THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER
VOL. 2013-3
Published by the New Mexico Municipal League
March, 2013
2013 League District Meetings are Scheduled Statewide
The New Mexico Municipal League has scheduled 2013 District Meetings across the state. The meetings give municipal
officials the opportunity to find out what happened during this year’s 60-day legislative session. Also on each meeting’s agenda is a
presentation by the New Mexico Self Insurers’ Fund and election of League District Directors in odd-numbered districts.
The following are the dates and locations for each District Meeting:
Monday, April 1
District #1
Cibola County Court House
Convention Room
515 West High Street
Grants, NM
(505) 287-9431
Tuesday, April 2
District #8
Hilton Garden Inn
1771 Rio Rancho Blvd.
Rio Rancho, NM
(505) 896-1111
Wednesday, April 3
District #2
Angel Fire Community Center
15 CS Ranch Road
Angel Fire, NM
(575) 377-1544
Thursday, April 4
District #3
Plaza Hotel
230 Plaza
Las Vegas, NM
(505) 425-3591
Friday, April 5
District #4
Tucumcari Convention Center
1500 West Route 66
Tucumcari, NM
(575) 461-3064
(Continued on page 2)
Next Wave of State Minimum Wage Proposals Would ‘Index’ to Inflation
By Pamela M. Prah, Stateline Staff Writer
At least 10 states are considering raising their minimum wages even as President Obama's proposal to increase the federal
standard is stuck in Washington's political quagmire. In one of those states, New Jersey, voters rather than legislators will decide the
issue. A measure that will be on the ballot this fall would increase the state’s minimum wage by $1, to $8.25.
The New Jersey measure also would take politicians out of future hourly wage increases by including automatic annual
adjustments for inflation, known as "indexing."
Obama endorsed indexing when he pressed for a $9 federal minimum wage in his State of the Union address: “Here’s an
idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year—let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally
becomes a wage you can live on.”
(Continued on page 3)
2013 District Meetings . . . continued from page 1
Tuesday, April 9
District #7
T or C Civic Center
Ralph Edwards Auditorium
400 West 4th Ave.
T or C, NM
(575) 894-6673
Wednesday, April 10 District #6
Granado Street Bar & Grill
Tulie Cantina
313 Granado Street
Tularosa, NM
(575) 585-3100
Thursday, April 11
District #5
Roswell Convention Center
912 North Main Street
Roswell, NM
(575) 624-6860
For more information and registration, visit www.nmml.org.
New Mexico Municipal League
P.O. Box 846
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-0846
(505) 982-5573
(505) 984-1392 fax
www.nmml.org
PRESIDENT
Mary Homan, Trustee – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Gloria Chavez, Mayor – Tijeras
VICE PRESIDENT
Linda Calhoun, Mayor – Red River
TREASURER
David Venable, Mayor – Cloudcroft
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Matt White, Mayor - Eunice
PAST PRESIDENTS
Barb Wiard, Mayor Pro Tem – Taos Ski Valley
Eddie A. Trujillo, Judge - Las Vegas
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ray Alborn, Mayor - Ruidoso
Cynthia Ann Bettison, Mayor Pro Tem – Silver City
Philip Burch, Mayor – Artesia
Rita Broaddus, Clerk/Treasurer - Magdalena
President, New Mexico Clerks & Finance Officers Association
Jack Chosvig, Mayor - Clayton
Angelina Cordova, Clerk/Treasurer - Logan
Darren Cordova, Mayor – Taos
Richard Cordova, Mayor – Eagle Nest
Robert Crone, Police Chief – Gallup
President, New Mexico Association of Chiefs of Police
Danny Cruz, Mayor – Springer
Dan Darnell, Mayor Pro Tem – Farmington
Linda Enis Franklin, Councilor - Deming
Rey Garduño, Councilor - Albuquerque
Steve Henderson, Councilor – Roswell
Alfonso Ortiz, Jr., Mayor – Las Vegas
David Redford, Municipal Judge - Carlsbad
President, New Mexico Municipal Judges Association
Jack Torres, Mayor - Bernalillo
Bryan Wall, Councilor – Gallup
Kelly Ward, Administrator – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque
President, New Mexico City Management Association
Editor .................................................................. William F. Fulginiti
Managing Editor .......................................................... Roger Makin
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THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER, March, 2013
Minimum Wage . . . continued from page 1
The current federal minimum wage, put in place in
2009, is $7.25 an hour.
If New Jersey voters approve the measure on the
ballot there, the state would become the 11th with annual
automatic increases to the minimum wage indexed to
inflation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana,
Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington already
index. In all of them except Vermont, voters approved the
measure with the automatic hike at the polls.
