Sen. Bill Tallman
By MILAN SIMONICH
The New Mexican
Talk about reversal of fortune. After 10 years of defeats, proponents of spending part of a $19.7 billion state endowment for early childhood education saw their proposal rescued Monday from the legislative graveyard.
The Senate Rules Committee cut in half the amount of money the program would receive. But the committee also gave the revamped proposal life as the legislative session heads into its final three days.
Two Democrats who had previously opposed the measure — Sens. Bill Tallman of Albuquerque and Clemente Sanchez of Grants — saved it by changing course.
Tallman was key. He amended House Joint Resolution 1 to shrink the cost and the number of families it would serve.
Instead of taking 1 percent from the Land Grant Permanent Fund, programs for early childhood education would get half a percent.
This means about $76 million a year would be available for early childhood education, under the current size of the endowment. The amount as first proposed would have been an estimated $153 million annually.
Tallman also amended the proposal to better protect the corpus of the endowment in case markets plunge.
If the fund’s five-year average value dropped to $17 billion, payouts for early childhood programs would be suspended. The original proposal set the trigger at $10 billion.
Waiting that long to react would be disastrous to other recipients of yearly funding from the endowment, most notably K-12 public schools.
Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, a sponsor of the resolution, accepted both of Tallman’s amendments as friendly. Maestas, D-Albuquerque, knew he would have lost Tallman if he had held out for a larger percentage of the money.
Then Sanchez surprised the advocates by voting for the revised proposal. What the state has been doing in education hasn’t worked, he said.
His support of the proposal would be critical if it clears the Senate Finance Committee and makes it to the full 42-member Senate as the session heads toward a finish.
“It’s a good sign that Clemente sees the needs we have,” said Allen Sánchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops and president of CHI St. Joseph’s Children, a charitable provider of early childhood education programs.
The Rules Committee’s final vote tally on the resolution was murky. The chairwoman, Democratic Sen. Linda Lopez of Albuquerque, said it was 6-2, though only six members were present as Tallman’s amended proposal was discussed.
Lopez said she accepted votes from Sens. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, and Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, as they headed out the door with discussion still underway.
Lopez said both of them voted against the measure, though neither debated the proposal, at least not loudly enough to be heard by those of us in the committee room.
“Everything was kind of done with a nod and a wink, you know, in terms of a voice vote,” Maestas said.
For him, it wasn’t how the votes were cast but how many fell in place for his side.
A majority of Rules Committee members had walked out of a hearing on the proposal Saturday. This left it without a quorum and stranded the proposal.
Members who departed said they had commitments on the Senate floor or other committees. Lopez, though, countered her Rules Committee had often continued hearing bills under similar circumstances.
The Rules Committee last year rejected a similar measure for early childhood education funding on a 7-4 vote. Tallman and Sanchez were opposed to it then.
With their newfound support, the resolution moves to the Senate Finance Committee. That will be a tougher test. The Finance Committee is headed by Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, staunchest opponent of adding another beneficiary to the permanent fund.
Smith instead threw his political might behind an alternative proposal, House Bill 83, which creates the Early Childhood Trust Fund.
The bill was co-sponsored by Smith and Rep. Doreen Gallegos, D-Las Cruces. It would provide a lesser amount of funding — $20 million to $30 million a year — for early childhood education without tapping the Land Grant Permanent Fund.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, plans to sign HB 83 in a public ceremony on Tuesday.
But with the turnabout in the Rules Committee, Smith will face heavy public pressure from advocacy groups to hear the proposed constitutional amendment in his own committee.
If the measure clears Smith’s panel, it would go to the full Senate. Approval in that chamber would send the resolution to the state’s voters in the fall.
Allen Sánchez is optimistic.
“I think we’re going to get a deal,” he said.
During the last decade, it’s perhaps the 25th time he’s told me the proposed constitutional amendment was gliding toward passage.
After all these years, and against all odds, he might be right.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505.986.3080.
