Roch, Woods address issues to county leaders

link Colin Taylor (left), superintendent of San Jon schools, and Aaron

McKinney, superintendent of Tucumcari schools, discuss education

issues with state Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, at a breakfast

meeting with Woods and state Rep. Dennis Roch sponsored

by the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce.

By Steve Hansen

QCS Managing Editor

Business climate, jobs and education were the main themes of remarks by state Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, and state Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, at a breakfast session Wednesday that drew local school and government officials and community leaders from throughout Quay County.

The legislators appeared at the meeting sponsored by the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce less than a week before the start of the 60-day 2105 New Mexico Legislature, which began Tuesday.

Woods set the tone by saying that as a legislator, “I can’t create jobs, except government jobs. What we can do is create a business climate that allows businesses to create jobs.”

The most important topics the legislature will deal with in its term, he said, are education and natural resources.

Roch talked about three bills he said he intends to support to improve the state’s business climate.

One would declare New Mexico a “right to work” state in which union membership is optional, not mandatory, for any job holder.

Such legistation, he said, protects workers who don’t want to join a union.

Some workers in the state, he said, including railroad workers, electricians and plumbers, must pay union dues in order to keep their jobs. “Right to work” legislation would end the mandatory deduction of union dues, Roch said.

Another bill Roch will sponsor would deny workers compensation benefits to any employee who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol when injured on the job.

“If you get hurt because of your own neglect,” Roch said, “you should not receive benefits.”

Finally, Roch said, he will support legislation that would reform the state’s gross receipts tax system.

“Gross receipts taxes tax the poor more than the rich,” he said. “That makes them a regressive tax.”

Roch also tried to reduce concerns about the effect of less-than-expected revenues from severance taxes resulting from reduced oil and gas production brought on by falling prices for these commodities, he said, is not resulting in a decrease in revenue, but a smaller increase.

“We will be in the black,” he said, “It will just be a smaller black.”

It will mean that budgeting will require setting priorities and adjusting funding levels, he said, “but we’ve got to prioritize public education.”

He added, “It’s better that we spend more on education now than on prison later.”

Roch also mentioned Governor Susana Martinez’s $50-million “closing fund” proposal for Local Economic Development Act financing that would provide more incentives to attract businesses to the state.

For the first time, he said, the governor also proposed separate funding for MainStreet programs, including Tucumcari Main Street, Roch said.

Aaron McKinney, superintendent of Tucumcari Public Schools, asked Roch, who is also superintendent of Logan Public Schools, about what the legislature is doing to help keep New Mexico teachers in the state. Statewide, McKinney said, there is a shortage of more than 100 teachers. Higher pay is drawing teachers out of the state.

Roch said there are measures under consideration to raise starting teacher pay to $34,000 a year from $30,000 annually and to add incentives to upper level teacher pay, especially in hard-to-fill areas like science, mathematics and special education.

San Jon Schools Superintendent Colin Taylor asked about raising annual state funding for pre-kindergarten programs above the $3,000-per-child level. In a small district like San Jon, he said, that level does not raise enough money to hire a full-time teacher.

Roch said some consideration is being given to allowing a minimum of $50,000 per year for each district to fund such programs.