On Feb. 2, Terri Cole, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, and Del Esparza, GACC Chair and Esparza Digital + Advertising CEO, were featured in an Albuquerque Journal article on the third week of the Legislature.
The article referenced the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, which would tax employees and businesses with more than five workers to provide nine to 12 weeks of paid time off for parental, medical or safety purposes.
Cole was one of many business leaders who spoke in opposition to the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act at a public comment period at the bill’s first committee hearing.
She specified that the Chamber isn’t against maternity leave; it’s other parts of the bill that are concerning, like its fees on employers and employees and a potential impact on small businesses.
Meanwhile, Esparza said many employers in New Mexico have fewer than 50 workers, which he said are small businesses.
“To have this kind of disruption where an employee can take as much time off as they feel, based on how (the bill is) going to be written — which I think could leave a lot of room for interpretation — would have a very adverse effect on businesses,” he told the Journal. “And I think some businesses just would not survive.”
The Chamber does support Senate Bill 169 focused on-site readiness. The bill would allocate $24 million to establish a site-readiness pilot program.
“We don’t have the sites, and the developers aren’t incentivized to build them via spec,” Esparza said. “When businesses are looking at relocating, they need that.”
Crime and public safety are also among the Chamber’s biggest priorities.
While there hasn’t been legislation introduced yet to address Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s support for delivering money to businesses to be used for safety purposes, including hiring security personnel and equipment “until we can get our crime epidemic under control,” Cole expects the Chamber will support the bill when it’s introduced.
She added that the state should address the crux of the crime issue and needs to pass aggressive criminal penalty measures.
“If we cannot fix the safety component of this state, it’s going to be pretty hard for us to bring more people to the state, expand more businesses and locate more new businesses here,” Cole said.
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