Today's Opinions

Time is approaching for seasonal employees

While we are still in the icy grip of winter, summer is not that far off and with it will come a small crowd of summer seasonal employees, here to work the season and looking for a place to live.
With the ever-tightening housing market in Los Alamos and the requirement for yearly leases, summer employees find it difficult to locate housing.
Los Alamos National Laboratory often dominates the scene with its summer interns and techs that visit for projects during the summer, allowing few opportunities for others. Santa Fe and Española have housing available, but the distance and price make it much more costly and less efficient.
Most summer seasonals will start their season in April or May (some even earlier) and finish up in the fall around October. If you have a small apartment, efficiency or room available that you would be willing to rent for less than the usual 12 months, to an outgoing, pleasant, quiet, hardworking (hopefully) person, please let me know and I can pass on this information to those who are looking for a place to stay this summer.
Brian Kliesen
White Rock

Apologies to drivers
running amok around town

How do you want people to think about your community?
If you live in Carlsbad, the nation currently knows your town through a Facebook post. If you live in Santa Fe, the nation has heard about Santa Fe’s declaration as a sanctuary city.
 In case you were abducted by aliens, Carlsbad City Councilor J. R. Doporto said on Facebook: “Just want to give a heads up to the women! You have rights! A right to cook and a right to clean. Today is Sunday and the NFL playoffs our (sic) on! I suggest you stop your b!tch!ng/protesting during this time. Because you also have a right to get slapped!”
For that, he lost his job.
Doporto has said he was just joking and claims his right to freedom of speech has been violated. His wife says he’s a good husband and father.
I’m not going to rant about the post – plenty of other people have done that. My concern – and I write about this periodically – is how New Mexico is perceived on the outside.
Doporto’s post made news all over New Mexico and, after Cox Media Group and the Huffington Post picked it up, across the nation. For a community that’s dependent in part on tourists, this isn’t healthy.

Three little words will generate a lot of heated words during this legislative session: To be determined.
This is how the Legislative Finance Committee, meeting between April and December, indicates the source of money to help balance the budget in fiscal 2018. “To be determined” is shorthand for more cuts on top of cuts already made or new revenue in the form of tax increases.
Before you jump to a conclusion about that choice, take a minute to grasp where we are. The choices made in this session will decide how poor New Mexico will be in coming years.
All the usual clichés about “belt tightening,” “trimming the fat,” “low hanging fruit” and “right-sizing” no longer apply. In previous years, the governor and Legislature have made across-the-board cuts to state agencies, and those cuts continue. This year, they have to decide who gets hurt.
The proposed victims, according to proposals from the executive and legislative branches, are schools, higher education (big time), courts, fire departments, law enforcement, economic development, water, tribes, local communities, state employees and teachers, and wildlife.
Let’s see, did they miss anybody? Our unpaid legislators even cut their own feed bill, which funds the current session.