By JIM TOWNSEND

Guest Columnist

Currently the Environmental Improvement Board is considering an outlandish request of the New Mexico Environment Department to increase the fees for General Construction Permits by approximately 500 percent and without the normal Legislative oversight. This request is not being vetted through customary process. Normally each Department Secretary comes before the House Appropriations Committee and presents their plans and budget needs. That request is rolled into the overall budget of the State and then considered by the House in debate and if passed goes over to the Senate for their consideration. The Senate normally sends it through a couple of committees including Senate Finance where it is then either approved, denied or amended in the Senate and sent back to the House for approval or to be concurred with if the Senate has amended the original Bill approved by the House.

This process works. It vets the issue across party lines, and it vets the need and concurs with the plan. This is the process that has been used for decades and should continue.

But the Environment Department decided to circumvent the approved procedures and practice and ignore the Legislature and use the politically appointed Environmental Improvement Board to get what they wanted quickly and without transparency. This knee jerk reaction of theirs ignores the fact that the Governor has recently called a Special Session and this could have easily been added to the Governor’s Call List,

Jim Townsend

should they have wanted Legislative input. That’s the point, they did not want anyone asking questions. They had a plan to circumvent any oversight at the eleventh hour and hire more than 100 new employees while no one was watching. In fact, their plans prevented the Legislature long standing procedures from their chosen process.

Was their need, as they stated, to hire more that 100 new employees because of a noted increase in permits over the last 10 years or is it an orchestrated attack on one industry. Remember they have come before the Legislature for ten years and failed to mention the emergency need for 10 years. They didn’t want to justify their desires, its political, they wanted to cram it through without oversight using a politically appointed Board pure and simple.

This type of disingenuous actions is exactly why I believe we saw the ruling from the United States Supreme Court this morning. The United State Supreme Court struck down a decision known as the Chevron Decision. This ruling sharply cuts back Federal agencies ability to interpret ambiguous laws without oversight. Too many Federal agencies, and now a State agency have decided to interpret policies to guide their own political agendas. This has cost the American Taxpayers and industries that employee the taxpayer an enormous amount financially and certainly curtailed freedoms and rights by ignoring the Legislatures and Courts. This must stop and the United Stated Supreme Court just laid the foundation.

If the Legislature allows this to occur, they have failed their constituents. No Secretary or Governor from any party should be allowed to increase fees 500% without justification through legitimate processes. No Department should be able to hire employees, more than 100 employees, willy nilly. This is just another reason why people hate politics.

If some rogue Department Secretary can today increase fees on one industry by 500% then why can’t they all increase fees on all industries; Fees for banking, for home permits, for car licenses are allowed then there are no constraints on Government, and chaos will certainly and justifiably prevail.

We know that the New Mexico Environment Department has more than 140 unfilled positions, a fact he has failed to mention. That’s right Secretary Kenney has 142 unfilled positions and yet he has an “emergency” that requires another 105 full time employees. This is craziness. It is infuriating to me that we have a secretary that spins a tale of an emergency need for an additional 105 full time employees when he has 142 openings in his department. If the Secretary was so concerned with this issue why hasn’t he made the effort to fill some of those positions toward his emergency, why hasn’t he asked to Governor to address it in the upcoming special session? I believe we have identified the real emergency and that is the lack of leadership in the New Mexico Environmental Department and based on this new information about the vacancies he owes the Environmental Improvement Board and the industry an apology. Just remember this started with the need to increase fees 500%, hire 105 new employees all while he had unfilled positions in his department and failed to tell the Board of this relevant fact. Only with taxpayer money is such shenanigans allowed, in private practice this fellow would be looking for a new job, understandably.

The Environmental Improvement Board should act appropriately and deny this request in total. The EIB should note the request was out of order and without merit and send the Secretary of Environment a stiff message the rebukes the attempt to undermine the existence of the EIB by asking them to approve something that will certainly be reviewed by the Legislature and the Courts. When a politically appointed Board such as the EIB, allow themselves to be used as such, they greatly undermined their credibility and will set in motion the Legislative initiative to abolish their existence.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Townsend of Artesia is the New Mexico State Representative for House District 54.)