Representatives: You Have Some Splaining To Do!

One thing we have noticed, particularly in the NM House of Representatives during this 60-day session is the continuation of a reprehensible practice that has gone on for as long as politicians have realized they could disguise and manipulate the perceptions of various constituents. Take the recent vote on a House Bill 644 designed to address the $5 billion unfunded pension liability in this state regarding public employees. While there is certainly room for debate on the best way for our elected officials to eliminate the widening gap between actuarial reality and what has been promised on behalf of taxpayers, there are eleven House members who owe every single New Mexican taxpayer an immediate explanation.

At issue are the curious voting patterns of Representatives: Alphonso Baldonado, Carolynn Brown, David Chavez, Dennis Doyle, Nate Gentry, Tim Lewis, Ricky Little, Bill O’Neil and Danice Picraux. After weeks of spirited public and private debate these Representatives voted NO on House Bill 644 on Sunday night. Fair enough, even though their votes continued to leave taxpayers on the hook for ballooning public employee pension liabilities. While those votes were dubious, they were NOT curious. What was curious was that less than 48 hours later, each of these Representatives listed above FLIPPED their votes and voted in favor of making changes to shore up the pension plans. Bill sponsor Mimi Stewart explained the "changes of votes" on a video in this Capitol Report New Mexico post.

Equally curious are the votes of House Speaker Ben Lujan and Representative Moe Maestas. These two men also FLIPPED their votes. However, their curious votes flipped from being in favor of shoring up the pension funds, to further delaying this partial solution to the problem of soaring unfunded New Mexico taxpayer liabilities. What are we New Mexico taxpayers to infer when confronted with these vote-flipping tactics? What should we think of those employing them? Without very detailed explanations from each of these Representatives one has to conclude that their actions are brazen and duplicitous and were taken only with the intent to manipulate and disguise their true positions. Perhaps there was hope that nobody with a bullhorn would notice. Unfortunately for taxpayers, far too many times these types of cynical shell games are effective in enabling a clever politician to say one thing to one group of constituents and then say another thing to another group. Above all else this practice is the essence of self-deception. Instead of an elected official thinking this allows them to not actually "lie" to either group, all politicians should realize they will actually be lying to both groups.
Let’s set aside the voter I.D. debate for a minute. Can we have some elected official I.D.? Can we get it consistently, say, 24-7 and 365 days each year? What say the ladies and gentleman members of the 45 hour - 180 degree reversal club? Why did each of you flip a politically charged vote? Inquiring minds want to know!

Representatives: You Have Some Splaining To Do!