SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday appointed a public finance expert to lead the state taxation agency that has been shaken by a corruption investigation and litigation over new security requirements for driver’s licenses.
Stephanie Schardin Clarke will leave her job as finance director for Santa Fe County to take the reins of the state Taxation and Revenue Department and the companion Motor Vehicle Division.
“This department really needs to be rebuilt up to the level of a flagship agency for this state,” Schardin Clarke said.
The agency with more than 1,000 employees has been without a permanent secretary since the resignation of Demesia Padilla in 2016 to deal with charges of embezzlement and accusations of using a position in government for personal gain. Padilla maintains her innocence as the case moves toward trial.
Unresolved tax abatement and refund claims have more than tripled in the course of two years to $320 million, undermining confidence in state finances.
Under former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, the agency was sued over new federal identification requirements for driver’s licenses aimed at boosting safety for commercial airlines and federal facilities. Advocates for immigrants and homeless people said the state unfairly withheld alternative driving credentials and identity cards.
Under a legal settlement, identification requirements were relaxed for alternative ID cards.
Lujan Grisham said she wants Motor Vehicle Division workers to “understand that our job is to get you that identification and not to prevent you from getting it.”
Schardin Clarke previously served stints as a deputy cabinet secretary with the state Department of Finance and Administration and as director of the State Board of Finance under the Martinez administration. She was a staff economist at the state Legislature’s lead budget writing office at the Legislative Finance Committee.
Lujan Grisham tapped an administrator of federal rural development programs to lead New Mexico’s Indian Affairs Department that coordinates state relations with more than 20 Native American tribes.
Lynn Trujillo was appointed to the Cabinet-level position. She has been working with tribes across the state as a Native American coordinator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is a tribal member of Sandia Pueblo, where she previously served as general counsel.
“My goal is to be out there to listen, to hear from tribal leaders and tribal citizens about what their needs are in this state,” she said.
Trujillo worked in New Mexico on Barack Obama’s campaign for president in 2008, and Democrat Diane Denish’s unsuccessful bid for governor in 2010.
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