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 — Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday afternoon he will restore $1 million to domestic violence facilities around the state.
His announcement comes less than 24 hours after the Senate passed a bill freeing up $94 million by scrapping funding for education and health projects around the state, including $1 million for domestic violence shelters.
Richardson said during a noon press conference at the state Capitol that he would restore the money to the shelters by vetoing the line in the legislation that authorizes the cuts.
“I am presented a list of deauthorized projects, so by vetoing them, they stay alive,” the governor said.
“This is a priority of my wife,” the governor added. “I like to go home in good standing. But it’s important to the state. These shelters across the state in rural areas have proved to be very effective.”
The bill that includes the proposed cuts to domestic violence shelters also proposes funding cuts to pre-K classrooms, health clinic improvements, a substance abuse facility in southern New Mexico and dozens of other plans like libraries and school gyms.
Richardson did not say what he would do to those line items.
The legislation also trimmed $10 million from a proposed equestrian facility in Albuquerque — a project Richardson favors. But that still left $10 million for the equestrian center in the bill. Richardson has argued the facility is an economic development project because it can host rodeo events and horse shows that he says will bring money and jobs to the state.
He did so again Friday.
“The equestrian center is essential for the future of the state fair,” Richardson said. “We’ve lost a lot of economic development jobs, projects at the fair with the loss of the Arabians. I’ve always felt that at the state fair we need to revitalize it, and the equestrian center is essential for jobs and to keep the state fair alive for the future.”
The bill that trims funding for brick-and-mortar projects was the fourth and final piece of legislation that state lawmakers passed to plug this year’s nearly half-billion-dollar shortfall.
This year’s shortfall has occupied state lawmakers for the first two weeks of the 2009 session. But everyone expects the financial picture to get rougher.
Revenue projections for fiscal 2010 will be unveiled next week, and many state lawmakers in the know are expecting them to be worse than the projections released two months ago. Those past estimates projected revenues for next year to be about $293 million less than the spending in this year’s budget.
