House /

Name: Karis Kracke-Bock Date Due: Monday 3/2/20 Senate

Constituent Notes

Notes:
❏ Remember to use in text citations for your Works Cited
❏ You may need to go back and expand these notes later, depending on which bill you end up creating
and which bills are created by your colleagues.

District/State: New Mexico

Party that last won Seat: Democratic
Margin of Victory: Got 54.1% of the vote. Won by 320,014 votes

Constituent Demographics
Directions: Choose at least 3 Demographics or characteristics in your State/District and note the significance of
those demographics.
Demographics Implications for Representative

19.5% of population is in People will be more likely to support a bill that is not going to cost them
poverty extra money or a bill that provides them with cheaper energy sources.
They are also just generally going to be in support of something that
does not raise taxes or cost more money.

49.1% of population is
Hispanic or Latino
In an article called, People of color support climate action, but few get
credit for it, it says “ research published by faculty members in the
School of Journalism and Communication has revealed the
opposite: While their contributions to the climate change
movement remain largely unrecognized, people of color are just as
concerned — or even more so — as whites, the United States’
majority group” (Hoag). Since most of the population is Hispanic or
Latino then they are going to be more likely to support an
environmental bill.

23% of population is Young people around this age have been a huge part of the climate
around the age of 18 change movement. They make up most of the population in New Mexico,
years so they would be a lot of support for an environmental bill.

Committee you are assigned to: Environment and Public Works

Committee Topics
Directions: Choose 3 current event issues that fall to your committee’s jurisdiction. This is an opportunity to
look at the Committee’s website and see the broad jurisdictions of committees. Explain the issue and how your
state/district feels about the issue.

Issue Explanation for Jurisdiction My Constituent’s Stance (explanation)

Environmental Passing bills that have to do “Environmental policy aims to conserve natural
Policy with the environment resources by balancing environmental protection
with economic growth, property rights, public
 health, and energy production. This is done mainly
through laws and regulation passed at all
governmental levels and influenced by many
stakeholders with different agendas”
(Environmental Policy in New Mexico).

Construction Committee allocates money to The roads in New Mexico are in bad shape and it
and states to pay for highway “mean[s] hundreds of dollars in additional fuel,
Maintenance of construction and repairs and other costs for the average driver,
Highways maintenance according to an annual survey published
Wednesday” (Oxford). New legislation was
introduced in 2019 to “consider hundreds of
millions of additional dollars in the budget for road
repairs…”(Oxford).

Water Water quality, management Water resources is super important in New Mexico
resources and conservation of water as the experience a lot of droughts and they rely on
resources. groundwater and surface water as a water source
which sometimes makes water scarce. This would
be a very important issue that New Mexicans would
want their senator to focus on and make sure they
have a consistent water source.

House /
Name: Karis Kracke-Bock Date Due: Tuesday 3/3/20 Senate
Bill Notes

Notes:
❏ Remember to use in text citations for your Works Cited
❏ Make sure you have a strong combination of logos and ethos with some well placed pathos.
❏ These are your notes to build into your lobbying presentation and your debate points on the floor and
on committee. Print a copy for yourself as well as your teacher.
❏ You may format these differently as long as you have all of the elements.

Bill Topic: Keeping Tax credits on Solar Panels

Stance: In favor of keeping tax credits on Solar Panels

Current Federal Legislation: Solar Tax credit expired in 2016 and died in the house

Relevant Executive or Judicial Decisions:

New Mexico governor pocket-vetoed bill in 2016 after they tried to reinstate the bill after it expired.
Bill was introduced into the House but was killed.
 Bill was passed in 2019, but Congress is trying to kill it slowly. They are reducing the percentage and
after 2021 it will not exist at all.

Bill Provisions National Benefits/Justification State/District Benefits /Justification

Tax Credit of 30 percent of
the cost of installation for
residential, agriculture, and
business’
Good for many different states who
get a lot of sun. Solar panels are
really expensive, so it would be nice
for a lot of people to get money back
on their purchase.
There are a lot of low income families in
New Mexico. 19.5% of the population
under the poverty line, so it would be good
for them to have tax credits. New Mexico
is a very sunny state and having solar
panels helps to cut down on citizens
energy bills

Tax credit of 6,000 dollars
per person and 10 million
per calendar year
6,000 dollars per person is a good 6,000 dollars would be helpful to a lot of
amount that could help a lot of low income families to help in the
people. 10 million dollars in the purchase of solar panels.
maximum amount they are allowed to
spend, so it’s not too much money
that the government has to spend
every year.

Extra 5 million to help low
income families afford to
purchase solar thermal and
solar photovoltaic systems
for their homes
There are a lot of families who are not
able to afford solar panels due to how
expensive they are. According to an
article from The Street “the average
solar panel system cost in the U.S. is
around $12,810 [even] after tax
credits are applied” (White). That’s a
lot of money even after the tax credit
is applied, so extra money to aid low
income families would be helpful.
12,810 dollars is a lot of money for
families to spend even with the tax credit
applied, so having some extra money
would be helpful to aid people who can’t
necessarily afford solar panels. Especially
for something that could be so useful for
them and actually save them money.

Additional Persuasive Points about the Bill:

● Solar panels can bring in money for businesses and help cut down peoples expenses every
month on energy bills. Especially in really sunny places like Texas, New Mexico, California,
Florida, etc…. An average home can “save between $10,000 and $30,000 over the lifetime of
your solar panel system” (How Much Do Solar Panels Save?).
● Entice people to purchase solar panels and use a cleaner energy source and reduce
greenhouse gases.

Works Cited

Britschgi, Christian. "Congress' Budget Deal Kills Solar Industry Tax Credits." Reason, 19 Dec. 2019,

reason.com/2019/12/19/congress-budget-deal-kills-solar-industry-tax-credits/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2020.

Chamberlain, Kendra. "Clean Energy Top of Mind in 2020 Legislative Session." NM Political Report, 21 Jan.

2020, nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/01/21/clean-energy-top-of-mind-in-2020-legislative-session/.

Accessed 3 Mar. 2020.

"Environmental Policy in New Mexico." Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/Environmental_policy_in_New_Mexico.

Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

Hoag, Becky. "People of Color Support Climate Action, but Few Get Credit For It." University of Oregon, 29

July 2019, around.uoregon.edu/content/people-color-support-climate-action-few-get-credit-it. Accessed

2 Mar. 2020.

"How Much Do Solar Panels Save?" Energy Sage, news.energysage.com/much-solar-panels-save/. Accessed 3

Mar. 2020.

Oxford, Andrew. "Report: NM's roadways in poor condition, which costs drivers." New Mexico Political

Report, 21 Feb. 2019, nmpoliticalreport.com/2019/02/21/report-nms-roadways-in-poor-condition-

which-costs-drivers/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

"Quick Facts: New Mexico." United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/NM. Accessed 2 Mar.

2020.

"Saving Water in New Mexico." EPA Water Sense, www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-02/documents/ws-

ourwater-new-mexico-state-fact-sheet.pdf. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

White, Jacquelyn. "The Average Cost of Solar Panels." The Street, 12 Feb. 2020,

www.thestreet.com/technology/average-cost-of-solar-panels-14875697. Accessed 3 Mar. 2020.