Disqus - Latest Comments for norton73

Re: State faces up to $1 billion shortfall in January

norton73 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:06:37 -0000

We're putting a band aid on a patient that requires major surgery. Take two aspirin and call me in January.

Re: State faces up to $1 billion shortfall in January

norton73 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:35:57 -0000

Kicking the can down the road.

Re: Senator accuses colleagues of abusing per diem

norton73 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:55:45 -0000

I assume that when you say they should get a salary, they still get the per diem. That's the norm in most enterprises, government and private. Otherwise, what's the point?

Re: Denish challenges school districts to cut energy costs

norton73 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:52:17 -0000

Ten percent of $60 million = $6 million. Budget deficit approaching $1 billion.

Somehow, the phrase "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" comes to mind.

Re: It’s Complicated with Richard ‘R.J.’ Berry

norton73 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:22:02 -0000

I think some of the pundocracy is giving too much credit to public financing for the outcome of the election. True, publicly financed candidates had to abide by spending caps. But before a privately funded candidate could spend $1 million or more, they would have to raise that amount. This was the first election with the new Election Code provisions banning "business" contributions. Combined with the current state of the economy, I have to believe that consideration is what drove all three mayoral candidates to public financing in the first place.

Re: Rael wants to expand lieutenant governor’s role

norton73 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:21:18 -0000

If New Mexico were a U S city, it would only be the 5th most populous (behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston). I think a more accurate statement would be that THIS governor has little time to be involved in day-to-day management.

Re: Member-to-member mail is an unavoidable loophole in Albuquerque’s public financing system

norton73 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:19:01 -0000

I don't believe the word "individual" appears in the MFC definition. It uses the word "person" which defined later in the definitions to include individuals and businesses.

Re: Member-to-member mail is an unavoidable loophole in Albuquerque’s public financing system

norton73 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:28:08 -0000

So then the Democratic Party of New Mexico would be perfectly within its rights to send anti-Berry mailers to every registered Democrat within the Albuquerque city limits without having to register as an MFC. According to the party rules, every registered Democrat is a "member".

Re: King pushes ethics commission, other reforms

norton73 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:18:19 -0000

Heath,

I continue to be confused by one issue. What authority, if any, can a creature of the governor and legislature have over other constitutional offices? Yes, MannyGate involved the legislature. But other recent ethics issues have embroiled the Land Office, Treasurer's Office, and Secretary of State. Recently we saw the State Auditor and AG butting heads. The AG is already predicting this will be an "advisory" panel. Translation: Ethics Commission? Yeah, we got that.

What happens if there is an ethics issue within the AG's office. Do they turn it over to those genius' at the Santa Fe DA's office who can't even write a proper jury instruction?

I don't see any true ethics reform short of a commission created in the state constitution. But it appears that will never happen because it would require government to actually cede some power back to the citizenry.

Re: SunCal targets Cadigan in election mailer

norton73 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:40:10 -0000

I did look at those reports just yesterday. I know he has taken developer money in the past, but I question how you make that conclusion for the '09 election cycle. There are a lot of contributions from lawyers, but I'm not seeing money from the developer crowd in any meaningful amount. You'll find that money in the MFCs.

Re: SunCal targets Cadigan in election mailer

norton73 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:17:17 -0000

A second mailer appeared today in the mailbox. This one attacks Cadigan as against schools because he doesn't support creation of a SunCal school district. Source, Westside Chamber of Commerce (i.e. Dan Serrano). By the way, who is Cabarello Farm?

Re: Throw enough money at Johnny and surely he’ll read

norton73 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:33:27 -0000

I think that is an excellent observation and very on point. I have no reason to doubt that poverty is a critical factor in school performance. My question is, does throwing more money at schools address the poverty issues that hamper school performance today? Certainly in the long run better educated children are less likely to end up in poverty. But I don't agree that the schools are the proper place to site poverty programs.

