I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
SANTA FE — Everyone at the Roundhouse agreed Thursday on the need to move quickly to address this year’s $454 million state budget gap.
How to cover the shortfall is the rub.
Gov. Bill Richardson’s budget chief, Katherine Miller, and state lawmakers agreed during a packed legislative hearing at the state Capitol Thursday on many of the measures meant to balance the state’s books.
But that synchronicity quickly broke down on the subject that is dear to most lawmakers and represents the largest recommendation for covering this year’s shortfall: taking money from stalled brick-and-mortar projects across the state. Capital outlay is precious to many state lawmakers because they view the brick-and-mortar projects paid with the state money as important to their chances for re-election.
So capital outlay — or pork as critics call it — presents both the answer and the challenge to addressing this year’s nearly half-a-billion-dollar deficit. And getting an agreement on how much, and where, to cut will be no easy feat, judging by Thursday’s hearing.
Only $3.3 billion of roughly $6.2 billion earmarked across New Mexico for brick-and-mortar projects has been spent from 1998 to 2008, according to a legislative summary released last week.
The governor wants to claw back $263 million of that unspent balance from the stalled projects to inject into the state’s main account –- the general fund -– to help cover the nearly half-billion-dollar shortfall. The Legislature has recommended grabbing $163 million.
That isn’t the only difference between lawmakers and Richardson.
The Legislature has produced a list of targeted projects, including several big-ticket items, while the Richardson administration has hung back, yet to produce a similar document.
Meanwhile, the project with the largest cuts in the Legislature’s list is a favorite of the governor’s — a proposed equestrian facility at the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque. It would lose $23 million in funding.
Miller explained the administration hadn’t turned over a list because it wanted guidelines to help staff identify projects to pull money out of.
“Do we look at projects under $50,000?” Miller asked at one point.
A quick survey of the Legislature’s list of targeted projects would seem to suggest the answer is “No.”
Several dozen projects targeted in House Bill 9, which trims $105 million from brick-and-mortar projects, are well north of $50,000, according to a five-page spreadsheet.
Projects targeted in addition to the equestrian facility include $500,000 to pay for domestic violence shelters statewide, $1 million to help pay for pre-K classrooms, $2 million for the Bernalillo County Public Health Office and $750,000 for Albuquerque’s International Balloon Museum.
Because that bill represents only $105 million in recovered capital outlay funds, the Legislature would achieve its goal of $163 million in recovering unspent capital outlay funds with another bill. That legislation would transfer $58 million into the general fund, from an account that pays for public school capital outlay projects around the state.
The total cost, and the number and types of projects in any capital bill, likely will change before a final agreement is forged between the Legislature and the governor.
“The governor isn’t interested in getting in a fight over capital outlay,” Miller told lawmakers Thursday.
But Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, challenged Miller’s statement. Smith accused the administration of dragging its feet on producing a list, and he warned that delaying could draw out a budget agreement that needs to get done in the next few days.
“If there’s one component that will slow down this process commensurate with the executive, it’s going to be this component,” Smith said of capital outlay to a roomful of state officials, lobbyists and state employees.
He added, “The last thing we want is the furloughing of state employees,” Smith said. Furloughing state workers would mean sending a portion of the state government’s workforce home without pay for a period of time.
Smith said later Thursday that he wasn’t trying to scare the public. But he wanted to light a fire under officials in the Richardson administration.
Other than capital outlay, the Legislature and Richardson seem to be mostly in agreement on how to cover the shortfall this year, which ends June 30.
Smith and other lawmakers said they want an agreement on how to cover this year’s shortfall, including the recovery of money from capital outlay projects, by midweek next week.
“If we don’t settle this we’re going to have to go to the general fund” and make cuts to education and health care, said Rep. Henry “Kiki” Saavedra, D-Albuquerque, chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
Once the governor and Legislature resolve this year’s shortfall, they must address next year’s shortfall, which Smith has predicted could mushroom to $1 billion.
