Capitol Report – Fall 2007

NEW MEXICO Issue 2 • Fall 2007 Health Care Committee Recommendations Consultant Reports Interim Committees: Work Plans Political Tidbits: Scandal Summary PO Box 808 Roswell, NM 88202-0808 $10.00 USD The Senate The deliberative and collegial body of the legislature: clockwise from upper left, Sens. Mark Boitano, R - Bernalillo, and Bernadette Sanchez, D - Bernalillo, chat. Sens. William Payne, R - Bernalillo, Vernon Asbill, Eddy & Otero, lower, James Taylor, R - Bernalillo, and Gay Kernan, R - Chaves, Curry, Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt pledge the New Mexico State flag. Sue Wilson Beffort R - Bernalillo, Sandavol, Santa Fe and Torrance, bids farewell to the newest Senator, Lynda Lovejoy, Bernalillo, Cibola, Mc Kinley, Rio Arriba and Sandoval who was appointed to replace Leonard Tsosie who step down from the senate to serve on the Navajo Nation Council, as Rod Adair, R - Chaves and Lincoln, checks his personal electronic device. Majority Floor Leader Michael Sanchez, D - Valencia led the Democrats delegation. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, D, as president of the senate, chairs a final debate, March 17, 2007, at the close of the regular session. Sen. John Ryan, R - Bernalillo, listens as Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D - Bernalillo, reads a bill. TABLE OF CONTENTS NEW MEXICO Fall 2007 COLUMNS The Magazine of Ideas and Influence Voter ID Rules Confuse Voters and Poll Workers in Santa Fe Lonna Atkeson 5 CO-PUBLISHER Jack Swickard Tidbits from La Politica: Summer 2007 [email protected] Jose Garcia 6 EDITOR / CO-PUBLISHER Harold Morgan Tax Research Institute Informs, Educates; Principles of [email protected] Taxation Outlined Richard L. Anklam 7 PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Bralley [email protected] FEATURES For prints of photographs in Capitol Report Healthcare Discussion Continues 8 New Mexico, contact Mr. Bralley. He blogs at www.mgbralley-whatswrongwiththispicture.blog spot.com. Quantitative and Comparative Analysis of Reform Options for Extending Health Care Coverage in New Mexico CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mathematica Policy Research Inc. 9 Jennifer Foster [email protected] Health Care Changes Committee Emphasis 12 DIRECTOR OF SALES Lynne Yaple Potential Impacts on Revenue, Tax Administration, and [email protected] Example Taxpayers of Alternative Health Insurance Reform Proposals WEB SITE: www.capitolreportnm.com Office of Tax Policy: N.M. Taxation and Revenue Affiliated Web site: www.nmnews.net Department 14 Capitol Report New Mexico is published by Triton- Fall 2007 Legislative Interim Committee Progress, a partnership of The Triton Group, Inc., Work Plans 18 of Roswell, NM, and Progress Publishing, Inc., of Albuquerque, NM. Triton-Progress publishes Tom Horan Experience Roswell magazine and the Cloudcroft, Jack Swickard, Co-Publisher 25 New Mexico, Visitors Guide. Administrative Office BRIEFS The Triton Group, Inc. PO Box 808 Eminent Domain Reform Given A 11 Roswell NM 88202-0808 505-624-7729 Size of NM First Implementation Group Measures Interest 12 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Capitol Report New Mexico is $10.00 per copy. A one- year subscription (three issues) is $25.00. As part of your subsription, your copy will be mailed to you in an envelope, first class mail. Send Health Coverage Recommendations 15 your subsription payment to: Capitol Report New Mexico, PO Box 808, Roswell, NM 88202-0808. SUBSCRIBERS: Please send changes of address to Capitol Report New Stress Produces Liberals, Security Mexico, PO Box 808, Roswell NM 88202-0808. Please include new Produces Conservatives 24 address and current mailing label. Capitol Report New Mexico is mailed three times each year to qualified readers. LETTERS to the EDITOR; Send to [email protected]. Parking Garage Set for West of Capitol 20 Unsolicited material must be accompanied by return postage. Capitol Report New Mexico assumes no liability for damage or loss. Information ACI, Conservation Voters Release Scorecards 17 and instructions contained in this publication are believed to be reliable. However, Capitol Report New Mexico does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or applicability of the information and instructions Bernalillo GOP to Dump Deadbeat Dues Dudes 26 contained herein: and the company disclaims all legal responsibility thereof. ©2007 The Triton Group, Inc. Except for purposes of review, material On the Cover: Tom Horan, piloting. contained herein may not be reproduced without prior written consent. FROM THE PUBLISHERS n July we attended a presentation in Santa Fe from one of those self-appointed “advocates” intent on saving a particular part of the policy world. This individual I repeated the common myth that the New Mexico Legislature meets only annually. As it happened, two legislative committees were meeting that day. Capitol Report New Mexico is about getting through the mythology Swickard Morgan and presenting serious policy information that is not easily available. We appreciate the positive reaction from our readers. One reader, a Santa Fe businessman who has a necessity-driven first name relationship with