30-Day Session Moves at Fast Pace

State Rep. Jim Smith is not messing around. He wants to see some of the state's money go directly into early childhood reading.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Smith, R-Sandia Park, said he wants the cash market to fund reading programs for the state's young people.

"That's what is going on today in a big way," he said.

Actually, it's one of many things that are all going on, he said.

Smith is co-sponsoring a bill with state Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, to give tax credits to companies that hire recent graduates. Senate Bill 16 would give about a $5,000 break to the state's employers who employ people educated in medical or technical fields.

"The problem is these graduates leave the state," he said. "We want to keep them here."

He's also reintroducing a bill to amend one of the state's sunshine laws, the Open Meetings Act, to require municipal governments and other agencies to post their agendas 72 hours before a meeting.

That's two days earlier than the current requirement. House Bill 35 would also require municipalities that have a website to use it to post their agendas.

"If they don't have a website, they don't have to," he said. "We don't want to make it an economic burden."

Smith also introduced a resolution to amend the state constitution.

If passed, HJR 18 will affect legislators who, at their day-job, receive public money. It would force them to take annual leave or leave without pay to attend the legislative session.

Smith is one of those. He is a science teacher at East Mountain High School, and he is not getting paid by the school to work in the roundhouse, he said.

"I'm up here and I go on an unpaid leave of absence from my school," he said.

Smith said he simply wants to level the playing field, and to make sure that legislators aren't getting paid twice by the state.

While trying to push those things through, Smith is also going to meetings with the House Appropriations Committee that drag on into the night.

Smith is serving his first term as legislator and this, his first 30-day session, is moving along at a pretty good clip, he said.

In fact, most often the state budget is the only big item that gets accomplished during one of these sessions.

"The pace is a lot faster in a 30-day session," he said. "A whole lot of information that we look at in a very short period of time."