What New Mexicans want

New Mexico lawmakers love to say they keep busy during legislative sessions "doing the people's work."

The New Mexican asked 33 people, one from each county, what they want to see the Legislature prioritize during the 30-day session that began Tuesday.

Here are some of the responses:

Pat Lyons, Curry County

Former state senator (1993-2002) and Public Regulation Commission member Pat Lyons is running 500 head of cattle on a farm and ranch outside Clovis and is enjoying the "retired but still working" life.

Watching the state Legislature as an outsider, he said he wants lawmakers to be careful with the record revenue they are planning to pour into the budget.

"They may not have this money all the time," he said. "You have to make some nonrecurring expenses, a one-time deal. Let's use it for capital outlay money in cities and counties that need it."

His second thought: how to help keep military bases in New Mexico from closing. They provide jobs, and the people working at them spend money in local communities, he said.

The Clovis native, noting the U.S. Air Force plans to pull a special operations squadron out of the Cannon Air Force Base by 2027, wants to see the Legislature set aside money to support the bases.

"I propose setting aside $10 million [per base] for capital improvements around the base," Lyons said. "Repave the roads, improve the entryway into the bases — anything to help them cut their expenses and keep them from ending up on a closing list for bases. That'd be a big hurt to any community in which that happens."

Louie Gallegos, De Baca County

Fort Sumner Mayor Louie Gallegos, a member of the state's Rural Economic Opportunities Task Force, said lawmakers should focus on state and local infrastructure.

"The majority of our community travels to Clovis, which is 65 miles away, and some of the roads and bridges need to be redone," he said. Little else matters if New Mexico residents can't drive safely, he said.

Gallegos, mayor since 2018, was born and raised in Fort Sumner — "Billy the Kid Country," he calls it. He previously served as both a sheriff's deputy and public works director for the village, population about 1,000, he said.

A good-humored man whose hobbies include his four grandchildren, he said what he likes best about his job is "serving the public. I love my community."

Richard Randels, Quay County

Rancher Richard Randels of the small community of Montoya pulled over to the side of the road to consider what he sees as top priorities for the Legislature.

Actually, he said, he was just "thinking today who in the world I could talk to about this."

The longtime Quay County resident — he's been there since 1956 — said there is no doubt what the Legislature has to focus on for both the state and the county: Interstate 40.

"It's dangerous, dangerous, dangerous," he said, citing pot holes and noting he saw a car knocked off the side of the road by a rock recently.

He has a joke about it he likes to tell, though he knows it's not very funny: "You have to take a quilting course before you go to work for the [Department of Transportation] because all they do is patching."

Gary Piepkorn, Roosevelt County

Gary Piepkorn knows it's highly unlikely the Legislature will take action on what he considers the most pressing issue in New Mexico today.

But Piepkorn, pastor of Faith in Christ Lutheran Church in Portales, said his top priority would be a ban on abortion.

"New Mexico has got just a really terrible record in recent years of fostering the murder of innocent, unborn babies," he said.

Protecting the right to bear arms is also critical to Piepkorn.

"Anytime there's any infringement of the Second Amendment, it makes it more difficult for good people, honest people, to protect their families and others that they may protect," he said.

Kim Miller, Union County

Rancher Kim Miller has a long wish list for the Legislature, from protecting Second Amendment rights to devoting more resources to border security.

But at the top of her list is the creation of a state meat inspection program.

"Currently, we have to send most of our meat out of state to be processed and then brought back in order to sell, so we are really hoping to implement a state program," said Miller, who runs a sprawling ranch with about 600 cows and 400 yearlings alongside her husband, Red, between Clayton and Des Moines.

Efforts to create such a program, which would be housed under the New Mexico Livestock Board, have stalled at the Capitol in the past.

"It kind of just keeps getting tabled, so we would really like to see that handled at this session once and for all," said Miller, 52.

Sherrie West, Guadalupe County

Santa Rosa High School Principal Sherrie West has a decades-long résumé of public school service as a teacher at all levels: principal, literacy grant coordinator, cheer coach and school board member.

Like other educators, she will say her favorite thing about her job is helping children grow and succeed. But that's not easy to do when public education policies get in the way.

West is an opponent of a proposed rule change that would require 180 days of instruction at all public schools beginning in 2024-25 and impose new accreditation requirements. She and others say the rule would drive teachers out of the workforce and whittle away at local control of schools.

In Santa Rosa, where students go to school four days a week and the workforce is limited, adding extra hours or days to the calendar could cause problems without solving other ones, she said.

West said lawmakers also should prioritize "career technical education and making school real again and relevant to students, where students are engaged."

"We're 50th [in education] for a reason," she said. "It's time to get back to what's best for children."

Mark Murphy, Chaves County

Crime, health care and education should be the top priorities for lawmakers, said Mark Murphy, president of Stata Production Co., an oil and gas company in Roswell.

"Crime is worse in some areas than others," he said. "We know the stats in Albuquerque, but it's all over the state."

He noted the state generally ranks at the bottom of national reports on public education and has not moved from "48, 49, 50th for years." Lawmakers need to increase education funding and ensure programs are working for student success, he said.

They also should develop strategies for recruiting and retaining health care workers, especially in rural areas, he said, calling the shortage "abysmal."

With some $3.5 billion in expected new state revenue and rising inflation, he added, "immediate relief to the taxpayer could be nice" in the form of rebate checks. So far, the spending plans don't include such a provision.