If legislators want to represent us, they should live like us

 Every day, New Mexicans make choices based on what they can afford.

We notice when the grocery bill goes up. We feel it when filling the gas tank costs more than it did last month. We know what happens to a family budget when rent increases, childcare gets more expensive or an unexpected medical bill arrives.

Nurses know it. Teachers know it. Firefighters know it. Small business owners know it. Working families across New Mexico know it.

The people making decisions on our behalf in Santa Fe should understand that reality, too. If they want to represent us, they should live like us.

That is one reason the way Amendment 4 approaches legislative compensation matters.

Amendment 4 would allow New Mexico legislators to receive a salary, but it would not give them a blank check or allow them to simply decide what they think they should be paid. Instead, legislative compensation would be tied to New Mexico's median household income.

In other words, what legislators make would be connected to what New Mexican households make.

That creates a simple principle: no more and no less.

There is something important about tying the financial reality of our elected representatives to the financial reality of the people they represent.

Legislators make decisions about health care, education, housing, taxes, jobs and the cost of living. Those decisions affect whether a nurse can afford a home near the hospital where they work. They affect whether a teacher can stay in the profession. They affect whether a small business owner can keep the doors open and make payroll. They affect whether families have a little breathing room at the end of the month or have to decide which bill can wait.

We should want people making those decisions who understand what it means to live on a New Mexico household income.

Our current system does not guarantee that.

New Mexico is one of the few states where legislators do not receive a salary for their work. That means serving in the Legislature can be much easier for someone who is retired, independently wealthy or has a job flexible enough to accommodate weeks away from work than it is for someone living paycheck to paycheck.

Think about what that means for a firefighter, teacher, nurse or small business owner considering public service.

Could you leave your job for weeks at a time without a paycheck? Could you keep paying your mortgage or rent? Could you arrange childcare? Could your small business operate without you? Could you afford to do all of that while still meeting the demands of representing thousands of constituents?

For many New Mexicans, the answer is no.

And when ordinary working people cannot afford to serve, we risk losing their voices in the place where some of the state's most consequential decisions are made.

Paying legislators will not magically make every elected official understand every struggle New Mexicans face. Nor will agreeing on a salary mean we will agree with every decision they make.

But the structure matters.

If legislators' salaries are tied to New Mexico's median household income, their compensation remains connected to the economic circumstances of the state they represent.

Our Legislature should include people who know what it is like to make payroll, work a shift, raise children, pay a mortgage and watch the price at the grocery store.

New Mexicans deserve representatives who understand our lives because they live here, work here and face many of the same economic pressures we do.

If they want to represent us, they should live like us.

Jason Bloomer, MSN, RN, CCRN, is a registered nurse and president of the New Mexico Nurses Association, which represents and advocates for nurses across the state.