Minimum wage laws generally apply to all
employees in the private and public sector, although
employees covered by union contracts tend to get higher rates
than the state and federal minimum levels require. Some 120
cities have enacted “living wages” that require businesses that
receive city contracts to pay more, ranging from $9 to $16 an
hour. Maryland is the only state that has enacted a statewide
living wage that requires certain state contractors pay wages
between $9.39 and $12.49 an hour.
“Indexing is certainly the trend in
the states,” says Jen Kern, the minimum wage
campaign coordinator at the National
Employment Law Project, which advocates
for the poor. State minimum wage proposals
with indexing provisions are moving in
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New
Mexico, New York and Minnesota.
Politically Divisive but Popular Among
Voters
Nineteen states and the District of
Columbia already mandate an hourly wage
higher than the current federal $7.25 rate,
including populous states such as California,
Florida and Ohio. The states with the highest
minimum wages are Washington and Oregon,
which have wage floors of $9.19 and $8.95,
respectively.
The federal minimum wage is the law in
states that either have a lower minimum or
none at all. But states are free to set higher
floors than the federal government.
The first federal minimum wage was part of the Fair
Labor Standards Act, which President Franklin Roosevelt
signed in 1938. The law set a 25-cent-per-hour wage floor and
a 44-hour workweek ceiling for most employees. Except for
Social Security, Roosevelt said, the law was "the most farsighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted."
In recent decades, proposed increases in the federal
minimum wage have been politically divisive. But minimum
wage hikes at the state level have been popular among voters:
Since 1998, proposed increases have been on statewide ballots
10 times in nine states, and all of them were successful. In
those elections the ballot measures won an average of 65
percent of the vote, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy
Center, a progressive Washington, D.C., group that advocated
for the hikes.
THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER, March, 2013
In a February poll of New Jersey voters conducted by
Quinnipiac University, 76 percent of respondents supported
raising the minimum wage, including 55 percent of
Republicans.
New Jersey voters will take up the issue during an
election in which all 120 legislative seats and the governor’s
office will be up for grabs. The current governor, Republican
Chris Christie, in January vetoed a bill that would have
increased the minimum wage to $8.50. Instead, Christie called
for boosting the minimum wage by $1 over three years and
giving a 25 percent increase to the state’s Earned Income Tax
Credit.
Meanwhile, the Democratic governors of Hawaii,
Illinois and New York all called for a higher minimum wage
in their State of the State addresses this year, although none
specifically endorsed indexing.
Job Killer or Stimulus?
Obama and other proponents of a higher federal
minimum wage say that while companies are making record
profits, the lowest-paid workers have seen their
purchasing power plummet because the federal
wage floor hasn’t kept pace with inflation. If it
had, the hourly rate would be $10.59.
As supporters in New Mexico point
out, the average cost of a gallon of milk in that
state cost $2.69 in 2009, the last time the
federal rate went up. Now it’s $3.50. Gas was
$2.51 a gallon in 2009, and now it’s $3.52.
Putting more money into the pockets of
working families will boost local economies by
allowing these workers to spend more.
“Families are relying on low-wage
jobs more than ever. A stronger minimum wage
will help restore the consumer spending that
powers our economy and that local businesses
need in order to grow,” New Jersey Assembly
Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver said in a statement.
“A robust minimum wage is a key building
block of sustainable economic recovery.”
President Obama insists a higher
minimum wage will reduce poverty “without
measurably reducing employment.” He cited
research by University of Massachusetts
Amherst professor Arindrajit Dube, who examined minimum
wage effects across state borders and found little impact on
employment.
Leading Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate
have introduced legislation that would go even further than
the president’s plan: It would increase the minimum wage to
$10.10 an hour in three steps of 95 cents, and provide for
automatic annual increases linked to changes in the cost of
living.
But opponents, including Republican House Speaker
John Boehner, counter that in a fragile recovery raising the
minimum wage would spur employers to let some of their
employees go.
(Continued on page 4)
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Minimum Wage . . . continued from page 3
“Listen, when people are asking the question ‘Where
are the jobs?’ why would we want to make it harder for small
employers to hire people?” Boehner told reporters in February.
“I’ve got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the
economic ladder. I know about this issue as much as anybody
in this town.”
John Kabateck, executive director of the California
affiliate of the National Federation of Independent Businesses,
calls increasing the minimum wage is “a feel-good” policy
decision that will result in layoffs, higher prices for consumers
and fewer opportunities for employees entering the workforce.
