Home Page | Bullets List
Previous | Next

BUFFETT'S BULLET 45
FEBRUARY 4, 1994

During the second week of the legislative session, different things happen. When you add them all together it is very easy to see how the Democrats control the state and why we are 48th in average income.

First on Tuesday we had Business Day in Santa Fe sponsored by these business groups:

For this they had a luncheon at the Sweeney Convention Center for legislators. The business people had buses to take the legislators there. The meal was very good. The Republican house leaders were there. No Democrat house leaders showed up to sit at the head table, even though Governor King was seated at the head table. The Senate, controlled by Democrats, met right straight through the meal, so none of their leaders, Republicans or Democrats showed up. There were business leaders from all over the state there.

In fact, the organizer had turned down business people because it appeared they were sold out.

Very few Democrat House members attended. This was a major slap at the tax-paying business community.

I found out later the reasons for this slap were 2-fold:

1. For the past several years, business groups have been rating the legislature and the Democrats, on the whole, have been rated very low.

2. Last year on Business Day the business groups had the president of Mesa Airlines give the talk. His talk roasted the Democrat leadership in Santa Fe for being bad for business.

On Wednesday we were told we were to have a joint session of the Senate and the House so we could hear from the Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Chairs were brought in and set up. We had judges in attendance from all over the state. All different rankings of judges from Supreme Court justices, judges of the Court of Appeals, District Court judges and many other judges. A lot of judges even had their wives with them. Judges here, judges there, judges every where.

This is the first time in my 16 years I have seen this happen. What happened: The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Ransom gave a 30-minute lecture about how the legislature should give the court system more money. They asked for only an $81 Million increase in their budget!

All this made me wonder about two things:

1) If he had not been a Democrat and former president of the trial lawyers, of which Speaker Sanchez and Senate President Pro tem Aragon are members, would he have been allowed to speak?? (LOBBY THE WHOLE LEGISLATURE!)

2) Why don't the Democrats in the legislature show the same courtesy to the business community? After all both the jobs for our citizens and the taxes to run our government come from the business community. Without those we wouldn't even have a state!

Another thing that happened this week: the capital outlay committee started working. When Speaker Raymond is elected, he appoints the Committee Chairmen as well as each committee member. He makes the Democratic Whip Ben Lujan the Chairman of the capital outlay committee. Ben is one of the smartest and toughest Democrats in Santa Fe. It is his job as whip to get the votes for anything the Democrat leaders want. As chairman of the capital outlay committee, he can stop anyone from getting any construction for their district. Even the most conservative legislator must come to see him if they want something for their district. They soon understand that it is wise to vote the way Ben suggests. If they don't go home to most districts with bacon -- they probably will not be reelected again. It is very simple, very efficient and very political. However, it is not quite what they teach in high school civics.

This committee (capital outlay) started to meet this week. The committee within three weeks, will determine whose capital outlay projects are passed. This committee will spend over $300 million. Everyone in this subcommittee has always voted to support Raymond Sanchez as the speaker of the house. During this time everyone who needs capital projects will be on their best behavior.

The other committee that is used to control house members is the Appropriation Committee. The Chairman of Appropriations, Max CoIl, is appointed by Speaker Sanchez.

The Democrat leadership controls the Democrat troops and even some Republicans, by pushing or stopping their pet bills in the Appropriation Committee. In this committee, there are 14 Democrats with Max Coil as Chairman and four GOP members including this writer. We hear budgets for state agencies for three weeks in subcommittee.

Included in these budgets are spending for state government in all areas of the state. For universities and schools all over the state, for fish hatcheries, prisons, highway districts, state police officers, district court, district attorneys, state hospitals, Crime Stoppers, commissions, museums, symphonies, Santa Fe opera....you name it, it's there.

Usually every agency wants more money. We hear exactly the same tale all the time. All agencies say they are doing a good job but they could do a lot better job if only they had a little more money!

We listen to what the governor wants for his agencies and what the Legislative Finance Committee recommends for the agencies. Then we choose between these two recommendations. We usually take the smaller one. That is the start of the budget. After this happens, we have a day called "Catch-up, cleanup." This year it was Thursday, January 28.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 8:30 A.M. and started on time. Legislative committees never start on time. It had 214 items on the agenda dealing with $60 Million. A person could soon tell the main D's were reading from a script. It went fast. At 10:00 a.m. we stopped and went to the floor session. We went back to committee at 1:15 p.m. and were finished by three o'clock. For 214 items we only had a show of hands five times. Many items were cut out completely. Some were cut in half and others got everything that was requested. One person on the committee was called upon to tell about each item. Some people got called upon often, some none. There was almost no debate on 214 items and only 5 recorded votes. The rest ayes and nays and Max saying the "ayes have it." It was smooth, real smooth!

Someone told me the Democrats came in at 7:30 a.m. to rehearse it and they had also discussed it the week before. When it was finished, the big spending bill for the state was finished in Appropriations Committee and $2,533 Billion had been spent). A lot of special items were in the budget. For example:

1) $30,000 for Mora County legal services
2) $30,000 for Eunice Magistrate Court
3) $20,000 for substance abuse in Bernalillo School District
4) $20,000 for Battered Women's program in Rio Arriba
5) two full-time employees in the Office of Indian Affairs.

All of these, and many, many more ensured that Democrat legislators would support the programs that Manny and Ray want. At four o'clock that same day the Democrats held their major caucus. Following that the Democrats announced at a 6:30 evening press conference what the tax cuts would be for our businesses and every citizen of the state. Less than 20% of the $300 Million in surplus taxes was available to give back to the citizens in the form of tax cuts. Democrats also kept the gas tax at 6 cents, suspending 2 cents of it for three years even though most business groups and the public want it repealed entirely.

Democrat legislators are keeping your taxes for pork and jobs in their district. They think it is the only key to getting reelected.

Another interesting lesson happened when the Appropriation Committee met the last two weeks. It seems that the Union affiliated with the state-run Miners' Hospital in Raton are having a union drive among the employees.

The hospital administrator did not think that the union was following the right process for its drive and so was not cooperating. One of the state representatives from that area had the union official appear before the committee eighteen days ago. This union leader said how badly the Miners' Hospital had treated the unions. On the final Thursday when the budget was approved in Appropriations Committee, the major Democrats talked about how they may have to cut 50% from the Miners' Hospital budget because they were fighting the unions.

It was "suggested" that the state representative from the Raton area and the Governor's representative leave the room to work "something" out that was acceptable to the unions. They came back later with a written statement from the governor's office, giving the unions exactly what they wanted. (See Insert.) The Miners' Hospital full budget was then approved in full. This is the first time I have seen this happen so openly. I do not think it will be the last time. I think my Swedish grandfather would have said, "Something's rotten in Denmark." It was smooth.

The above examples are why the business climate won't improve at all until we elect a lot more Republicans. It is not like it was 25 years ago when people were freer to vote their political beliefs.

Sincerely,

George Buffett

P. S. In spite of what I have described above, I still believe that the system of government we have is the best anywhere. The only problem is whom we elect. New Mexico will not change as long as we elect union-endorsed trial lawyers and their followers. Is there any business group out there smart enough to understand what goes on in Santa Fe and strong enough to withstand the pressure to elect pro-business people?

I almost forgot.....send more new subscribers' names and addresses to add to the Bullets' list.

Previous | Next
Home Page | Bullets List