The next legislative session may not begin until January, but UNM already has the lobbying ball rolling.
UNM President Louis Caldera will solicit proposals from faculty, staff and students to formulate UNM's legislative agenda, said Carlos Romero, director of government affairs.
"He believes that the process should be as transparent as possible, and it should receive as much campus input as possible," Romero said.
An advisory committee, which Romero said he expects will be named within a few days, will evaluate and rank the proposals.
Caldera will then review the recommendations and send them to the Board of Regents for approval.
He said the process of putting together legislative priorities will probably have more campus input next year because of time constraints.
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The regents have already voted on the legislative priority list that goes to the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education. At their Aug. 10 meeting, they approved six special projects.
The commission makes higher-education funding recommendations to the Legislature.
The deadline to submit priorities to the commission is Aug. 31, said Curt Porter, UNM budget director. In the past, that list was the only list of legislative priorities, he said.
Romero, who came on as UNM's lobbyist in July, is responsible for spearheading the University's lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels.
He said growing up in northern New Mexico where he got to view the Legislature firsthand gives him a unique perspective.
"I grew up 20 miles from the Capitol," Romero said.
He also credits growing up in Espa§ola surrounded by a mix of cultures with helping him develop the "art of being able to work with groups of people who are passionate about what they believe."
Romero has spent his first seven weeks at UNM talking with as many people as he could.
"There's a lot more to UNM than what I thought," he said.
Romero is already looking at initiatives such as faculty compensation packages, construction in the School of Engineering and money for the backlog of deferred maintenance.
Deferred maintenance refers to building renewal and replacement work put on hold until funding is available.
Funding for the Centennial Engineering Complex has been UNM's No. 1 capital outlay project since 2002 when the project started, said Roger Lujan, director of facility planning.
He said UNM will ask the Legislature for $20.9 million. The entire project is estimated at $30.8 million, with the School of Engineering raising $5 million in private funds, Lujan said. Money for the project is also in a bond issue up for vote in the November elections.
Romero also plans to ask the Legislature to address research faculty retirement.
If retired faculty wish to return to UNM, they have to sit out a year before coming back. They can also earn only a certain amount of money or pay a large amount back into the retirement system, Romero said.
If professors have to do that, "they'll just go somewhere else with their research," he said.
The measure died in the Senate Finance Committee last session.
The next legislative session begins Jan. 18 and lasts 60 days.
