[NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346

Sun Mar 8 11:40:42 EDT 2009

NENA President Jeffrey Beth:

Thanks for your reply and opinion about my legislative email alert.

However, I respectfully disagree with you and former state rep. Don Silva.

I painstakenly reviewed my alert to learn what you and Don are complaining about. 

Clearly, I DID NOT distribute POLITICAL OPINION. 

I did distribute a number of FACTS, which are highlighted below. 

However, I'm disappointed and confused by your email. Here's why: whenever a bill, issue or concern comes before City Council or Planning Commission which impacts NENA, our neighbors, or our schools, we use the website and email list to alert everyone with factual information so they can express their concerns, or choose to do nothing. 

The main point is to make information available so everyone in NENA, who chooses to get involved or not, can make an informed decision. 

My email legislative alert was distributed to NENA in that spirit. 

Please explain why you think it's OKAY to distribute information and FACTS about city council proposals, but it's not OKAY to distribute information about state legislative bills that impact La Cueva HS, Desert Ridge MS, Dennis Chavez ES, North Star ES, etc.?

Finally, I would like to know which of the following, in your mind, are opinions and should not be shared with NENA members? Please respond.

#1: A professional study group was commissioned to determine why too many of our schools and students are performing so poorly. The commission issued a report several months ago with the finding that the State Legislature, which controls education funding, has consistently underfunded our schools by about 15% a year, or $350 million annually.

#2: In 1981, the State Legislature voted to remove property taxes as the sole source of school funding. Instead, the majority of legislators voted to be accountable and responsible for funding our schools with state income taxes, gross receipts/sales taxes, and a small percentage of the interest generated by investing the $7.9 billion Permanent School Fund in Wall Street. 

#3: Since 1982, K-12 and (now) pre-K public school funding has steadily declined from more than 50% of the overall NM state budget to 43% today.

#4: The NM State Constitution legally requires the Legislature to "sufficiently" fund our schools.

#5:  The study commission reported that the State Legislature is not meeting its constitutional mandate. 

#6: School districts are threatening to sue the Legislature in district court regarding this issue unless they pass HB 331/346.

#7: HB 331/346 will increase gross receipts/sales taxes by three-quarters of one percent and produces about $350 million annually to fund our public schools.

#8: Rep. Stewart, sponsor of HB 331/346, amended the bills, so HB 33/346 no longer requires an increase in state income taxes for top earners who are paying 4.9 percent rate in the spirit of compromise with the ABQ Chamber of Commerce.

#9: The House Appropriations & Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on HB 331/346, Sunday, Mar 8, at 1:30 pm at State Capitol in House Finance Committee Room.

#10: The House Finance Committee must pass HB 331/346 out of committee before the bills can go to the House for a floor vote.

#11: NENA's representative in the House is Rep. Larry Larranaga. Rep. Larranaga also sits on the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

I MIGHT AGREE WITH YOU THAT THE FOLLOWING ISN'T A FACT, BUT MAY BE JUST MY OPINION: #12: Rep. Larranaga is a powerful, and well respected legislator who listens to his constituents and wants to do the best he can for our public schools.

#13: Rep. Larranaga is planning to vote NO on HB 331/346 (Larry will verify this if you call him - State Capitol: 986-4215, home: 821-4948).

#14:  Research and Polling, INC. did a survey of registered voters on this issue. Friday's ABQ Journal, page 3 reported that a majority supports HB 331/346.

MY RECOMMENDATION TO CALL LARRY MIGHT BE AN OPINION, BUT IF YOU WANT HIM TO VOTE NO, THEN YOUR OPTION TO CALL LARRY IS AVAILABLE TO YOU, TOO: #15: If you believe HB 331/346 is in order, and we must increase funding for our schools, please call Larry, and have others who live at your home, who are registered voters, call him, too.

