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Real News For Real New Mexicans.
The Chile Wire with Abe Baldonado. Hello, and welcome to The Chile Wire episode six, and thank you for joining us today. I am delighted to introduce my guest, Carla Sontag, president and CEO of the New Mexico Business Coalition. Carla, thank you for joining us on The Chile Wire.
Carla Sonntag:Thanks for having me.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. Well, Carla, there's a lot of stuff that we're gonna talk about today, but I just wanna give you an opportunity to share with us a little bit about the New Mexico Business Coalition, who you represent, and what you do.
Carla Sonntag:So we represent businesses from sole proprietors to international businesses and individuals. We're a little bit different that way. There are a lot of individuals that really support the business community because they know that's the backbone or should be the backbone of the state. And so the reason I started it sixteen years ago is I I was looking for somebody who had a strong voice for business, who wouldn't compromise just to get along with elected officials, but to really say what needed to be said. And I really couldn't find that organization I was looking for that I wanted to help.
Carla Sonntag:We need a little
Abe Baldonado:bit more of that in Santa Fe these days.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. So that's why I started the business coalition. So we're known for being very outspoken about business policy. We are nonpartisan, and we'll work across the aisle. We don't care.
Carla Sonntag:We just want good business policy in the state.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. And I think more people are craving that as well. But we know nationally, we're known as a state that's not business friendly, Yes. And Carla, so today, I know you came out with a legislative scorecard and looking at that, and we'll share with our viewers on the screen so you can see what we're talking about. We'll also provide you a link to take a look at this as well, because I think a lot of you may not know how your legislator is doing and how they're voting and what they're doing.
Abe Baldonado:And Carla has done a fantastic job to know, hey, here's some legislators that maybe are not pro business and voting anti business policies. But Carla, I think, you know, what motivated the scorecard? Is this something new? Is this something you've been doing for a long time? And how can it be you for not just people like me, but even our viewers?
Abe Baldonado:Well, we started
Carla Sonntag:it several years ago. And the reason is, honestly, before I started doing this work, I was a low information voter, which meant I really didn't know a lot about the people I was going to elect, and I felt bad about that. Every time I'd show up to vote, I was I was steadfast in voting, but I really didn't know about. A lot of people don't. They don't have the time to do the research.
Carla Sonntag:And so this is a really good tool to understand if you care about business, how your legislator is voting either for or against business. To us, it's critical because we can't change policy in the state. We can't get the state really humming until we have more elected officials who really care about that as an issue and want to promote business in our state.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. You know, a significant business coalition in New Mexico, you know, not just small business, but large industry as well. And often times, you know, their voices may not be heard in Santa Fe. And so it's great to have a group that does something like that. I'll tell you, looking at the the scorecard, I've I noticed that there was a lot of f's.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:It's gone very stark difference over the years. When we first started, we had quite a range. So we score a through f. A is more of the pro business side, smaller government. We're not radical about that, but we don't believe that government should be dictating how business is run-in the state.
Carla Sonntag:And then the opposite side of that are those who wanna see government expand and do more about how businesses run. And so that's the extreme between our a's and our f's. And as time has gone, we have seen more people coming in that are anti business in our view.
Abe Baldonado:Wow. Yeah. The scorecard reflects that. And I think we see it every day. See, especially after COVID, a lot of businesses shut down.
Abe Baldonado:We showed that we were not business friendly, lost a lot of great mom and pop restaurants and small businesses that had been in our communities for years. But would you say that we're a free market right now, or have we moved total reliance on government bureaucracy?
Carla Sonntag:Oh, we're definitely too reliant on government. Yeah. During COVID, we lost 40% of our businesses. Wow. 40%.
Carla Sonntag:And that was the number released by the state. And, course, as soon as we got that and started publishing it, they wouldn't publish further reports. And that was only about three quarters of the way through COVID, so there was probably more loss after that. We just couldn't document the loss. Right.
