There are, and have been, some very bright members of the New Mexico Legislature, this year's budget sessions notwithstanding. High on just about everyone's list of truly intelligent legislators was David Salman, who served in the House of Representatives from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. He was majority leader from 1970 to 1978. He died early this week at age 74, but his legislative legacy is a powerful one.

A Princeton graduate who ran his family's ranch and its renowned raspberry fields out past Mora, Salman was a leader in our states' pioneering school-financing law and school-equalization funding of the early 1970s — measures that made sure New Mexico's lower-income communities weren't further marginalized by their people's inability to support the kind of schools wealthier cities and suburbs could.

The funding formula that emerged made New Mexico a national leader in school-district equality, to the occasional chagrin of districts whose citizens want more educational-investment initiatives from the local level. But it was something our state needed — and, arguably, still does.

David Salman leaves big shoes for today's legislators to fill.