John Adams Ingram, Dues-paying NENA member and former NENA President

--- On Sat, 3/7/09, JEFFREY BETH PETERSON <ainsleyann at msn.com> wrote:

From: JEFFREY BETH PETERSON <ainsleyann at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346
To: members at noreste.org, "John Ingram" <ingram1ja at yahoo.com>
Cc: ingram1ja at yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009, 9:41 PM

John:

 While I appreciate YOUR stance on the subject issue as well as your past efforts to better our community through your involvement in the neighborhood association, I have to believe that you well understand that the NENA website is NOT intended for distributing political OPINIONS or garnering support for said opinions. If you feel so strongly about this, please feel free to go door to door in person to make your case but please do NOT use the NENA website to promote any agendas.
You can continue the back and forth with the persons you have engaged on this issue from your initial email and can CC me if you wish, but please leave the remainder of the Association out of your discourse. Anyone who wishes to discuss this further with you, may do so on a one-on-one basis.
Thank You

Jeff Peterson,
President, NENA 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Ingram 
To: members at noreste.org 
Cc: ingram1ja at yahoo.com 
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:13 AM
Subject: [NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346

Hello NENA members:

My name is John Ingram. I used to be president of NENA. I live on NW corner of Henriette Wyeth and Oakland, 8901 Henriette Wyeth NE.

There's an urgent matter regarding our public schools, and State House Dist. 27 Rep. Larry Larranaga coming-up tomorrow, Sunday, Mar 8.

Background: 3 years ago, the State Legislature commissioned a study by outside professional group to determine why too many of our schools and students are performing so poorly. 

The commission issued a report several months ago with the finding that the State Legislature, which controls education funding, has consistently underfunded our schools by about 15% a year, or $350 million annually. This goes back to 1982.

FYI: in 1981, the Legislature voted to remove property taxes as the sole source of school funding. Instead, they voted to be accountable and responsible for funding our schools with state income taxes, gross receipts/sales taxes, and a small percentage of the interest generated by investing the $7.9 billion Permanent School Fund in Wall Street. 

Since 1982, K-12 and (now) pre-K public school funding has steadily declined from more than 50% of the overall NM state budget to 43% today. 

However, the NM State Constitution legally requires the Legislature to "sufficiently" fund our schools. 

The study commission reported that the State Legislature is not meeting its constitutional mandate. School districts are threatening to sue the Legislature in district court regarding this issue unless they pass HB 331/346.

House Bill 331/346, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Stewart, will help correct this problem. 

House Bill 331/346 increases gross receipts/sales taxes by three-quarters of one percent and produces about $350 million annually to fund our public schools. 

Rep. Stewart amended the bills yesterday so HB 33/346 no longer requires an increase in state income taxes for top earners who are paying 4.9 percent rate. 

Now, the sole source of the additional $350 million generated by HB 331/346 is the 3/4 of 1% increase in gross receipts/sales taxes.

Rep. Stewart is a personal/professional friend of mine. I checked with her yesterday about HB 331/346 and progress toward passing the measures. 

Rep. Stewart informed me that the House Appropriations & Finance Committee with hold a hearing on HB 331/346 tomorrow, Sunday, Mar 8, at 1:30 pm at State Capitol in House Finance Committee Room. 

The House Finance Committee must pass HB 331/346 out of committee so the bills can go to the House for a floor vote. 

NENA's representative in the House is Rep. Larry Larranaga. 

Rep. Larranaga also sits on the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. He is a powerful, and well respected legislator who listens to his constituents and wants to do the best he can for our public schools. I've talked to him many times.

However, Rep. Larranaga is planning to vote NO on HB 331/346 tomorrow. 

If you believe that HB 331/346 is in order, and we must increase funding for our schools, please call Larry, and have others who live at your home, who are registered voters, call him, too. 

By the way, Research and Polling, INC. did a survey of registered voters on this issue. Friday's ABQ Journal, page 3 reported that a majority supports HB 331/346.

Here are links so you can check this out if you need to: 

Rep. Larranaga , HB 331 , HB 346

If you want, or need, to talk to me about this issue, my mobile phone is 505-217-8020.

Thanks for your consideration,
John_______________________________________________
Members mailing list
Members at noreste.org
http://noreste.org/mailman/listinfo/members_noreste.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://noreste.org/pipermail/members_noreste.org/attachments/20090308/baf0b48e/attachment-0001.html>