A higher minimum wage also disproportionately
helps teenagers, not working adults, and does nothing to
reduce poverty, says the Employment Policies Institute. The
Washington-based think tank paid for a series of full-page ads
designed to combat what it calls the “myths" of the minimum
wage.
There is a “large body of economic research on the minimum
wage,” David Neumark of the University of California told the
Atlantic, “most of which shows that minimum wages reduce
employment for the least-skilled workers whom the
president’s proposal is intended to help.”
The National Restaurant Association has been an
outspoken opponent of a minimum wage hike, noting that 46
percent of restaurant workers who make the minimum wage
are teenagers. “Policymakers need to focus on expanding
payrolls; they should not take steps that hurt employers' ability
to hire,” the restaurant group said.
But some prominent businessmen have broken ranks
and publicly supported an increase. “We know it’s a lot more
profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and
maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty,”
Costco president Craig Jelinek said last week in a joint
statement with other business owners.
Andy Shallal, who owns several restaurants in the
Washington, D.C., area, says trade groups are trying to use
scare tactics to defeat an increase. “Don’t believe it when you
hear business will suffer if the minimum wage goes up. It will
help our economy grow and thrive,” he said.
Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center
on the States that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in
state policy.
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THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER, March, 2013
New Mexico Communities Nationally
Recognized for Stewardship Efforts
Several New Mexico communities have received
national recognition for their outstanding community forestry
programs through the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree
City USA program, according to New Mexico State Forestry
Urban and Community Forester Kelly Washburn.
“The Tree City USA program helps provide
direction, technical support, and national recognition for
community forestry programs across the country,” said
Washburn. “We’re very proud of the dedication these
communities have shown toward improving their quality of
life and placing such importance on showing how beneficial
trees can be.”
The following New Mexico communities were cited
for their dedication and participation in the national Tree City
USA program:
Roswell - 23 years
Kirtland Air Force Base - 13 years
Cannon AFB - 15 years
Holloman AFB - 10 years
Tucumcari - 14 years
Santa Fe - 4 years
San Jon - 14 years
Taos - 3 years
Las Vegas - 14 years
Carlsbad - 3 years
Clovis - 13 years
Corrales - 3 years
Red River - 1 year
The cities of Las Vegas and Roswell and the Town of
Taos also have received Tree City USA ‘Growth Awards’ for
their exemplary efforts to plan and properly manage the trees
within their communities.
Urban and community forests provide numerous
values to communities throughout New Mexico including
improved aesthetics, quality of life for community residents
and increased property values. Urban and community forests
provide numerous environmental benefits including reduction
of heat intensity and building energy use; reduced soil erosion
and storm water run-off; improved air quality and wildlife
habitat.
The New Mexico State Forestry Division’s Urban
and Community Forestry Program is dedicated to empowering
communities to develop and sustain their urban and
community forests for the benefit of their citizens and the
environment.
For information about Tree City USA and Urban and
Community Forestry, contact Kelly Washburn, New Mexico
State Urban and Community Forestry Program Manager at
(505) 476-3332 or email [email protected] .
THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER, March, 2013
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POSITIONS AVAILABLE
To check the municipal job opportunities click on
http://nmml.org/classifieds/positions-available/
Miscellaneous City Factoids
From NLC’s “Cities 101”
These facts are just too unique to categorize.
● The world's largest silver nugget (1,840 lbs.) was found near Aspen, Colorado in 1894.
● With a population of over half a million people, Baltimore City is treated more as a county in most respects
under state law. Baltimore City was originally established as a municipal corporation within Baltimore County. In
1851, the city separated itself from the county and since then has functioned as an independent unit of local
government.
● Detroit, Michigan has more theatre seats than any other city east of the Mississippi River, outside New York
City.
● Volleyball was invented in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1895.
● The longest main street in America is 33 miles long and is located in Island Park, Idaho.
● Seven lakes surround Knoxville, Tennessee: Cherokee, Douglas, Ft. London, Melton Hill, Norris, Watts Bar,
and Tellico.
● Mount Horeb, Wisconsin is home of the Mustard Museum.
● Parkersburg, West Virginia makes most of the country's glass marbles.
● The Girl Scouts were founded by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia in 1912.
● According to the U.S. Census, there are 87 populated places named Springfield. This includes variants such as
"Springfield Gardens" or "Springfield Crossing".
● Florida's smallest cities are Weekie Wachee (population: 8) and Marineland (population: 10).
● A total of 42 West Virginia cities are older than the state itself, incorporated in 1863.
● Ohio County, Indiana, is Indiana's smallest county in both area and population.
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THE MUNICIPAL REPORTER