This article originally appeared in Albuquerque Business First on August 19, 2014

This year, the New Mexico House of Representatives could be in line for a change this fall, and if that happens, some major initiatives – including right-to-work – could be on the table.

“The battle is now to see who picks up the house,” said Association of Commerce and Industry President Beverlee McClure on Wednesday.

If the Republicans take the House this fall, there’s a very good chance that new right-to-work legislation would pass, she said Tuesday morning at the University of New Mexico’s Economic Development Forum.

“If Republicans take the House, it would pass. But in the Senate, you’d be dealing with Michael Sanchez,” she said.

Sanchez, a Democrat and the Senate Floor Leader, controls what bills are heard in the Senate.

New Mexico is not a right-to-work state, and that concerns many large companies that have dealt with collective bargaining agreements in other states.

“It’s number one on the list,” she said. “ Even Tesla brought it up.”

Though support for right-to-work legislation seems to ebb and flow in New Mexico, it’s currently flowing and many are discussing it. About 6 percent of the state is unionized, and about 3 percent of that is public employees, such as teachers.

Regardless, McClure said, that is only one of the few issues that could pop up this year as the state is trying to grow its jobs base.

She and ACI are looking to reduce the amount of workers compensation payments that employees can receive if they’re drunk or high when they get injured on the job. In New Mexico, those workers can receive up to 100 percent of the allowable benefits.

“Believe it, or not it makes us less attractive to companies” that the state is trying to recruit, she said.

ACI is working to change the state’s procurement code, as well as looking at ways to increase funding for the state’s job training fund and its Local Economic Development Act, or LEDA, she said.

But there are still several other substantive issues hurting the state.

“We need to build a skilled workforce, too,” she said. “Companies are concerned that when they’re recruiting employees, they can’t pass a drug test. Now, drugs are not just a social problem, they’re an economic problem.”

Also, McClure said, the state needs to start investing in its own.

“To incentivize startups, we need capital. The SIC [State Investment Council] is still investing out of the state, not in state. No New Mexico companies qualify for the Royalty Fund, and once again, we’re not investing in ourselves,” she said.

McClure added that one of the major factors affecting the growth of startups is the lack of fanfare about it.

“When you have a company like Lavu moving and expanding to 100 people, but you bring a shiny new company with 10 employees and you have a press conference and the governor is there? That’s a problem. We have to invest here,” she said.

Spreading the word that the state has made some strides in recent years to become more competitive with its neighbors is also important, she said.

ACI is pushing for additional funding to market the state and its new tax policies such as the single sales factor, McClure noted.