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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Rawson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/08

SHORT TITLE Legislator Salaries, Per Diem & Travel, CA

SJR 16

ANALYST Wilson

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY09

FY10

$2,844.2

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SJR16 relates to SJR 2

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Joint Resolution 16 proposes an amendment to Article 4, Section 10 of the Constitution of

New Mexico to give an annual salary to legislators that is 15% of the salary for United States

congressional representatives and senators.

The resolution limits compensation of legislators to an annual salary, and restricts per diem and

mileage to ten days per month during the interim and to allow the federal governments rates for

out-of-state travel.

The resolution states that per diem and mileage will be paid at the federal government’s

approved rates for service at in-state meetings required by legislative committees established by

the legislature to meet in the interim between sessions.

For service at out-of-state meetings related to a member's legislative duties, the reimbursement

can be either per diem and mileage at a rate accepted by the federal government or actual

expenses that may be reimbursed for reasonable and necessary travel expenditures pursuant to

law.

For in-state and out-of state only ten per diem and mileage days a month are permitted.

The amendment to the Constitution proposed by this resolution shall be submitted to the people

for their approval or rejection at the next general election.

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Senate Joint Resolution 16 – Page

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The current salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $169,300 per year.

15% of the above is $25,395 per year.

112 legislators @$25,395 is $2,844,240

New Mexico’s per diems and mileage are currently the same as federally approved rates.

Reimbursement for expenses under this resolution should not increase significantly, if at all.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Legislative compensation was an issue considered by the Governor’s Task Force on Ethics

Reform and was considered by the Legislative Structure and Process Study Task Force.

In the 2006 Governor’s Task Force on Ethics Reform, Report of Recommendations, the task

force recommended $10,000 annually for legislative expense reimbursement accounts. “Funds

from the legislative expense reimbursement accounts should be used by legislators to pay for the

expenses directly related to their legislative duties. Such expenses might include staff, telephone,

travel and other constituent service-related expenses. Legislators should only be paid for

expenses incurred." The recommendation anticipated that some legislators would receive less

than the annual amount of $10,000.

The December 2007 Final Report of The Legislative Structure and Process Study Task Force

contains a recommendation for an amendment to Article 4, Section 10 of the Constitution of

New Mexico to repeal legislative per-diem and mileage and create a “Legislative Compensation

The December 2007 Final Report of The Legislative Structure and Process Study Task Force

contains a recommendation for an amendment to Article 4, Section 10 of the Constitution of

New Mexico to repeal legislative per-diem and mileage and create a “Legislative Compensation

Commission" to set the compensation of members of the legislature every 10 years.

The resolution restricts reimbursement when the legislature is not in session to ten times a

month. The purpose of this restriction appears to be to prevent legislators from working fulltime

as legislators. New Mexico has always had a “citizens" legislature and this restriction may help

to continue the tradition.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

Passage of this proposal would result in additional administrative duties to Legislative Council

Service for the processing of the payments. It is not clear if members would receive the entire

payment in one lump sum, a monthly or bi-weekly payment. Also, the effective date when this

would go into effect if approved by the voters is not clear. That is, if approved by the voters

would it be effective the following fiscal year beginning on July 1.

RELATIONSHIP

SJR16 relates to SJR 2 which also proposes to amend Article 4, Section 10 of the New Mexico

Constitution to provide an annual salary for legislators. Unlike SJR 16, SJR 2 proposes to

reimburse legislators for mileage once per week during the legislative session.

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Senate Joint Resolution 16 – Page

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Currently, Article 4, Section 10 provides the compensation of legislative members to per diem at

the internal revenue service per diem rate for the city of Santa Fe during legislative sessions and

the internal revenue service standard mileage rate for each mile traveled to and from the seat of

government. As of January 2008, the per diem rate for Santa Fe is $144/day and the mileage rate

is $0.505/mile.

During the interim between sessions, legislative members receive per diem at the same rates

listed above however, it should be noted that the internal revenue service per diem rates increases

slightly during the summer months and the mileage rate during the interim also fluctuates

slightly.

Senate Joint Resolution 16 proposes to amend the constitution to provide salaries for legislators

in addition to the per-diem and mileage currently received by legislators.

DW/bb

Attachment

NCSL Backgrounder: Full- and Part-Time Legislatures

In the Blue states, average lawmakers spend the equivalent of half of a full-time job doing legislative work. The compensation they

receive for this work is quite low and requires them to have other sources of income in order to make a living. The blue states have

relatively small staffs. They are often called traditional or citizen legislatures and they are most often found in the smallest

population, more rural states. Again, NCSL has divided these states into two groups. The legislatures in Blue are the most traditional

or citizen legislatures. The legislatures in Blue Lite are slightly less traditional. States are listed alphabetically within subcategories.

Table 1 shows the breakdown of states by category. Table 2 shows the average scores for the Red, White and Blue states for time

on the job, compensation and staff size. For 2005 legislator compensation figures, go to

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/aboutl05salary. htm.

Table 1. Red, White and Blue Legislatures

Red Red Light White Blue Light

Blue

California Alaska

Alabama Missouri Georgia Montana

Michigan Illinois

Arizona Nebraska Idaho

New

New York Florida

Arkansas North

Indiana Hampshire

Pennsylvania Ohio

Colorado Carolina Kansas North

Massachusetts Connecticut Oklahoma Maine

Dakota

New Jersey Delaware Oregon Mississippi South

Wisconsin Hawaii South

Nevada Dakota

Iowa

Carolina New Mexico Utah

Kentucky Tennessee Rhode Island Wyoming

Louisiana Texas

Vermont

Maryland Virginia West Virginia

Minnesota Washington

Source: NCSL 2004

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Senate Joint Resolution 16 – Page

Table 2. Average Job

Time,

Compensation and Staff Size by