Three lawmakers endorse Powell for Land Office

Jeff Steinborn (left), Ray Powell, Nate Cote, Steve Fischmann at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe on Monday.

Democrat Ray Powell, a primary candidate for commissioner of public lands this year, picked up endorsements from three Doña Ana County lawmakers on Monday.

Sen. Steve Fischmann and representatives Jeff Steinborn and Nate Cote said they will back Powell “because of his commitment to reforming the State Land Office and re-establishing an and open and transparent administration.”

In 2009, all three lawmakers proposed legislation to reform the State Land Office after a land exchange on Las Cruces’ East Mesa.

“Ray Powell is the reform candidate,” Sen. Fischmann said. “He’s who I trust. It’s no question that we need him back at the Land Office.”

“The stakes are high. With Ray, he’ll bring much needed stability back to the Land Office,” Steinborn said. “He’s ethical, principled and knows how to work with communities to maximize the dollars returned to the land office and ultimately our schools.”

“When Ray Powell served as land commissioner, he was recognized for running one of the best land management agencies in the country,” Cote said. “Right now, the Land Office is in crisis, and we are desperately in need of leadership we can trust.”

Ray Powell, a veterinarian, who previously served as land commissioner from 1993-2002, is currently employed as a regional director for the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research Education and Conservation in the western United States, said “these legislators have been instrumental in exposing the behind-the-scene deals happening at the Land Office.”

“I’m eager to clean the place up. I look forward to working with these outstanding leaders to ensure real reform is enacted to protect our public lands and the significant revenues they generate for our public schools, universities, and hospitals,” Powell said after receiving the endorsements.

Powell face Santa Fe County Commissioners Harry Montoya and Mike Anaya, and PRC Commissioner Sandy Jones in the Democratic primary this June.

Earlier this month, Jones, who is currently a Public Regulation Commissioner, was endorsed by the New Mexico Professional Fire Fighters Union, New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 611, Iron Workers Local 490, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 412 and Lordsburg Mayor Arthur Clark Smith.

Four Republicans are also running in the primary, including oilman Spirio Vassilopoulos, Jim Jackson, who took a leave of absence from the land office to campaign for the post; cattle rancher Matt Rush; and GOP activist Bob Cornelius.

Op-Ed: More Energy, More Jobs, More Revenue

"We can’t afford to lose more jobs by raising taxes" state land commissioner candidate Bob Cornelius says.

As our State Legislature convenes in Santa Fe, many legislators have offered several proposals to raise revenue for our budget deficit by raising taxes on the poor by increasing taxes on food. We’ve also seen proposals to tax the “rich” by raising income taxes. There’s even talk of raising our gross receipts tax on business. I am amazed that our elected officials would even consider raising taxes during a time of recession in our state.

What the Richardson-Denish administration and the Democrat led State Legislature fail to see is that higher taxes won’t create more revenue, it will create less. If they raise the tax on food, people will shop less and go hungry more often. If they raise income taxes, people will move out of the state and look for a new job. If they raise the gross receipts tax, businesses will have to find ways to make up the financial hit and that usually means they will layoff some employees or take their company and their jobs to a state that is more business-friendly. According to a report from the NM Department of Workforce Solutions, New Mexico lost over 43,000 jobs in 2009. We can’t afford to lose more jobs by raising taxes.

The easiest way to raise revenue is to create jobs. More jobs mean more people paying income taxes, buying more food, and more businesses doing more work which increases the state’s revenue from the gross receipts tax. The most likely place for new jobs to be created is in the area of energy, both traditional forms like oil and natural gas and by creating a new energy economy to include wind, solar, clean coal, biogas, hydro and eventually nuclear.

Unfortunately for New Mexico, the same Legislature that wants to raise your taxes, has also created over-burdensome regulations on energy that have attributed to the 43,000 jobs lost and will continue to cause more people to lose their job if steps are not taken to ratify the situation.

Revise the Pit Rule instead of raising taxes

Instead of raising your taxes, the State Legislature needs to take a look at revising the “pit rule” policy created by the Oil Conservation Division. This policy is not law, but it has effectively killed thousands of jobs in the oil, natural gas, and mining industries. This rule adds an additional $150,000-$250,000 to the price of every well a company drills, depending on which part of the state the company drills. If we eased the regulation, a company could spend that $250,000 to create eight jobs that pay over $15 an hour. That was just for drilling one well. Ideally, these companies could hire more people and do more energy exploration. The company would pay more gross receipts taxes, the new employees would pay income taxes and could afford to buy more food for their families. The tax revenue created would help the budget crisis and with oil and natural gas prices recovering, a percentage of the revenue from the minerals would go into the Land Grant Permanent Fund which funds Pre-K through 12th grade education and our colleges in New Mexico.

Along with the revised regulations, I am proposing that the State Land Commissioner work with climatologists and geologists to locate ideal areas for the creation of “green job zones”. These studies would allow us to target areas of state land where renewables like solar and wind could produce the most energy. With the proposed Tres Amigas power plant outside of Clovis connecting major electrical grids and the Legislature’s mandate that local utility companies use 20% renewable energy to create electricity, there is an already made market demand for renewable energy businesses to come in, create thousands of jobs and produce billions of dollars of new revenue for this state.

This could all be accomplished in this 30 day session of the State Legislature. Instead of arguing over which taxes to raise and on whom taxes will be raised, the Legislature could be working to foster a climate for job growth and real revenue enhancements. We can solve this budget crisis by being proactive and taking a new way forward, instead of trying the old failed policies of the past.

The plan is simple: More Energy, More Jobs, More Revenue.

Cornelius Considering Running for NM Public Land Commissioner in 2010

Self-described conservative Republican Bob Cornelius gave us the word this weekend that he's formed an Exploratory Committee and intends to seek his party's nomination for New Mexico's Commissioner of Public Lands.

In April, former two-term Land Commissioner Ray Powell, who served from 1993-2000 and still has his 2006 cambpaign website active , told blogger Heath Haussaman that he was going to seek the Democratic Party nomination in 2010.

Powell lost a close primary election, in 2006, to former Land Commissioner Jim Baca.

Cornelius, a native of Tatum in Lea County and a graduate of Eastern New Mexico, has launched a campaign website, I'm Backing Bob, here.

Cornelius is a long-time GOP activist and Co-owner and Executive Vice President of Petro Verde. A company he said he started to both build and promote alternative and renewable fuel sources in New Mexico and beyond. He is also a fraud investigator employed by the NM Public Regulation Commission.

Corneilus said he has a unique perspective to add to the State Land Office because he grew up in Southern New Mexico:

Oil and gas are the backbone of our economy, but I believe that we must diversify in order to provide new jobs, sustain growth, and to insure that our future generations have every opportunity to succeed.

In his announcement, Corneilus states that he has an appreciation for the state's beauty and its people and pledges to be "an avid protector of our public lands, assuring they will be preserved for future generations.

Current GOP State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons, the only Republican to hold a current state office, has several run ins with the state's attorney general's office because of lease agreements given to a political donor, will be term-limited out of office next year.

Corneilus said:

Commissioner Lyons has served New Mexico well. I wish him the best as he seeks to become a Public Regulation Commissioner. Pat oversaw record breaking oil and gas revenues that have benefitted all New Mexicans. I applaud these efforts, but believe that the State Land office can continue to improve in the areas of promoting alternative energy and job growth, as well as assisting our communities with special projects.

Cornelius tells us he's traveling the state to discuss his possible candidacy with concerned citizens, elected officials, and business leaders. He will make a formal decision about his candidacy this summer.