A Lobbyist's Perspective on the NM 2021 Session
Jane Jernigan, NMUCA Lobbyist
Struggles with the 2021 legislature
o Limited communication to Phone, Email, or Testify in Committee for 60 seconds
o It is very frustrating as a lobbyist to be so limited on time and opportunity to educate legislators about an issue. To explain to them our concerns and how we believe it will effect our industry, our communities, and our state has been challenging this year.
o Without the meaningful input from the public, including lobbyists, we all must rely on legislators to be knowledgeable on hundreds of topics and their subsequent effects on our state. We can not expect our legislators to have adequate understanding on every issue that comes before them in order to make educated and comprehensive decisions.
o We will see some very bad policy coming out of this session.
· Business
o This legislative body is extremely anti-business. The attitude towards adding more and more burdens on businesses is that “it’s the cost of doing business.” Legislators believe that business have an unlimited supply of funds to pay more taxes, more wages, more claims, and spend more to fund policies and social programs. There are not enough business friendly legislators to stop a lot of these things from happening, and, again, very limited opportunity for the public to educate the legislators on the potential effects of their votes.
o Industry lobbyist are still working together on issues but it’s still limited to electronic communications and a few online meetings.
How You Can Help
o This is the session where you need to participate by reaching out to legislators. We have essentially been locked out of the process, so with our distant voices we must try to be heard.
o Updates – you should be receiving a report on Mondays called the Monday Morning Brief. This is a summary of the previous week and a preview of the upcoming week.
o You should be receiving "Call to Actions" where I ask you to contact legislator about bills that are being heard. It's easy to do; I provide all the information you need.
o Tracking – in the Monday Morning Brief – is viewable as a link to the NMUCA tracker. This is a list of bills we are watching or actively lobbying for or against.
o Some legislation is repeatedly supported or opposed, for example:
- We support funding for infrastructure
- We support matching funds for federal programs for clean water and waste water infrastructure
- We support capital outlay reform and transparency
- We support business friendly proposals but review carefully before endorsing
- We oppose anti-business legislation
- We oppose mandates on businesses
- We oppose legislation that would impede on the success and safety or our industry.
· Legislation
o A lot of mandates on businesses being passed including family leave, sick pay, PTO, minimum wage, insurance requirements etc.
o Legislators seemed to be placing the burdens of COVID 19 on the shoulders of our small businesses.
