Editor: I am writing to commend Representative Gail Armstrong for her outstanding leadership on many important issues in the state legislature. During this year’s legislative session, Representative Armstrong co-sponsored bills to end predatory lending by capping the rates of small loans at 36%; to make financial literacy a graduation requirement for New Mexico’s high school students; and to repeal the state’s double tax on Social Security income, among other reforms.

Representative Armstrong also worked behind the scenes to ensure the passage of legislation making New Mexico’s public infrastructure funding transparent by disclosing the donors of each capital outlay appropriation for the first time since 1977. Finally, Representative Armstrong played a key role in passing a bill to refine the New Mexico Work and Save Act, which she co-sponsored last year and which will soon make retirement savings accounts accessible to the 336,000 New Mexicans who currently lack access to retirement plans through their jobs.

As the saying goes, Representative Armstrong is a “workhorse, not a show horse.” She consistently works across the aisle to advance policies that benefit her constituents – and all New Mexicans.

Fred Nathan, Jr.

Founder & Executive Director, Think New Mexico

 

Fred Nathan, Think New Mexico