New Mexico State Legislator seeks Bush impeachment

By KRQE

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SANTA FE -- The 60-day session of the state Legislature convenes today with the agenda including cockfighting, water, minimum wages and a call for the impeachment of President Bush and his vice president.

The session opens at noon with Gov. Bill Richardson delivering his State of the State speech soon thereafter.

Lawmakers won't finish up until mid-March.

Richardson has already dubbed this the “year of water" with money for water projects statewide.

With 60-days to deliberate there will be a lot served up on the lawmakers' table.

When time ran out on last year’s 30-day session, a lot was left on the table unsettled.

Lawmakers say you can expect to see those items again this year.

That includes raising the state minimum wage to $7.50 an hour over a two-year period similar to what Albuquerque and Santa Fe have already done.

Also on the agenda:

* A 7-percent-plus raise for teachers costing about $69 million.

* Health insurance for low-income working New Mexicans; $77 million.

* $100 million-plus for water with money for long-term plans to deal with drought.

* An attempt to ban cockfighting again ruffling feathers although this time the effort has Richardson’s backing.

Sixty days also allows lawmakers more opportunity to present pet projects and platforms like the resolution asking congress to begin investigation and impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The author, Sen. Gerald Ortiz Y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said he's been getting calls and e-mails.

“Personal messages from people who said, ‘Wow, I'm glad you're doing it; it's something we should be doing.” Ortiz Y Pino said. “This particularly built up after the president's speech last week when people began feeling like this guy is not listening to anything going on in the country.”

There are constitutional provisions allowing states to make such requests of Congress, he added.

The governor wants to increase state spending to more than $5.5 billion, an 11-percent increase over this year. Expect a lot of debate over that.

And on the national scale, Richardson has said he expects to announce whether he will run for president some time between the opening of the session and the end of the month.

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PLEASE CALL AND THANK STATE SENATOR GERALD ORTIZ Y PINO: (505) 265-3717 OR SEND HIM A NOTE