Longtime advocate Allen Sánchez argues that Constitutional Amendment 4 would broaden the pool of legislative candidates by allowing New Mexico lawmakers to receive salaries.

Allen Sánchez, legislative advocate

As a veteran advocate with 25 years of working on both sides of the aisle, I have met incredible people serving in the state Legislature. During this time, I’ve also known that many could not continue to serve because of the financial burden created by being away from their jobs during the legislative session, or could not attend interim committees, educational forums, constituent gatherings and town halls.

There are many ethical reforms needed, and all seem to agree on this. The first reform is to widen the pool of candidates who will bring a more inclusive representation of all residents of the state. Right now, as the only volunteer legislature in the nation, we have restricted that pool down to a legislative machine that has fewer cogs, which prevents traction on important legislation. This creates a situation of a smaller number of gears and is not a robust, well-oiled machine.

Constitutional Amendment 4, which is on the ballot, will bring greater opportunity, allowing legislators from all walks of life to have the financial support to give their undivided attention to the important needs of the people of the state of New Mexico.

I commend and recognize the sacrifices that so many legislators have made to be able to serve, but financial hardship for them and their families should not be the price to pay for good government. After the passage of Constitutional Amendment 4, there will be healthier competition for leadership in the state. As advocates, we discern and promote or oppose legislation, but we are barred from the political process of elevating candidates. We have to lobby the legislators that the people send us. That larger pool of candidates will reflect more clearly the needs of the rich and poor, and my hope is that this broadening of the pool will also bring an appetite for reform and implementation of all long-awaited ethics. Pick up any New Mexico newspaper and you see the ongoing ethical problems we have experienced.

I have had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the passage of remarkable pieces of legislation. When the legislators have the time to discern complicated issues, good things happen, but that time should not be, for example, 18 years of waiting to ban cockfighting, or a decade to repeal the death penalty, or another decade to address early childhood education, or a two-decade fight over a food tax.

The time that a legislator can commit to the understanding of proposed legislation, good or bad, benefits us all. I do not know many people who would be willing to work for almost nothing, only to know that down the road they would have retirement. The retirement of the legislators is an issue and that issue is not on the ballot this time; if you favor or oppose it, that’s a fight for another day.

The fight today is to gain us the expertise that so many New Mexicans would like to offer but who do not have the financial advantage of stepping away from their careers for months. Forty-nine states have stepped out of the archaic economy of legislation — we should become the 50th state to pay its legislators a just salary.

Allen Sánchez is a longtime advocate for the people of New Mexico with a record of landmark legislative victories, including the constitutional amendment for early childhood, the repeal of the state food tax and the expansion of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. A recipient of the 2019 Alice King Public Service Award, Allen has served on the Governor’s Task Force to Reduce Poverty, the Governor’s Council on Racial Justice and the advisory council for the Early Childhood Education and Care Department. In 2024, he was appointed to the New Mexico State Investment Council, which manages the state’s sovereign wealth fund.