Rio Grande Foundation Liberty, Opportunity, Prosperity

For Immediate Release For further Information, Contact: Wednesday, April 9, 2014 Paul Gessing 505-264-6090

How did your Legislators Vote on Freedom during the 2014 Session?

(Albuquerque) During the 2014 legislative session, the Rio Grande Foundation again tracked the floor votes of legislators and their impact on freedom within the Land of Enchantment. The information is available at: www.riograndefoundation.org with local information provided in separate links at the website as well.

Said Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing of the 2014 session in general, “New Mexico’s budget grew faster than it should have and the lottery scholarship fix left a lot to be desired, but no major harm was done to the taxpayer during the 2014 session. Hikes in the mandated minimum wage were killed as were myriad plans to increase the size and scope of government through the Constitutional process.”

“The bad news,” noted Gessing, “is that no serious legislative efforts to reform New Mexico’s burdensome tax code, reduce regulatory burdens, increase school choice, or broaden transparency efforts were undertaken.”

This is the second year in which the Rio Grande Foundation has tracked the floor votes of legislators and analyzed their impact on freedom in New Mexico. The following table indicates the votes of each legislator in a given area.

Albuquerque Ranking within Respective District Legislator Freedom Percentage Total Score Body House 22 James E. Smith 65.3% 19 10 House 44 Jane Powdrell-Culbert 60.5% 13 16 House 60 Tim D. Lewis 58.1% 10 17 House 68 58.1% 10 17 House 27 Larry Larrañaga 58.1% 10 17 House 30 Nate Gentry 58.1% 10 17 House 20 James P. White 51.6% 2 22 House 23 51.6% 2 22 House 28 Jimmie C. Hall 50% 0 26 Senate 21 48.6% -1 8 Senate 14 48.6% -1 8 House 31 48.4% -2 30 Senate 11 Linda Lopez 47.3% -2 11 Senate 15 Daniel Ivey-Soto 45.9% -13 13 Senate 23 45.9% -3 13 Senate 10 John C. Ryan 44.6% -4 19 Senate 18 43.2% -5 23 Senate 26 40.5% -7 24 House 25 39.5% -13 35 House 21 38.7% -14 36 House 24 36.3% -17 38

Post Office Box 40336 Phone: (505) 264-6090 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196 Fax: (505) 213-0300 www.RioGrandeFoundation.org House 18 35.5% -18 39 House 26 34.7% -19 40 House 17 Edward Sandoval 33.9% -20 44 House 19 Sheryl Williams Stapleton 33.9 -20 44 House 48 13 Patricia Roybal Caballero 32.3% -22 House 15 Emily Kane 32.3% -22 48 House 52 10 Henry Kiki Saavedra 31.5% -23 Senate 12 Gerald Ortiz y Pino 29.7% -15 27 Senate 16 Cisco McSorley 29.7% -15 27 House 16 Antonio “Moe” Maestas 29% -26 57 Senate 9 25.7% -18 30 Senate 13 Bill O’Neill 24.3% -19 32 Senate 17 Timothy Keller 24.3% -19 32

There are a few important points regarding the 2014 session:

• In general, the House voted on a larger number of relevant bills. The highest “freedom percentage” (Rep. Bill Gray - Artesia) in the House was 77.4 percent while the highest Senate score (Rep. Bill Sharer - Farmington) was 73 percent. The leading House scorer accumulated 34 points while the leading Senator had only 17 points; • The most important single floor vote included in the report was SJR 13 which would have increased the mandated minimum wage and indexed it to inflation. SJR 13 was weighted -8 in the Freedom Index; • The second most heavily-weighted vote was SB 347 which tapped New Mexico’s General Fund budget to prop up the Lottery Scholarship Program. Had the bill not passed, the scholarship program would have distributed smaller scholarships to each student based on funds generated by the New Mexico Lottery.