the city council said, “Thanks for sending the magazine. It is very informative on the ‘Paseo de Peralta Loop’ workings.” We have had legislators and others call and ask that the magazine be sent to people. The healthcare information motivated most of those calls. One legislator said, “Response I hear to Capitol Report is very positive. Had a chance to read it cover-to-cover on (a) flight. Very well done. Appreciated the health report. Think it will serve as a road map for many. And, the layout is beautiful and easy to read.” The head of a state employee retirees group wanted 20 copies for members to use as a reference tool. A state agency wrote, “Your publication provides valuable insight.” That’s the plan. Our Web site, www.capitolreportnm.com is an extension of the magazine. We cannot print the entire 218-page healthcare model evaluation from Mathematica Research. But we can — and have — tucked onto the Web site. For another example, the listing, from a news release, of the recommendations from the Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee appears on page 15. The committee’s final report is on our Web site. Another extension is our blog, http://capitolreport nm.blogspot.com. It began in late May. There are two or three postings each week. Like the magazine, the blog tends to serious material receiving little attention in the mainstream media — developments in the New Mexico economy and policy matters relating to Jack Swickard prepares for his flight with Tom Horan. the state. Often we will post the source material. The gossipy political details, we leave to others. Our January issue will mail just after the first of the year. We will have a preview of the 2008 session. ***** Co-publisher Jack Swickard, a former newspaper editor, conducted his interview with lobbyist Tom Horan while flying a Schweitzer 300 helicopter from Albuquerque to Shawnee, Okla. In an earlier life, both were Army helicopter pilots with combat flying experience in the Vietnam War. The Horan interview appears on Page 25 in this issue of Capitol Report New Mexico. 4 Capitol Report New Mexico / FALL 2007 Voter ID Rules Confuse Voters and Poll Workers by Lonna Atkeson, Ph.D. In a democratic some form of identification at the voter ID, a 16% increase. Even if voters society there is a polls, while 35% did not. Similarly, did not realize they were being asked tension between the in a different post election survey of for identification when they testified goal of maximum Bernalillo poll workers, about 56% verbally to their identity, this error in our ballot access indicated they asked for identification data should be randomly distributed and and preventing all (39%) or most of the time (16%), therefore we should not see an effect. voter fraud. This but 44% indicated they asked for it only The fact that we do see an effect, and Atkeson tension is visible some of the time (26%), hardly at all that it strengthens when we measure in the policy (11%), or never (7%). Both data confirm Hispanic ethnicity by surname instead of debate surrounding the issue of voter that while some poll workers were self-identity, suggests that the law was not identification. vigorously requiring some form of voter applied equally across all groups. identification, others were not. When we examine our poll worker On one side are those who claim voter data, however, we find no evidence that fraud is a big problem and to ensure In more sophisticated analysis, we different types of poll workers asked for the integrity of our election system we examined the larger debate and how identification differently. Thus, we do need to impose strong voter ID policies the New Mexico rule, allowing for a not see that white poll workers were more such as photo identification and proof broad diversity of implementation, was likely to ask for ID than Hispanic poll of citizenship. Others point out that applied. We modeled the influence of workers; statistically both groups asked there is little systematic evidence of voter race (Hispanic and other non-white), for voter identification, by their own fraud and argue that voter identification education, income, gender, age, whether assessments, equally. Likewise, we see no requirements create institutional barriers they voted early or not, whether they evidence that particular partisan groups to voter participation especially for the were first time voters, and their partisan or other demographic characteristics poor, minorities, young people, the elderly registration on whether voters showed influenced who asked for identification. and those with disabilities who are least some form of identification or not. We likely to have such identification. found that self-identified Hispanics and Therefore, there is no systematic evidence men were more likely to show some that specific subgroups of the population New Mexico has been at the forefront form of voter identification than non- applied the law differently, all groups of election reform and the debates here Hispanics and women and that early equally applied or misapplied the voter are a microcosm of the debates going on voters were less likely to show some form identification laws.

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