $706,479.65. Not too shabby. But wait. Notice that there is a cost-of- living provision in the statute. Using a spreadsheet with a first year payment of $23,755.20 and an annual cost of living increase of 3%, after 29.74 years retiree will have received an astonishing $1,115,608!
And how much did the legislator have to contribute to qualify for this regal retirement? He contributed $500 per year for 2009 through 2011 ($1500), plus $600 per year from 2012 through 2018 ($4200) and $1000 per year from 2019 through 2022 ($4000). So, for $9700, he may receive over one million dollars. King Midas would be jealous.
Whenever you hear anyone bemoaning the fact that our legislators do not receive a salary, remind that person of their extraordinary retirement plan. Also ask the person: “If our legislators start receiving a salary, will they be giving up their retirement plan?”
Sans salaries the only people who can run for office are the rich. Probably that’s deliberate.