Several unions filed a lawsuit Monday in the Second Judicial District Court in Albuquerque against the state for violating numerous constitutional rights of public employee pensioners by enacting a 1 ½ percent wage tax on employees.

American Federation of Teachers New Mexico; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; National Education Association-New Mexico and Communications Workers of America; and the Operating Engineers are suing for violating numerous constitutional rights of employees, including actuarial soundness, uniform taxation, due process, equal protection and vested property rights.

After coming up short on cash this year, the Legislature enacted House Bill 854 that balances the state’s budget by making employees pay 1 ½ percent to the state for two years. The law, which will start July 1, reduces what the state pays into public pensioners’ funds by 1 ½ percent. The employee picks up the entire cost of the state’s two-year holiday on pension payments. The contribution change will apply to workers covered by the Public Employees Retirement Association pension and the Educational Retirement Board’s pension for educational workers.

Peggy Stielow, a teacher and member of a combined AFT New Mexico and NEA-New Mexico local union in Rio Rancho, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Stielow said she decided to file because lawmakers balanced the budget on the backs of employees without any regards to their rights.

“If you were told you had to pay your employer $600 in order to keep your job, and that you also had to give up your constitutional rights in order to keep that job, would you do it? That’s exactly what’s happening to a select group of working New Mexicans in this state,” Stielow said.

The pension changes impose an unfair wage tax on a select group of employees, a CWA union official said.

“The Act basically singles out public employees to enhance the general revenues of the state,” said Michelle Lewis, executive vice-president of CWA Local 7076. “This law is a unilateral decision to make a select group of working people reduce the state’s budget deficit.”

During the legislative session, the unions proposed numerous revenue alternatives to close the budget gap. The unions primarily championed a concept called combined reporting, which would have brought in new revenues while leveling the playing field for local businesses.

At the end of the day, we’re interested in both stopping the implementation of this law and proposing practical solutions to help the state balance the budget,” said Arcy Baca, local union president of AFSCME Local 477.