Former Representative Phelps Anderson Joins Board of Think New Mexico

Category: Non-Local News Releases Non-Local News Releases
Published: 23 July 2023 23 July 2023

Think New Mexico, a results-oriented think tank serving New Mexicans, is pleased to announce that former New Mexico Representative Phelps Anderson (I-Roswell) has joined its Board of Directors.

Phelps Anderson represented southeastern New Mexico for four terms in the New Mexico legislature, from 1977-1981 and from 2019-2023. During his recent service, he co-sponsored Think New Mexico's legislation to end predatory lending by reducing the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175% to 36%, and he also led a successful bipartisan effort to repeal the state tax on military retirement benefits.

Born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico, Phelps earned his B.S. in Agricultural Economics from New Mexico State University. He went on to work in a wide range of businesses, including manufacturing, banking, the oil and gas industry, managing the Double Eagle Restaurant in Mesilla, and serving as foreman of the Diamond A cattle company. He is currently the president of SunValley Energy Corp. and Rio Magdalena Investments.

Along with his business career, Phelps has an extensive track record of public service. In the 1980s, he served as Mayordomo of the Picacho Ditch Association. He chaired the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission from 2012-2016, and was a member of the State Board of Finance. This year, he was appointed to the Board of Regents of the New Mexico Military Institute by Governor Lujan Grisham and unanimously confirmed by the state Senate.

Phelps has served on the boards of many nonprofit organizations, including the Chaves County Historical Society Foundation, the Roswell Artist in Residence Foundation, and the Roswell Educational Achievement Foundation.

Phelps joins a distinguished board of New Mexico statesmen and stateswomen, including Garrey Carruthers, former Governor of New Mexico; Paul Bardacke, former Attorney General of New Mexico; Roberta Cooper Ramo, the first woman elected President of the American Bar Association and American Law Institute; LaDonna Harris, founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity; Clara Apodaca, former President and CEO of the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation; Ed Lujan, former CEO of Manuel Lujan Agencies and former chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico; Liddie Martinez, former chair of the board of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation; Notah Begay III, founder of the Notah Begay III Foundation, which works to reduce obesity and diabetes among Native youth; Judy Nakamura, former Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court; and Jackie Baca, President of Bueno Foods. (Fred Nathan, Founder and Executive Director of Think New Mexico, also serves on the board.)

Think New Mexico is best known for its successful initiatives to make high-quality full-day kindergarten accessible to every child in New Mexico; to repeal the state's regressive tax on food and defeat multiple efforts to reimpose it; and to redirect millions of dollars a year out of the state lottery's excessive operating costs and into full-tuition college scholarships. Most recently, Most recently, Think New Mexico successfully championed the enactment legislation to end predatory lending and to repeal the state tax on Social Security income for middle and lower-income seniors.

For more information, visit Think New Mexico's website at: www.thinknewmexico.org

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