Abe Baldonado:I don't think I've ever seen that advertised that 40% of our businesses were shut down. And I think a lot of our viewers probably don't know that, since I sure as heck did it now that you just mentioned it to me. I didn't know it was 40%.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah, that's why you need to sign up for our emails.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah, there we go. We're gonna put in that plug, we will share that link with you all. So I just were there any significant findings in the latest scorecard, anything that stuck out to you? I noticed there were some folks there that maybe about a c. What what is
Carla Sonntag:Well, you know, it's interesting. We've seen a takeover of the legislature by the progressive arm or the movement within the Democrat party, and that's something that causes a lot of confusion. So I wanna take a minute to talk about that. A lot of people don't understand the term progressive.
Abe Baldonado:Mhmm.
Carla Sonntag:Not something that we defined. It's been redefined, and it has been adopted by this group of people who honestly are looking to push to socialism
Abe Baldonado:Right.
Carla Sonntag:And even further to communism. They call themselves progressives. And so out of respect for them, we call them progressives too. Your name is Abe. You wanna go by Abe?
Carla Sonntag:I'm gonna call you Abe. They're progressives, and they're very proud of that. They talk openly now where they didn't ten years ago. They talk openly now about pushing socialism, and that is a much fuller government control. So what we've seen as this progressive movement has increased, they have taken out our normal average New Mexican Democrat
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:And been replaced with progressives because it's within the same party. And that is the reason why there is such a stark difference in the grades between a and f, between the pro business and the progressive. And in the center are the true New Mexican Democrats who still value New Mexico values, and they are more pro business much more than the progressives.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. And I think one thing that stick out on these that there are a number of legislators here that are rated F, but many of them self proclaim themselves to be centrist or moderates or pro business, but yet these scores don't reflect that. And I think we saw a lot of that during the legislative session where folks claimed to be pro business yet booted for something like paid family and medical leave and completely turned their backs on the business community.
Carla Sonntag:Exactly. They were not listening. During that time, we sent in over 650,000 emails in opposition to paid family medical leave. And that was not just employers. It was also employees.
Carla Sonntag:When the employee really understood what that meant, they didn't want it. And were they listening? A lot of them were not.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely not. You know, I think about one piece of testimony from a girl from Gallup who said, look, you're gonna be taking money from my paycheck. I can't afford this. And there were a lot of legislators saying, it's only $4 a month, it's only $5 a month. But for folks that are struggling in our state, and that $4 goes a long way every paycheck.
Abe Baldonado:And the girl who testified said that, she said, look, it may only be $130 to you a year, but for me that's tires, that's gas, that's maintenance on my vehicle, that's food on the table for my family, and that fell on deaf ears.
Carla Sonntag:Right. And you know, worse than that, the money they're gonna take from employees, the majority of employees will never benefit from that program. Right. And so it's money that they're taking from that employee to pay for a benefit for another employee.
Abe Baldonado:Wow.
Carla Sonntag:And that is one thing when the employees understood that they're like, well I don't wanna do that. I'd rather just have my money and take care of myself.
Abe Baldonado:Right.
Carla Sonntag:That's why I work. I wanna take care of myself and my family.
Abe Baldonado:And we know, I'm sure the people you represent business, they're already offering great pay time off. Right? I mean, they usually have those. I mean, successful business to know that knows that you take care of your employees and you wouldn't be in business very long if you didn't take care of your employees.
Carla Sonntag:Right. Well, this paid family medical leave comes on the heels of the last government mandate that did pass and that was paid sick leave. And that was sixty four hours, eight days. So that's already a mandate on business. And then they were looking at this, which was twelve weeks.
Carla Sonntag:When you put twelve weeks on top of eight days, it's hard to replace an employee during that time. And that was the other pressure on employees. They're like, well, what are we going to do when Joe or Sue is out for a while? And we've got to cover for them. Or their job's not getting done, and it reflects poorly on all of us.
