The Working Class Pushed Aside and into the Shadows.

Both the executive and legislative branches of New Mexico state government have been controlled by the Democratic Party since January 2019, when Michelle Lujan Grisham became Governor.

In a story to be published Wednesday, Roundhouse Movidas and The Candle will report how Democratic Senators turned their backs on the public employees who carried out the work of the state during these past fourteen pandemic challenged months – refusing to restore the 4% pay raise passed in March of 2020, then revoked in June – and rejecting an amendment which would have provided a $15/hour minimum salary for any employee paid poverty wages via the state budget process.

But today and tomorrow we are reporting on how the Governor established a caste system which provides big pay raises for her top personnel – many receiving 20% to 50% pay raises since their arrival in 2019 – while denying the rest of the state government’s workforce a fair shake.

[Editor’s Note – May 12, 2021: Roundhouse Movidas experienced a technical event on Tuesday, and will publish later today the story referred to above that was scheduled to be filed yesterday.]

Governor’s press folks engage in some “gaslighting.”

Below is a chart compiled from public records which reflects the degree by which the Governor and her staff are out of touch with fairness – as she takes care of her favored employees, while ignoring the needs of the rest of the state’s workforce.

Back in February, Nora Sackett, one of the Governor’s press personnel, tried explaining away the big raises given to people in her office.

According to a story by Dan McKay of the Albuquerque Journal, Sackett claimed the Governor’s ““staff play a critical role in the operation of the state’s executive branch and the governance of the state – all of which is amplified during a yearlong crisis,” Sackett said. “They coordinate state departments and agencies, all of whom operate under the executive’s leadership, as outlined by the state Constitution.”“

Sackett stated the work ““has been particularly critical during the ongoing pandemic, as Governor’s Office staff have worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week to direct the state’s COVID-19 response and continue to provide important information to the public.””

And last week Sackett defended yet another huge pay raise given to the Governor’s Environmental Secretary James Kenney, providing him with a $12,480 a year increase over all other cabinet secretaries.

This time Sackett told McKay and the Journal, “…the Environment Department “has been tasked with ensuring the health and safety of workers and customers statewide, including carrying out tens of thousands of rapid responses, running the state’s wastewater surveillance testing program, and coordinating with businesses to ensure safe practices and establish mobile testing programs, all of which Secretary Kenney coordinated and executed.”

Sackett forgot to mention the workers in the NMED bureaus who actually did the testing and worked with businesses to ensure they operated safely. And she never mentioned that the Governor had presented a budget with no pay raise for those employees.

We want readers (especially government employees who have not seen a fair raise in more than a decade) to be able to look closely at how cabinet secretaries and senior spin doctors for the administration have been rewarded for the work actually performed by others – the rank and file state employees of New Mexico.

Note that the Governor’s senior advisor for worker fairness and unions, has at least advocated for one state employee – himself.

Lujan Grishams’s Policy Advisor Diego Arencon, former firefighter and union leader, appears to have received the highest raise in actual dollars ($45,000) and one of the top three highest percentage increases since he was hired a little over two years ago – a 50% increase.

Salary Winners in Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Administration

(While some of these raises represent a move from one job to another, most classified employees were prevented from any similar job advancement, especially over the last year.)