Re: Throw enough money at Johnny and surely he’ll read

norton73 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:38:55 -0000

I'm not understanding how this works. Utah's per pupil spending is last or next to last and yet Utah manages a "C" grade for school performance. NM is spending more, but gets an "F. Seems like dollars spent isn't the correct correlation.

Re: Berry campaign mailer sews distrust among immigrants, advocates say

norton73 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:34:25 -0000

"It has to only be on the pretext of a criminal investigation.”

Maybe APD should take some of that federal grant money and buy John Walsh a dictionary. Either that or hire a new PIO who actually knows what words mean.

Re: N.M. GOP Chairman Harvey Yates: Want less scandal? Vote Republican

norton73 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:35:09 -0000

I live in the Albuquerque portion of Block's district. I voted for Rick Lass and would have considered voting for a Republican IF THERE HAD BEEN ONE ON THE BALLOT. You can't get elected if you don't run. Apparently this is a concept that has escaped Mr. Yates.

Re: ABQ’s election fund will meet demand, officials say

norton73 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:35:39 -0000

Seed money is capped at 10% of the distribution. With the numbers we're using that would be about $32,800, 328 contributions of $100. Will be interesting to see if there is any pattern to each candidate's "seed donors". Like say, developer money or City employees.

Re: ABQ’s election fund will meet demand, officials say

norton73 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:30:46 -0000

If five candidates qualify, they each would have added $16,400 to the fund from the $5 contributions. Dividing the pot equally would then yield $323,800 to each, only a few thousand shy of the target $328,000. Allowing for the seed money offset, all five candidates would be essentially fully funded.

Re: Today’s Prop 8 hearing is online

norton73 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:10:40 -0000

Perhaps you noticed that CalChannel is "funded by California's cable providers". Over the past few years Comcast has put more than $25,000 into NM politics. If they really want to support the public process, maybe they could offer to pay the bill for legislative webcasting.

Re: Former ERB board member recalls riskier investments under Malott

norton73 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:53:34 -0000

The notion of a Board of Directors acting on something they don't understand is right out of the Enron playbook. Just the fact that the entire meeting, including the item in question, took 15 minutes undermines any defense that there was any substantive discussion.

Re: New crew hopping into Albuquerque’s mayoral race

norton73 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:25:34 -0000

Will be interesting to see how many of these actually make it to the ballot.

Re: State Senate passes TIDD bill for SunCal by vote of 29-9

norton73 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:48:28 -0000

I was listening to the Senate debate when Tim Jennings said something to the effect that the Westside deserves more than a sewage plant. Aside from the fact that the treatment plant is east of the river, I thought it was pretty ironic as the scale of development planned by SunCal will likely require an expansion of the existing facility.

Re: Thousands of New Mexicans won’t receive unemployment insurance for days due to ‘unforeseen system error’

norton73 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:16:03 -0000

At least it wasn't one of those irksome "foreseen" system errors.

Re: Malott’s firm has seen boom in state auditing contracts under Richardson

norton73 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:42:35 -0000

"Firms that perform public audits win the work from the Office of the State Auditor"

The current State Auditor received a full 1/3 of his campaign funding from Bill Richardson and/or funds controlled by Bill Richardson. Seems to me if we are going expand public campaign financing the State Auditor's office would be a good place to start.

Re: An independent ethics commission or a branch of the AG’s office?

norton73 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:38:49 -0000

The subpoena issue is only a starting point. King was on Eye on NM last Sunday. He described the Commission role as "advisory". The Commission is supposed to draft a Code of Ethics which is then distributed to various State officers (Sec of State, Treasurer, Land Commissioner, etc.) for them to adopt as they see fit. As AG King observed, they deal with ethics issues differently. The Commission is authorized to assess penalties as allowed by the statute, but no penalties are incorporated in the statute language. This is a great example where having a citizen initiative provision in our Constitution would be a plus. That way it's the voters who can say "our way or the highway".

Re: New Mexico creates three new TIDD’s–within the urban core this time

norton73 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:48:27 -0000

Apparently you can now add "sustainable" and "town center" to the dictionary of meaningless terms.