Carla Sonntag:So the all of these things that a person who's not pro business, they don't understand.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:They don't understand what it takes to run a business, and they think, well, work it out. Well, you can't work it out. And hiring is not easy in New Mexico.
Abe Baldonado:They've never done payroll taxes. They've never had to pay you know, send out paychecks to employees. They never had to manage the books. And, unfortunately, these are some of the folks making the decisions on New Mexicans' behalf. And
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. And that's reflected in their scores Yeah. That they don't understand, and many of them don't care to understand. They, I had one tell me one time, I'll never agree with you on business policy because business, in my view, is there just to pay for our social programs.
Abe Baldonado:Wow.
Carla Sonntag:I don't view it that way. I think we've got some amazing business people in this state who care deeply about the state, and they're working hard to create jobs. And a lot of these business owners sacrifice tremendously to provide for their employees.
Abe Baldonado:To me, when I think of entrepreneurs and folks who start out businesses, they wanna create, they wanna develop, they wanna give jobs and opportunities to people. But to hear a legislator say, no, their job is to feed government our money for entitlement programs, that to me is shocking and very disgusting. Because again, you don't care that this person created a great business and is employing folks to put money on the table to feed their families and to develop in the workforce and their career.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. And I've seen many employers who will not take a paycheck when times are lean in order to pay their employees and to keep the employee employed. That kind of sacrifice, I admire. Absolutely. I'm a business owner.
Carla Sonntag:I've made sacrifices like that. And it's very offensive when you have somebody say, well, you don't care. You just you have money flowing out of your ears, and it doesn't matter. It it does matter.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:It does matter. And all of these costs, you know, then employers have to decide, are we gonna hire more or are we not? And so one thing I'll point out, though, these risks are not they're not subjective. We have our priorities, and our priorities are on our website. And they're dealing with everything that a business encounters, including public safety, which is a big concern in the state.
Carla Sonntag:If they don't have a safe place for their employees to come, they've got problems. Right?
Abe Baldonado:Right.
Carla Sonntag:They've got people breaking in. So all of these things related to public safety, tax codes, employment laws, they're all listed. And we give our list of priorities to every legislator before the session starts. So there's no question of what we're looking for. So there shouldn't really be a surprise when the scores come out.
Abe Baldonado:They should know.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. They ought to know how they're doing, but and then we keep them informed. As these laws come up about business, we're sending them letters. We're sending them emails. We're calling them.
Carla Sonntag:We don't have surprises at the end of the session about, oh, well, I didn't know you were gonna be looking at that.
Abe Baldonado:You're like, no. You know, you knew. We we gave you an ad out. We delivered it to your office. Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:But as we've seen even at the national level, a lot of folks don't do their due diligence and read legislation and actually understand it and comprehend it.
Carla Sonntag:Right. Well and you see a lot of people just voting along party lines as they're instructed to vote. One party is very much like that. The other party's more independent. The Republicans are they are not told how to vote.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:And so you don't know how they're gonna vote, but, typically, they are more pro business. Absolutely. And so if people think the scorecard is partisan or biased, It's not. We have a very objective way of determining the scores. And I'll tell you, when I looked at it this time, I was shocked.
Carla Sonntag:I was like, man, we're there's just such a great divide. We didn't have before.
Abe Baldonado:And I of our last election in these scores as well. You know, I think of House District 70, which is Anika Gonzalez. She defeated Ambrose Castellano who was opposed to paid family medical leave. We lost that vote. She supported it.
Abe Baldonado:Yes. And it's interesting to me that a former legislator who she defeated voted against it for his community, his constituents, but she comes in and she's aligned with the progressive movement to say, it's gonna hurt my people, but you know what? I'm gonna sign off on it. Right. It's fine.
