New Mexico Marriage Education legislation - January 29/01

[Smartmarriages ©]

subject: New Mexico Marriage Education legislation - January 29/01

from: Smart Marriages

This update is from State Sen Mark Boitano who
is presented at the Denver Smart Marriages conference
and who will be presenting again in Orlando. File these
ideas for legislative work in your state.   - diane sollee


Dear Friends of the Family:
 I wanted to give you a short update of our
Strengthening Marriage and Reducing the Culture of Divorce legislation and
what the next step is.  We are working with a number of legislators, the
Governor's office, various grassroots groups, attorneys, marriage and
counseling professionals and individuals on this legislative package.
Literally, months and months of thought and deliberation have gone into the
content. The bills are still in a draft stage - hopefully, we should have
draft copies ready by mid-late next week.

Here is the basic content of the seven measures we are working on to
strengthen marriage and reduce the culture of divorce in N.M.:

1.  A $100 tax credit for a couple who either takes a pre-marital counseling
or a marriage maintainance program during the calendar year.
2.  A 750K RFP grant for welfare case workers, the family services
counselors within the N.M. National Guard, Cooperative or Agriculture
Extension Services or faith based communities to teach marriage skills and
marriage maintainance skills to TANF recipients.
3.  A 100K appropriation for the
Family Studies Dept. at the University of New Mexico to produce, print and
distribute a short 5-7 page handbook tentatively entitled, "Divorce: Before
You Check Out - Check This," that would offer couples in conflict a range of
marriage support resources available to them and advertise the economic,
health and social impact of divorce, along with the effect of divorce on
children. 
4.  A direction to each of the 89 school districts that would
require them to offer a Marriage Training Program to high school students
with a very specific content - the students would then have the option to
take it. 
5.  100K in TANF money for a media campaign to laud the benefits of
marriage. 
6.  A Memorial which creates a Marriage Awareneness Week.
7.  A Covenant Marriage Bill.

I hope that you and your contacts can be involved in several ways:

1.  Attend a Press Conference in the Capitol Rotunda the week of Feb. 6th -
we're still working with the State Senate media person to identify an exact
date and time,
2.  Ask your pastor to either make an announcement or allow you to put
information in the church bulletin about the Press Conference and subsequent
lobbying effort,
3.  Prepare to lobby your legislators in support of these legislative
measures to concretely impact the development of stronger families  - you
can either write or call them - when you are at the Capitol you can visit
them directly.  We would like the lobbying effort to begin right after the
Press Conference.

If you have any questions or input, please let me know. Otherwise, I hope to
see you at the Press Conference in Santa Fe.

Sincerely,
SENATOR MARK BOITANO
Mew Mexico State Senate


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Diane Sollee, Director
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