Monthly Newsletter of AFSCME Local 477
JANUARY 2009 President: Arcy M. Baca Vice President: Rose Ulibarri Secretary-Treasurer: Alan Ruckel Recording Secretary: Brenda Watson Executive Board: Virginia Lopez, Bella Lucero, and Linda Gonzales Board or trustees: Christine Baca, Monica Villaire-Garcia, Lisa Lujan American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees 1406 4th Street, Santa Fe, NM 87505 (505) 986-1365 MISSION STATEMENT Local 477 is committed to providing services and representation to state employees for the purpose of creating a productive and harmonious work environment while fostering good labor management relations. |
President’s Message We are now in a New Year. We are close to having a new master contract completed, and ready for you to vote either in favor of or against ratification. I want to thank the negotiating team on the AFSCME side for working countless hours trying to get language that would protect your basic rights on the work site and protect your job. I would like to thank Christine Baca, Robert Upton, and Rose-Marie Ulibarri for representing Local 477 on the negotiating team.
The Governor’s team at the negotiating table stated that because of their outlook on the budget, they are going to recommend a zero increase to the legislature. The only hope we have to get any kind of an increase is to lobby the legislature. The Governor agreed to support any increase that the legislature included in their budget.
Understanding that we are under budget constraints, I am asking each one of you to contact your legislators and let them know we need their support to prevent any layoffs, and also to support the language we negotiated that will require changes to the state statutes. We also need to lobby the legislature to keep our PERA fund solvent.
I have researched actions the legislature could consider to balance the budget without laying off any of our employees or cutting services to the citizens of New Mexico. In one report I read, the state’s operating reserve is at about 10%. I believe if the state were to tap into this reserve, setting it back to around 5%, it would free up an estimated $200 million. Because out-of-state companies are doing business in New Mexico without paying state income tax, the state could close the corporate tax loopholes that are available to companies doing business in New Mexico.
Another report estimated the state has about $1 billion of unspent capital outlay money sitting out there not being used. Those projects require additional funding to be completed or they received funding for planning only, or they were partially funded projects that never got started.
Capital outlay money is the place where the members of the Legislature will have to make some tough choices. It will be hard for them to go back to their communities and explain the money was taken back, but I believe it will be tougher to try to explain that state services had to be cut. In difficult economic times, the last thing you want to cut are services. The need for the services that the government provides – whether State Government and/or Federal Government – dramatically increases during an economic down turn. The Governor has proposed some capital outlay money to be taken back in his budget.
During the holiday, using the phone lines to reach a representative at the Department of Workforce Solutions was next to impossible. The need to file for unemployment insurance benefits increased to unheard-of proportions in a matter of days. The system in place failed. The citizens in the State of New Mexico deserve much better. Workers that have been laid off can no longer walk into their local employment office and file for their benefits: it has to be done over the phone or on the Internet. Citizens filing for their earned benefits have had to endure being placed on hold for days at a time. This was the result of an agency trying to cut corners and save money by not having the staff needed to take applications at the local offices. At what point is it more important: hire a highdollar exempt employee – and the never ending layers of mangers, or hire two or three representatives to assist citizens making claims?
The Governor has proposed a cut to state agencies in his budget. I am hoping he has looked at how top-heavy the state is operating. In various reports in the media, the number of exempt employees has increased by about 40% since he took office. The Albuquerque Journal also posted the salaries of the exempt employees, and they are getting some healthy salaries. In other places I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of managers. In my own experience, a grievance must go through about 3 managers before it reaches anyone with the authority to respond. Intentional or not, the services provided to the citizens in New Mexico have been reduced by having such a high ratio of managers to employees.
In Labor Management Committee meetings and in other forums, I have seen the frustration of employees at the State Library with being under-paid and over-worked. They have always carried about a 20% vacancy rate – and that was in good economic times.
The hiring of Public Information Officers (PIOs) in every agency is hard to justify. PIOs must clear all the information going out to the public through their superiors. Why not just have the superiors make the announcements or write the press releases themselves? That would make the cabinet secretaries accountable for the information being released.
Another area where I have seen an increase in spending is on the number of internal investigators and hired private investigators. It seems these investigators are hired to interrogate and try to intimidate regular employees. Whatever happened to supervisors and managers supervising and managing? I have yet to see an investigation conducted on an exempt employee or manger. If these investigations were so crucial, why hasn’t an investigation been conducted on the Human Service Department? This agency is notorious for never-ending investigations and fishing expeditions.
Expectations were very high that Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish was to be Governor. State employees were excited that we were going to get a new leader, and there was a distinct possibility we were going to take a new direction with a team of new mangers. I am still very confident the Governor can lead us out of the economic crisis we are in. It is going take an evaluation of how the state serves its citizens. The members are still 100% committed to serving the citizens of New Mexico. We need a commitment from the top not to cut services to citizens of the State of New Mexico. | Guest Writers: I am very pleased to present our guest writer for this month’s newsletter. We have David Coss, our Mayor, taking up another cause for the working families of the City of Santa Fe. I met with Mayor Coss last year about the expanding the affordable housing program in Santa Fe. We need your complete support in making the affordable housing a reality. I will have more information on this initiative on our next month’s newsletter. We will need you go vote and we will need volunteers. Mayor Coss has also passed a resolution supporting our PERA. Mayor David Coss: As Mayor of Santa Fe, I urge you to support the Workforce Housing Tax, a one time tax on high-end house sales more than $750,000 which will help fund affordable housing in our community. Some may question the approval of a new tax in these hard economic times. But this tax is different – it’s good for Santa Fe’s working families and it’s good for business.
More and more we see Santa Fe’s working families priced out of their communities, forced to move farther and farther from their jobs. This hurts everyone. In 2007, 640 members of the local workforce moved outside of Santa Fe County, many of them to Rio Rancho, in order to purchase a home. These employees took over $21 million in annual local spending with them, having a serious negative impact on local businesses and the local workforce. Furthermore, there is a critical shortage of housing for policeman, nurses, firefighters and other emergency personnel. Many of these workers commute from as far away as Rio Rancho, which means they may not be here in Santa Fe when we need them.
How does it work? This one time tax is a proven mechanism for creating a steady stream of income to fund affordable housing; 37 states already use real estate transfer taxes and many cities and states use the tax to fund affordable housing projects. Only people who are buying or selling property worth more than $750,000 would pay the tax. Houses that sell for less than $750,000 would not be taxed, and those that sell for more than $750,000 would only be taxed on the amount over $750,000. For example, a house selling for $ 800,000 would be subject to a $500 tax.
You can be assured the funds will go to affordable housing. The Real Estate Transfer Tax must be enacted by a vote of the people in Santa Fe. Once enacted, by law the City must use the funds for affordable housing. Examples include down payment assistance for first time homebuyers to help with the purchase of a home, purchase of land for the development of affordable housing and grants to underwrite the cost of constructing affordable apartments. The only way to change the use of the funds would be with the approval of the voters at another election. Funds generated by the tax would be placed in a separate Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Funds would then be distributed each year to help fund eligible affordable housing projects. Announcements Meetings: We will continue to have our Local 477 meetings on the second Wednesday of each month from 5:30 to 6:30. Local 477 Announcements and updates on negotiations will be posted on www.afscme187.org and then go to local 477. Lobby day will held Thursday February 5th at 1:15 at the Capitol Building Rotunda. Reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Inn of Lorretto. We need your support at the Lobby day. |
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