Abe Baldonado:And those are the consequences of our elections and what we've seen. We were right there in the trenches with you on Paid Family Medical Leave, but it came really close, closer than it probably ever has, which is frightening, and hopefully voters going into the next election cycle will pay attention and use this as a scale because again, it's not a partisan issue. This is the well-being of our state and making it better, making it more prosperous because more businesses, more jobs, and more opportunity for folks in New Mexico. I saw a staggering number the other day that now our Medicaid entitlement program in New Mexico is up to a little over 40% of New Mexicans are on Medicaid. That to me is just, wow, what a strain on our government that can be focusing on applying those resources to other opportunities to fight crime infrastructure.
Abe Baldonado:I mean, our roads in New Mexico are not the best. And I think if we were able to provide opportunities to folks to have really great jobs but again, folks, you get what you get. That's something that my friend, representative Rodman Toy, has always said. He's you get what you get. And unfortunately, it doesn't have to be that way.
Abe Baldonado:I think with resources like yours and great efforts that are being done from the New Mexico Business Coalition and other like minded groups, I think people can become very educated and they don't have to be low information. And I guess that's kind of what I want to ask you is that how do we turn this now into a movement? And I think that's just I'm thinking about it now, like how can we get this out to more people to remember this come next year for a gubernatorial election to say, Hey, We have some folks here that maybe we need to look at what they're supporting. And, you know, are they just playing partisan politics, or are they actually looking out for the best interests of their communities?
Carla Sonntag:Well, when it comes to elections, what we will do is, so the house is up next year with the governor. And so we'll take these scores for the house, and we'll do cameos. We'll put, the incumbent score and the challenger. The challenger will be scored. That is a little more subjective.
Carla Sonntag:What we have to do is a lot of research on what they've posted, positions they've taken, again, though measured against our priorities. And then we'll put them side by side. And we put those out by district so people can clearly see in the house who the candidates are, how they're scoring for business, then then they know their choices when they go to the polls. And everything that we put out is documented. So it's not just Carla's opinion or or staff's opinion.
Carla Sonntag:It's all documented about how we came to those scores with links that they can go and read for themselves and make their own decision. We try not to tell people how to vote. Yeah. We've got smart people in
Abe Baldonado:the beauty of our country too. Like, people people don't tell you how to vote. Yeah. But we have organizations that are doing great work to educate you at least before you go vote.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. And that's how we use it as a tool to help people have more information. We'll do the same on the governor's race and and other races like that.
Abe Baldonado:That's terrific. And, Carla, I know you have your policy issues here. Were there any policy issues that weighted more heavily than the other when determining the grades for these legislators?
Carla Sonntag:Not really. They're all equally important. And even as they're listed, they're not listed in priority number. It's just these are all the things that impact business, including education. That's our future workforce.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. We need our kids to be educated, and they're not getting a good education in this state.
Abe Baldonado:No. I'm sure you just kids count data that came out. One in three kids living in poverty. 80% of eighth graders are not proficient in math. Like, That right there is destruction happening right now in our education system and to our workforce.
Abe Baldonado:I mean, we think about those kids who have been left so far behind when we had policies in place from the last administration or Governor Martinez that ended social promotion. We had their greater attention. So many people have had conversations with me and said, Where did we fail and Mississippi excelled? I'm like, Well, funny story, we were doing everything Mississippi was doing until it was all rolled back. They did third grade retention, they focused on the science of reading, and they put all concerted efforts into those initiatives.
Abe Baldonado:And everyone bought in. And here in New Mexico, we didn't have that because we had powerful teacher unions. I don't even like to say they're powerful, but they are well funded. And they speak like they represent all teachers when in fact they represent a very small portion. But their dollars run big in the New Mexico capital and their interests are large and they're actually to blame for some of the rollbacks of a lot of those policies that move Mississippi forward.
Abe Baldonado:But they're not saying that, they're like, We don't know, Mississippi is doing great. Well, yeah, they're doing great because they were doing the same policies as us, they stayed consistent and we didn't. But I am just shocked that 78% of our kids can't read. And to me, if you can't read, you can't do math, can't do science. And I know there's been a lot of emphasis on STEM, CTE education.
