Action Alert – June 18th, 2020

A Message from Retake Our Democracy:
Special Session Scheduled for Noon June 18-Saturday June 20 

The special legislative session begins tomorrow, June 18, and it’s time to contact your legislators! While conservative lawmakers want you to believe their primary recourse to address the budget crisis is to cut, cut, cut, there are more creative and humane ways to address our current economic downturn than to make cuts to essential programs, especially when New Mexicans need them most. Our legislators need to hear from you!

We are not budget experts, but we know folks who are, and the smart people at New Mexico Voices for Children are some of the best. Following their lead, we ask you to contact your state House and Senate members and urge them to:

• Avoid budget cuts that harm families, children, and workers.
• Put money in the hands of New Mexicans who will spend it quickly and locally.
• Ensure all New Mexicans can meet the basic needs of their families.
• Utilize all available federal COVID relief funding.
• Utilize state reserve funds.
• Protect existing revenues and, if necessary, raise revenue by repealing ineffective corporate tax breaks and consider new revenue options such as a health insurance premium tax.

For more detailed talking points and to learn more about what we want from our legislators during this special session, go to this link for a PDF from NM Voices for Children.

It’s still unclear how public comment will be taken during the special session, and a couple of calls to the Roundhouse to ask about this remain un-returned. But you can email and call your Senator and House member today, using the talking points at the link above to urge them not to cut essential programs. We have to let our legislators know we’re listening, we’re watching, and we want what’s best for our people and environment, not the oil and gas industry or other corporate interests.

Go to this link to find contact info for your House member.

Use this link to find contact info for your Senator.

If you’re interested in pre-session committee meetings, Senate Finance, Senate Rules, House Rules, and House Appropriations and Finance are meeting today. The agendas and links to online meetings (by Zoom) are available at this page on the nmlegis.gov website. (House A & F begins at 8:30 a.m., Senate Finance at 1:30 p.m. and the other two at 1 p.m.) You’ll need to scroll down the page to Upcoming Standing Committee Meetings to find them. It appears that the public can comment, either by email or during the Zoom. If you participate, please send us a note at retakeresponse@gmail.com and let us know what you learned. Thank you!
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Upcoming Zoominar on the Benefits of Forming a NM State Public Bank

Tuesday, June 23, 6:30 – 8 p.m. join us for a conversation with experts from New Mexico’s Alliance for Economic Prosperity, the state’s public bank advocacy group; a representative from the NM Credit Union Association, which is endorsing a public bank; and a public banking expert from New Jersey who is immersed in the national public banking movement. With the state experiencing a critical budget crisis, every strategy for maximizing our financial resources is critical. Public banking has immense potential for increasing our state’s financial capacity and advancing economic justice. A bill to support public banking will likely be introduced in the 2021 legislative session, and we need activists to learn as much as they can in order to effectively advocate for this bill. Please join us to learn more about this transformational initiative. Click here to learn more and to register for this event.

Join and Pledge at this link: https://www.june2020.org/#sign

Follow-up on S&R Septic Services – (Results of our member’s actions!)