Ethics commission requires adequate funding

Why have a state ethics commission if the Legislature won’t fund it adequately? Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has proposed $385,000 to supplement $500,000 already appropriated but the House-passed version of the $7.6 billion state budget is far short of what’s needed. Long-term, the governor thinks the commission will need some $1.2 million a year to operate at proper strength.

The newly established ethics commission is supposed to answer complaints about campaign finances, government contracting, lobbyist gifts and more — for elected officials and public employees, as well as lobbyists and political candidates. The money to fund the office will go to pay for investigations, hire hearing officers and otherwise conduct its business.

So far, the commission has no complaints, but its area of responsibility goes back only to July 1, 2019, when the law enabling the body went into effect. The state budget has now reached the Senate, where senators should restore a more adequate funding. Otherwise, why have an ethics commission?

Given the numerous cases of state corruption in recent years, everything from a secretary of state found to be embezzling from her campaign funds to gamble and a state senator who used his elected position to profit from the sale of a state building, it’s not as though eventually the commission won’t have plenty to do.

Voters supported creating the commission back in 2018, just after the high-profile scandals. They were just the latest in what has been a deplorable tendency of too many officials to treat public or campaign funds as personal piggy banks.

New Mexico must do better, because corruption is one reason often cited as a barrier to growth. Having a flourishing economy or even a strong public school system is more difficult when too many of the folks in charge are focused on lining their pockets.

Over the years, we all have become familiar with tales of embezzlement in local school districts or under-the-table payments to secure contracts or even low-level instances of corruption of officials using government equipment to pave private roads. All of that leads to erosion of trust in our systems and decreases the effectiveness of government.

Yet our leaders don’t seem to be paying enough attention. Despite the enthusiasm of voters — 75 percent of them mandated the ethics commission creation through a constitutional amendment — the Legislature almost failed to set it up in 2019.

Common Cause New Mexico would like to see funding of $1.2 million. Low-ball appropriations make it seem that lawmakers don’t want an ethics commission equipped with the proper tools to do its job. Supporters of this good government project have said they might seek additional sources of funding. We like that idea but believe the Legislature should increase the commission’s funding. This is a public responsibility, after all.

New Mexicans have to stop bemoaning the way things are and become committed to making changes that will improve our state — that includes operating ethical, transparent government.

As The New Mexican’s Michael Gerstein reported Sunday, citizen legislators have many potential conflicts of interest, across all parties and in both Houses of government.

Lobbyists are married to legislators. Legislators who are lawyers see their clients backing legislation. Many legislators are public employees, and any changes they make to public retirement systems or salaries can directly affect their paychecks and retirement systems. Others are involved in oil and gas, run cattle, serve in health care or work for financial industries, all of which are affected by laws coming out of Santa Fe. When does a conflict of interest become problematic?

One important job for the new ethics commission — with Director Jeremy Farris and its seven appointed commissioners — will be to develop a code of conduct for elected officials and public employees that better spells out potential conflicts of interest, especially identifying situations where legislators should recuse themselves from votes. That’s just another reason the body needs proper funding.

Citizens wanted an ethics commission. Now that New Mexico has one, it flies against the will of the people to fund it so poorly that it will fail to do an adequate job. Legislators wouldn’t want that. Or do they?