Abe Baldonado:I'm like, but if kids can't read, they're not gonna be successful in career tech fields.
Carla Sonntag:Right. And, you know, Mississippi turned it around in just a matter of a couple of years. And it's like New Mexico continues to choose to fail. But these same legislators who score an f on business, you look at what they're doing, which is part of our business policy, though, on public safety, for example. They refuse to fix the bail reform issue that was passed a few years ago.
Abe Baldonado:To criminals. It's it's the good old New Mexico poverty mentality. Poor these criminals, not the victims, not poor the families that suffer from terrible crimes. It's what was the trauma of the criminal? No, it's not about the trauma of the criminal.
Abe Baldonado:It's right or wrong.
Carla Sonntag:Exactly. And we need to fix that. The same with the medical, and energy policies. The energy policies, you know, they wanna save the entire world by strict policy Mexico. Well, I've got news for them.
Carla Sonntag:You know what's going on in China, and it's we're not gonna do it. We don't even we're not a blip on the screen for what's happening in New Mexico. But to the oil and gas industry, they're very concerned about the environment because they live here too. They want clean air and water inland. Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:And so they are not the problem. But we wanna continue to try to shut that industry down who's 40% of our state budget.
Abe Baldonado:Right.
Carla Sonntag:So what are they gonna do? They're gonna come after the rest of us for more taxes.
Abe Baldonado:Yep.
Carla Sonntag:And so we have this on in I mean, unending battle about shutting the industry down and letting it run to its to the hilt so it can provide the good paying jobs and the revenue to the state. So there's all of these issues, but these people will vote against it. They vote as a block, and that block wants to dictate to you what kind of car you drive, what kind of appliance you put in your house, how much you pay in taxes. Instead of letting the free market work, let people choose. Yep.
Carla Sonntag:Let people choose. They want choice, but only for certain things.
Abe Baldonado:Right. Yeah. Things that benefit them, and it's unfortunate. And we saw the attack on oil and gas this session. I think 23 bills, 22 of them thankfully were killed in committee or didn't even get through.
Abe Baldonado:Thankfully for some, a lot of the folks that have A's on here fought hard against those. Yes. But I even think about some of the legislators here like Nathan Small, Meredith Dixon, who have said that they support industry and they wanna support industry, but at the eleventh hour, they tried to impose a significant tax, surtax on the industry. It's like, what are you doing? And was it, hey, we're not gonna have PFML, so we need another tax to come in and feed our government.
Abe Baldonado:But I think the problem
Carla Sonntag:I have, Carla, is we've seen zero return on investment from the government making more money. Like we have not that trickle down to the people internationally. That's right. It's been used to expand government, to feed more positions in government, to regulate our lives. Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:And it's not healthy. When you look at states surrounding us, well, at least Texas and Arizona, they have more freedom. They have business is supported by government. They're promoted by government. I'm and it's not that way here.
Carla Sonntag:And it's a sad fact because you talked about the, Medicaid. Mhmm. When you filter in filter in all the other benefits in addition to Medicaid, we are over 45% of our population is getting some type of government aid. Not a healthy proportion for the state.
Abe Baldonado:Definitely not.
Carla Sonntag:Because you look at the number of producers, we don't have 45% of people producing taxes. We've got children, and we've got retirees, and we have people who are unable to work. So the scale is not balanced. And if oil and gas goes away, we can't support it. But we shouldn't be in those numbers anyway.
Carla Sonntag:We should be promoting and getting people to work. But right now, the handouts are so significant that some people can choose to stay home. We have done analysis, and some families family of four can make 65,000 a year with all of the government aid. Mhmm. So some choose not to work.
Carla Sonntag:Yeah. Well, that doesn't help our business either because we need those
Abe Baldonado:incentivized to go work, initially, and they could be making more money working. But, you know, hey. I get to stay home and I live off these entitlement programs. I mean, we just know it's not sustainable. And those are the conversations that folks have reached out to me, oh, they're cutting Medicaid, they're getting rid of Social Security, they're getting rid of Medicare.
