Holguin 'surprised and disappointed' by senate confirmation vote

A day after New Mexico senators rejected Neri Holguin’s nomination to the state Environmental Improvement Board she says she’s “surprised and disappointed” by the 17 to 25 vote — especially since she’s been sitting on the board since last July.

And, at least three senators say the vote appears to be, at some level, political payback for Holguin’s campaign work in 2008.

She successfully managed victories for Eric Griego and Tim Keller, who defeated sitting senators Shannon Robinson and James Taylor in a hotly contested primary race.

The New Mexico Independent reports that during the senate debate Albuquerque Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, scolded his colleagues for objecting to Holguin’s appointment.

“Suddenly to develop scruples is disingenuous and incredibly hypocritical,” he said about concerns over possible conflicts of interest.

Sen. Eric Griego also used the confirmation vote to express his support for webcasting saying, ”people need to know what happens up here. I’m learning a lot more about this body the more time I spend here.”

But, Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, told The Independent he was “afraid of politicizing this extremely important board.”

Despite not being confirmed Holguin said she “will continue to advocate for the responsible stewardship of our natural resources and the public health, safety and welfare of New Mexicans.”

Holguin is currently managing Democrat Ray Powell’s campaign for commissioner of public lands. She is also consulting for Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins 2010 campaign.

Senator wants to reshape state investment council

Sen. Tim Keller (D-ABQ)

On Monday, lawmakers on the Investment Oversight Committee will meet for the last time this before the start of next January’s 30-day session to consider three bills crafted by freshman Sen. Tim Keller (D-Albuquerque) that could dramatically reform the make up and structure of the New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) and other state money funds, which have been heavily scrutinized after losing millions of dollars.

“These funds, the ERB [the New Mexico Education Retirement Board], PERA [Public Employees Retirement Association], and SIC collectively manage tens of billions of dollars in tax payer money and have been involved in federal investigations regarding third party marketers, pay to play, financial fraud and under performance issues,” Keller said. “My intention working on many of these bills is to address the glaring structural problems relating to oversight, accountability and expertise in fund operation.”

Keller spoke out after a recent Revenue Stabilization meeting in Albuquerque. He said his bills “are critical to restoring the investment community’s faith in our state, assuring them that we have reasonable controls and qualified governing bodies.”

“After a long difficult interim with respect to the problems and performance of our state investment funds, I’m pleased the Investment Oversight Committee will be considering several proposals to help address the lack of confidence in the governance of our state investment funds,” Sen. Tim Keller said. “These bills basically say that if we are going to invest billions of tax money in ‘alternative investments’ we have to have some expertise on board to oversee the transactions and third parties.”

State's investments put under the microscope

The state investment process is under scrutiny because of a third-party marketer scandal that started in New York and has spread to at least 30 other states, most notably New Mexico.

The first of Keller’s bills, which is similar to last years SB460, would add council seats appointed by lawmakers — not by Gov. Bill Richardson which chairs the council.

Keller also hopes to address structural concerns regarding alternative investments, reporting relationship inside the chief investment office (CIO), and the hiring and firing of 3rd parties responsibilities. Keller believes it is time for legislators to providing adequate oversight for CIO hirings and the appointment of advisory committee members now controlled by the governor.

Currently in New Mexico any fund that intends to invest more than 10% in an “alternative investment” are required to create an advisory committee that then reviews all the funds transactions.

“The idea here,” Keller said, “is to ensure that there is someone in the room with relevant asset class experience to provide oversight to the hiring of third parties and investments in alternative investments.”

Bills will give Attorney General more investigative power

He wants anyone appointed to a fund review committee to have at least 10 years experience in that particular asset class. Keller said his bill would dissolve a committee if an funds investment allocation drops below 5%.

Keller’s third bill will authorize the state attorney general’s office to investigate financial fraud and changes the definition of fraud to include financial related activities.

In June, Keller released a policy memo, comparative analysis chart and another analysis document related to his proposal.

He told us that the governor’s office has assured him that they also want to consider measure that will provide additional oversight on the state’s investments.

Sen. Keller invesitgates UNM's brain drain

After reviewing the census demographic research presented to the Legislative Economic and Rural Development Committee on New Mexico’s “Brain Drain” Problem, Senator Keller has announced plans to craft legislation to help address deep structural challenges in New Mexico’s labor force.

“We can’t expect to build a rich diverse growing economy when 60% of our work force leaves the state. This is big reason why, we continue to, and may remain near the bottom of the nation when it comes to GDP and productivity. We invest in citizens’ education, we provide lottery scholarships for our Universities and our investments are walking right out of the state," said Keller.

"Like most New Mexican’s I thought most native born folks come back at some point, but this study shows that is a myth, its only 2%," said Keller. "I’m concerned about how our state competes regionally when 8 out 10 people who are born here moving to states nearby for higher paying jobs."

The UNM study conducted by Dr. Dely Alcantara found, among other things, that 60% of born New Mexican’s leave our state after schooling and only 2% return. 8 out 10 of the individuals who leave go to neighboring states. It also found the “Brain Drain” effect; those who have a higher degree are 4x more likely to leave than the average person born in New Mexico.

"The “brain drain” means there is a finite amount of good jobs that will come to our state because there simply isn’t enough talent. For economic development to stick we have to create ‘clusters’ where generations of New Mexicans are matched with good jobs in a particular industry. We’ve got craft our economic development policy to keep our top talent and bring those who’ve left home,” Senator Keller explained at the committee meeting.

He outlined several proposals that could be used to help support talent retention in our state:

• Track the long term demand for particular jobs in our state (for example the number of engineers we need over the next 10 years) and supply of labor we are graduating at our universities (the number of engineer graduates) to better inform the business community and higher education curriculum.
• Bolster our 40+ state industry incentives to include preferences for ‘returnees’ (born New Mexicans who have left) and native born New Mexicans, specific increased percentages of New Mexicans in management and ‘career path’ positions.

“This will link our business development initiatives to help stop the Brain Drain and prevent us from becoming a ‘low cost’ labor provider for the rest of the country,” Senator Keller noted.

• Refocus our incentives programs toward supporting ‘economic clusters’ which include supply chain partners for key industries rather than only for specific industries.
• Reinstate a State Planning Office to provide a long term strategic planning arm for our state government that can coordinate services, education and economic development efforts against changes in our state’s workforce demographics
• Provide greater point preferences for New Mexico companies in government contracting to help create more jobs locally
• Stream line business registration and licensing to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business is our state
• Support access to the types of financing need to support local small business job creation like entrepreneur/venture capital, micro lending, job training funding, incubators and small business lending.

Last session, Senator Keller sponsored SB 175 to add “returnees” to the JTIP program which was adopted by the program this summer. He also sponsored SJM13 requiring the states bureau of economic research to track long term workforce supply and demand. Senator Keller shared he will be drafting legislation on these topics and will introduce them next session if the topics are in line with the Governor’s call, if not they will be rolled in the next 60 day.