Residents lucky to have Ingle

Many, many kudos to Senate Minority Floor Leader Stuart Ingle, who co-sponsored Senate Bill 364, the lottery-reform bill that was recently signed into law.
SB 364 requires the New Mexico Lottery Authority to cut its relatively high administrative and operating costs and reallocate those savings to more full-tuition college scholarships for deserving high school students.

When it is completely phased in in 2009, this new statute will generate an additional $9 million per year or enough to pay for about 2,500 scholarships to public universities in New Mexico.

That’s a big victory for high school students across New Mexico, who are working hard, staying in school and earning good grades and who can now count on a full tuition college scholarship being there when they graduate from high school.

Because of his modesty, a lot of New Mexicans are not aware that Ingle, then a relatively junior legislator, was one of the major forces behind the lottery scholarship program in the late 1990s. It is a true landmark law that has now helped more than 43,000 New Mexicans to attend college, including many who are the first in their family to earn a college degree.

Eastern New Mexico residents are fortunate to have Ingle representing them in Santa Fe. Those of us in the rest of the state are also fortunate to have him serving in the New Mexico Senate.

Fred Nathan
Executive director, Think New Mexico