Abe Baldonado:I'm like, not once has anyone said they're getting rid of it. And are there those folks who really believe off those programs? Yeah. But they're very small. I think realistically we know Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security cannot be I I mean, it's just not feasible.
Abe Baldonado:But they do need to be reformed. We've known for a very long time that these programs were not sustainable in the long term, especially when the boomer generation got to retirement. It has been a long discussion in government for since I was a kid, I remember hearing about it. And this goes back to the 1990s where I really didn't understand it. But now I'm like, yeah, I remember hearing about the bust of social security and Medicaid and Medicare when the boomer generation became to retirement.
Abe Baldonado:I remember my own teachers in high school telling me, your social security might not be there for when you get to that age. That was twenty years ago that my teachers were telling me that, and here we are. I think there's this fear mongering that happens, and unfortunately it comes from our own legislators that say they're coming after your Medicaid, they're coming after your social security. That's not true, because I know one of your policies is let's get rid of social security tax. Why are we double taxing seniors on taxes they've already paid?
Abe Baldonado:Exactly. Let's make it a friendly retirement. And unfortunately, lot of these folks don't support that. I can't wait for our viewers to see the report card because even leadership on on on one side is even failing. They're they're even getting a failing grade.
Abe Baldonado:And you would think the leaders would understand a little bit more of this is not good for New Mexico, but yet they still vote against New Mexico.
Carla Sonntag:Well, we just got that report on how our children are doing in the state. And what does leadership say on that side? Well, we've got to defend that. We've done better. We're still failing.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:How we have to overcome the failure to say we're doing better because we've been fiftieth for so long. We're fifty first in education, and there is no excuse for that anymore. You know, you can fail for a while, learn from your mistakes, pick yourself up, and do better. New Mexico is not doing that with our current leadership, and that's what we've gotta change in the upcoming election.
Abe Baldonado:We need to bring in the trampoline, not the hammock. Like, that's the analogy I've always heard. Let's Let's lift people up. Let's give them something to bounce off of. And that was always the idea of entitlement programs.
Abe Baldonado:It was a safety net for hard times, and we know hard times come. And I don't believe most people are not empathetic to those folks who maybe need those programs at some point. But the idea is use it as a springboard to now try to get yourself on your feet. And if we're not keeping businesses here, well, it's hard to get those folks back into the workforce because our own government is now not supporting business to provide those opportunities. I want to transition.
Abe Baldonado:What is this all about moving ahead? Now that we're saying, we gotta change the representation of the legislature. So what's what's the plan for the New Mexico Business Coalition going into this primary and general election season?
Carla Sonntag:Well, as I said, we'll be using that as a tool, and we'll do the cameos to compare the candidates so that voters can easily see where the candidates stand on all of these issues that are behind them. We are very focused, hyper focused on getting better leadership, And I think the state is ready for that. Yeah. I think people have seen enough of the destruction of this state through policy and they don't want it anymore. Right.
Carla Sonntag:They wanna have doctors here that they rely on and we don't have that.
Abe Baldonado:A colleague of mine found out that we are the only state with a negative decline in doctors. Out of all other 49 states, New Mexico is the only one that is seeing a negative number in doctors leaving the state.
Carla Sonntag:And we have UNM, great training facility there for doctors. And as soon as they get trained, they're out of here because of the policies that have been instituted over the last few years. And again, that's something legislature did it, governor signed it into law, and they refused to fix it.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. And on that note, Carla, what Carla is talking about there is that our doctors are facing extravagant medical malpractice premiums. And the number I saw was between 2020 and 2023, their premiums went up by 148%. And some more. Yeah, I mean, talk about tort reform, I mean, we need that.
Abe Baldonado:And it's just unfortunate. And again, business friendly. Like how do we make it a place for our doctors, our nurses, our teachers, everyone that just enjoy a high quality of life, but also not unfairly charge them for providing us the services that we need. And that to me is terrible practice.
