{"id":44365,"date":"2021-10-07T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-lunches-earn-business-access-to-new-mexico-lawmakers\/"},"modified":"2021-10-07T20:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:05:00","slug":"free-lunches-earn-business-access-to-new-mexico-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-lunches-earn-business-access-to-new-mexico-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Free lunches earn business access to New Mexico lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Republican
Republican state Sen. Gay Kernan of Hobbs takes a lunch paid for by a lobbyist on Wednesday in Santa Fe. The internet provider Comcast paid for Tuesday\u2019s lunch for members of the Legislative Education Study Committee, and Amplify Education paid for lunch on Monday. Both companies do business with school districts or the state\u2019s education department, which are funded by the Legislature. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 Companies clamoring for contracts on internet services and student testing are buying legislators free lunches at meetings about education policy. It\u2019s a legal and a frequent practice that some people find unappetizing.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Democratic and Republican state legislators and their policy staff members enjoyed enchiladas, roast beef sandwiches, steak salads and other entrees with soft drinks and sides \u201cSponsored by Comcast,” according to an agenda released by the Legislative Education Study Committee.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government says that as long as they are disclosed, it\u2019s legal for companies to buy legislators lunches and give gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the public needs to ask \u2018Why are they doing that?\u2019\u201d said Melanie Majors, the foundation\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the industry didn\u2019t want anything from the legislators, then why would they be providing them with lunches?\u201d New Mexico Ethics Watch Executive Director Kathleen Sabo said. \u201cIt\u2019s just human nature. If somebody gives you something, … you\u2019re going to react more favorably to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Democratic
Democratic state Sen. Harold Pope of Albuquerque takes a lunch paid for by a lobbyist on Wednesday in Santa Fe. The internet provider Comcast paid for Tuesday\u2019s lunch for members of the Legislative Education Study Committee, and Amplify Education paid for lunch on Monday. Both companies do business with school districts or the state\u2019s education department, which are funded by the Legislature. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comcast\u2019s name also appeared before the committee on Monday in a budget comparing cost estimates from internet vendors collected by a school district in southern New Mexico. The Comcast estimate district was around $1.6 million.<\/p>\n

About two dozen districts are required to prepare plans to provide internet to students because of a state court ruling,<\/a> and legislators are deciding if they will provide additional support to districts when they meet in February for a 30-day lawmaking session.<\/p>\n

Legislators don\u2019t award internet or testing contracts and can\u2019t enrich companies directly.<\/p>\n

But they have considered legislation that would make it easier and cheaper for Comcast to expand its costly internet delivery system, which involves the laying of a physical cable, sometimes along trenches controlled by the state or public utilities.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Gay Kernan of Hobbs said sponsored lunches have been common practice in her 19 years serving the Legislature, and that a sandwich can\u2019t buy her vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t influence me one way or the other,\u201d said Kernan, adding that she doesn\u2019t decide which companies the education department selects for contracts.<\/p>\n

A former state legislator who says he refused to accept as much as a bottle of water from lobbyists believes there is a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appearance of impropriety is always there when you accept something free, No. 1. No. 2 is only the legislator themselves know whether or not they\u2019re being influenced,\u201d said retired Republican representative Jim Dines, a former attorney who now lives in Lubbock, Texas.<\/p>\n

Dines lost his seat to a Democrat in 2018, after serving in the state House for three years.<\/p>\n

More recently, lawmakers have called for tightening disclosure laws. Two proposed this year never got a vote<\/a>, however.<\/p>\n

As committee chairman, Democrat Sen. Bill Soules of Las Cruces, has final authority over which businesses get to pay for lunch, which can earn them a few minutes to pitch their products to legislators. Soules said that he delegates the decision to staff members. He echoed colleagues who said the lunches don\u2019t affect their votes.<\/p>\n

Many legislators including Kernan say they are happy to accept free lunches in part because they are some of the few legislators in the country who don\u2019t get a salary. They are eligible for a pension after 10 years of service and receive a daily stipend to offset travel costs. Kernan says the stipend is not enough to pay for lunches.<\/p>\n

Sabo with New Mexico Ethics Watch is a former legislative aide who says staff members and legislators depend on food during the legislative sessions and interim committee hearings.<\/p>\n

She estimates it could cost around $50,000 to provide legislators with meals, and has drafted a law that would pay for their food. She has shopped it around to legislators for the past two years and is still looking for one to sponsor it.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s lunch was sponsored by Amplify Education Inc., a competitor of New Mexico\u2019s current vendor for standardized testing among grade school students, called Istation.<\/p>\n

Amplify currently has contracts for some science education curriculum but wants to do more business with the state, according to Kernan\u2019s account of their presentation.<\/p>\n

She said she likes Istation and wouldn\u2019t advocate for Amplify to replace its annual testing. But she welcomed \u201cthe opportunity to learn from Amplify\u201d about mid-semester testing service.<\/p>\n

Amplify began lobbying in New Mexico this year and is required to disclose Monday\u2019s lunch in a tri-annual disclosure that was Thursday. In North Carolina, Amplify Education lost a bid for testing to Istation and complained to state officials in what became a lengthy administrative dispute it <\/a>ultimately won<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lobbyist registered on behalf of both Comcast and Amplify, Joe Thompson, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Comcast spokeswoman Julianne Phares said the company didn\u2019t present any products at Tuesday\u2019s lunch. She declined to comment about what the company hopes to gain by sponsoring the lunch, or how much it cost.<\/p>\n

Amplify Education denied sponsoring the lunch, calling the listing of the company on the committee’s agenda an \u201cerror.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed up, and we were surprised to see that our name was on the agenda, to see that we were listed as a sponsor,\u201d said Amplify spokeswoman Kay Moffett. \u201cIt\u2019s not our typical practice to entertain legislators.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes before the initial publication of this story on Wednesday, Thompson filed a disclosure for Monday\u2019s lunch listing himself, and not Amplify, as the sponsor, according to documents filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State. Amplify Education is Thompson\u2019s only education client, according to disclosures.<\/p>\n

Moffett said that another of the company\u2019s lobbyists met with Kernan for 15 minutes in the Senate lounge, but did not give a formal presentation.<\/p>\n

Because the lunch was reported on Oct. 4, on the first day of a three-times-per-year reporting window, the Comcast disclosure won\u2019t be public until Jan. 15, after legislation is beginning to be filed for the 2022 legislative session.<\/p>\n

Dines, the retired legislator, said disclosure laws don\u2019t fully inform voters of the influence money has over elected officials. State law limits lobbyists to giving $1,000 to anyone legislator or state employee but doesn’t require them to report gifts, including who accepts a lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the public doesn\u2019t see is how much does that all amount to over a period of a year from a dollar or value standpoint,\u201d Dines said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican state Sen. Gay Kernan of Hobbs takes a lunch paid for by a lobbyist on Wednesday in Santa Fe. The internet provider Comcast paid for Tuesday\u2019s lunch for members of the Legislative Education Study Committee, and Amplify Education paid for lunch on Monday. Both companies do business with school districts or the state\u2019s education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44365"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}