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Lawmaker Questions New Mexico State's Hiring Decision

Senator John Arthur Smith (D-Dona Ana, Hidalgo, Sierra-35), Chair, Legislative Finance Committee

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A state legislator is questioning the decision by New Mexico State University regents to hire two new top officials with large salaries to replace one person who is retiring.

Democratic state Sen. John Arthur Smith has been critical of the regents' decision not renew the contract for Garrey Carruthers, who was paid $385,000 a year to serve as both president and chancellor for the university in Las Cruces, the Albuquerque Journal reported .

The regents split the job, hiring Dan Arvizu as chancellor and John Floros as president. Arvizu will make $500,000 annually, and Floros will make $450,000.

Smith, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said people in his southern New Mexico district are questioning how the president and chancellor roles will be divided.

"When you approach $1 million in payroll, new payroll . coming on the heels of really austere times for the state of New Mexico, it sort of surprises me," Smith said. "The regents seem to forget where we are financially."

While Carruthers' job was initially posted as one position, the regents had the authority to create a two-person leadership team and the timing was right, Debra Hicks said, the chairwoman of the board of regents.

"We can no longer continue to have a decline like we have for the last six years of 22 percent enrollment, the decrease in research funding in billions of dollars," Hicks said. "We just can't sustain that."

With competition high among universities, large salaries are required to attract the best people to the top jobs, Republican state Rep. Larry Larranaga said.

"If you want to get somebody good, you're going to have to pay that price, I assume," Larranaga said.