Carla Sonntag:Well, and the insurance went up because they are now allowed to be sued for higher extreme amounts that are ridiculous by anybody else's standard. And so insurance companies, they've increased the premium, but some have just said, we're not gonna provide coverage anymore. So doctors and specialists are fleeing the state.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:And I know lots of people who now are going outside of the state for medical care and it's pathetic. And the waits to get in just for routine care,
Abe Baldonado:it's months. And you have to have the means to go out of state as well. If you don't have the means to go out of state, you're kinda settling for the best healthcare you can get in New Mexico, which may not be the best healthcare that you need right now to take on whatever health issues that you're dealing with.
Carla Sonntag:Or if you can even get it. Right. I mean people waiting for emergency procedures, that emergency is taking four to six months now. And this brings me to a place where we're looking at New Mexico as a third world country.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:We're not part of The United States health care system anymore where we've got quality care. And it's because our doctors have left and the specialists. And I don't blame them for leaving. They get out of school and they've got medical bills under the roof and they've got to pay those. Or they're an established practice, but they can't get insurance because of this new requirement.
Carla Sonntag:So there's a lot of reasons they're leaving, but it leaves us without the care that we Absolutely.
Abe Baldonado:And I think it's one of those things out of sight, out of mind. I'll I'll tell you. In my twenties, it's probably something I wouldn't have paid attention to or put a lot of stake in the game on, like, okay, yeah, whatever. But as you get older and you start realizing, oh, there's potential health problems that I may encounter, or until you're in that position where you're like, oh, I have health problems. Now I don't have high quality health care.
Abe Baldonado:What happened? I didn't know this was happening.
Carla Sonntag:Right. It's really sad. And routine appointments, I have a follow-up. I'm an established patient for skin care. And fortunately no emergencies, but I go in annually.
Carla Sonntag:I called for an appointment. I haven't been in in a year and a half and the soonest they could get me in was a year and four months.
Abe Baldonado:Wow.
Carla Sonntag:That's the soonest they could get me in. And if I did have a problem, I'd have a serious problem.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Carla Sonntag:So we shouldn't have to live like this. No. And we really don't have to. If we get better decision makers making decisions in our state legislature, we can fix these problems.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. Accountability, folks. And I also think about when we're talking about medical malpractice or doctor situation, our trial lawyers are doing pretty good right now because the trial lawyers have poured so much money into our roundhouse to buy their self interest, but it's the lawyers. This is all about the lawyers making their money. And unfortunately, I saw a large progressive group saying, We stood with patients.
Abe Baldonado:I'm like, No, you didn't. You went against patients because the attorney fees on those patients are extreme. It's the trial lawyers making a ton of money on the patients, taking 45, 50%, and they're taking most of that money and running, making great money, and they're suing the next people over and over again. Gotta love ambulance chasers, folks.
Carla Sonntag:But that's the key. Follow the money.
Abe Baldonado:Mhmm.
Carla Sonntag:Those trial attorneys are making a lot of money, and then they're feeding it back to the governor and some of these legislators, which is why they will not fix the problem they created. They created this problem on purpose to allow the trial attorneys to get rich because they've taken off limits on medical liability for suits. Right. And that's what created this whole problem. But then you follow the money, which we do a lot, and you see that money flowing right back to the governor and legislators.
Carla Sonntag:And then you know why they won't fix it.
Abe Baldonado:Right. It's the same with
Carla Sonntag:the bail reform. They're not gonna fix it because they are gaining from it.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely.
Carla Sonntag:And that's why we need different and better in our state legislature.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. We we need to hold folks accountable. And guess what? Like I've always said, folks, we elect them. We are the people who hold the power, not the folks that are actually in the positions.
Carla Sonntag:That's right. And the scorecard is just one more tool to hold them accountable to inform voters so that they have good information going in. I'll tell you, we have spent years getting to this point and perfecting it where we feel comfortable with it, that we can release it to the public because we won't until we have gone through everything. And you can go to our website and you can look at the actual bills that were scored and how they were scored to come up with these scores. I mean, it's complete transparency on how we got to these scores.
