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Welcome to
the e-Voices MONDAY MINUTE, your weekly email newsletter from New
Mexico Voices for Children. Please take a minute to add your voice
to the pressing issues of the day. Also, tell us what issues you'd like
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Last year Alaska Senator Ted Stevens got a $453 million slab of ham out of a highway funding bill, in part to build the now-infamous 'bridge to nowhere,' which connects an island of fewer than 50 people to the rest of civilization. Or as close as Alaska gets to civilization. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn thought that money might be better spent repairing Katrina-damaged Interstate 10. You remember I-10. The only road out of New Orleans when the 'big one' hits. When the Senate threatened to cut Stevens' pork project, Stevens threatened to resign. Sadly, neither happened. But since then, the idea of giving the president a line-item veto has been a popular one. And it would be a good way to cut pork out of bloated budgets -- if it stopped there. Unfortunately, the line-item veto bill under consideration this week by the Senate Budget Committee (S. 2381), does that and a whole lot more. Too much more. As written, S. 2381 would allow the president to veto funding from children's programs such as Head Start, childcare, or child-abuse prevention. He would also have the power to rewrite any improvements that Congress makes to entitlement programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc.) that increase costs. And while the president would have the power to pick and choose where to use his veto pen, Congress would be limited to overriding the entire package of cuts -- not a specific veto or two. It's an all-or-nothing approach that consolidates too much power within one branch of government. Fortunately for us New Mexicans we have an "in" with the Senate Budget Committee - Senator Pete Domenici. Write or call the senator, tell him your concerns over such a broad bill, and ask that he recommend narrowing its scope to just so-called pork projects. Email (via
the website): http://domenici.senate.gov Happy Days are Here Again (or Soon Will Be) Albuquerque's new minimum wage increase won't go into effect until January of 2007, but reports just released on the economic impact of similar raises in Florida and elsewhere indicate that the new year may bring good news. The Florida study, commissioned by ACORN from the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, took a look at changes in that state's economy on the one-year anniversary of their voter-mandated raise. Researchers looked at unemployment, the health of the industries most affected by the raise, and business attrition. The data indicate either no change or positive changes both over past years and in relation to the rest of the country for the same time period. Check out the whole report at: http://www.risep-fiu.org/reports/Florida_Minimum_Wage_Report.pdf The Policy Matters Ohio report, "Good for Business" tells much the same tale as the Fiscal Policy Institute report ("States with Minimum Wages above the Federal level have had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth") that was released earlier this year. Both reports compared small business growth in states that have raised the minimum wage against those that have not. Both reports found that employment and small business growth was higher where the minimum wage was higher. Kinda makes you wonder what all the anti-minimum wage increase fuss was really about. Take a look
at the Policy Matters Ohio report at: Vote Early The primaries are June 6th, but early voting has begun. We'll be selecting the candidates we want to see on the November ballot for several key local and national positions. Since studies have shown that civil participation is a learned behavior, we recommend that you take your kids along with you to the polls for a real-world civics lesson. To find out
where to vote early, contact your county clerk's office or party headquarters:
U.S. House,
Dist. 1 U.S. House,
Dist. 2 U.S. House,
Dist. 3 Governor Lieutenant
Governor State Auditor Attorney
General Land Commissioner |