Carla Sonntag:And as I said, legislators are told well in advance Yeah. What we're looking at.
Abe Baldonado:And, Carla, we're we're grateful for you providing that to us as voters to know how our legislators are doing. And I think this is a great segue to how can business owners that maybe aren't part of the coalition right now get involved? How can community members get involved? And just also, you know, what are some next steps after this release? I think we've talked about it a little bit more, but, you know, how can we get folks to get involved and help you all out with efforts that you're making?
Carla Sonntag:Well, one of the things that we vowed from day one is that we would never take government money. So we are funded completely by voluntary dues and, contributions. But you can sign up for our emails, and there is no charge for that. And we will help keep you informed. We encourage people whether individuals or businesses to join us and contribute to this effort because that's how we continue to keep going is with the support of people voluntarily supporting the work that we're doing and you can get information on our website about that, and we would encourage people to sign up for the emails, stay informed and get involved when you can.
Carla Sonntag:We have events where we get together and we bring in great speakers. We have our annual heroes event coming up, which is a touching event. We will honor the family of a fallen first responder, an officer we lost in Bloomfield. We always pray that we won't have another one, but, in addition to honoring his family, we will have a veteran of the year and recognize other veterans and other local heroes. It's a touching event.
Carla Sonntag:Proceeds from the event go to scholarships for the children who lost a first responder period. That's amazing. So it's a really good event. We've got a VIP with our the sheriff that we're bringing in as the guest speaker. It's gonna be a good event.
Carla Sonntag:But, anyway, there's lots of ways to get involved, and we just really encourage people to stay in the loop and to evaluate the information that we're putting out so you can stay informed. I wish when I was younger, I had information like that that I could rely on. But and that's the reason that we do it because I don't want people to struggle the way I used to. Absolute.
Abe Baldonado:Well and luckily, we're in a world now where we're more connected, and there's more ways to get information to folks like this podcast, websites, social media. But as Carla said, get involved, just get involved and ask questions. I have no doubt if you reached out to Carla, Carla, you would be happy to share your positions and also share some insights to what we're dealing with in Santa Fe and what we're dealing with in our legislature. Just Carla, I wanna commend you for the amazing work that you continue to do. I am proud to say that I've been in a position to sponsor the Heroes event and some of my previous work when I worked for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
Abe Baldonado:So I hope more people go out and support this as a former army brat. We owe a big tribute to our veterans and to our fallen first responders, our fallen heroes. And I keep them in my thoughts and prayers right now and everyone involved with what we're seeing happen around the country. We just hope that they all remain safe. Just, Carla, thank you again for coming on to ChiliWire.
Abe Baldonado:Thank you for sharing more about the New Mexico Business Coalition. It's an honor to have you, and I think we can probably keep talking about all the issues today. And so we'll save our viewers. We'll get Carla back on again to talk more issues. But Carla, thank you again.
Abe Baldonado:We're gonna be sure to provide a link to the New Mexico Business Coalition, so any folks listening can get involved, or even just do a little bit more research can reach out to And if you have a business and you're interested in
Carla Sonntag:becoming a member, please do. The most important thing is getting people involved and staying engaged because it's the elections that are gonna make the difference. It's how we together are gonna change the state.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely.
Carla Sonntag:And we certainly can do better. We've got great resources here and especially in our people. Yeah. We just need to elect better ones to serve who are more in tune with New Mexico principles and not focused on some socialist agenda.
Abe Baldonado:Or on their own self interest. And I think that's the big problem is oftentimes that self interest and that ego. Yeah. Well, Carla, thank you so much again. Thank you everyone for tuning in to the Chile Wire.
Abe Baldonado:We look forward to seeing you next time, and we will get Carla back on very soon again to talk some more issues going into next year.