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.
Gov. Bill Richardson is considering cuts to public education to close this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall, several state lawmakers confirmed early Saturday afternoon. The news represents a change for Richardson, who has stood firm against public school cuts for weeks of negotiations with top legislative leaders. Richardson has said repeatedly that he did not want to cut public education to address this year’s shortfall.
Richardson told state lawmakers that he is now open to education cuts during a meeting this morning, state Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, told a crowd of teachers and school board members at the Capitol around 1:30 p.m. today.
Richardson spent most of the morning meeting with several groups of state lawmakers in anticipation of today’s special legislative session, which is now scheduled to start around 3 p.m. or so.
A call to the governor’s office about what public education cuts the governor is considering was not immediately returned Saturday.
A statewide poll released today and commissioned by an public education advocacy organization showed that most New Mexicans oppose cutting public schools to solve the state’s budgetary problems.
Several representatives of organizations representing teachers, school administrators and parent teacher organizations whipped up the crowd by saying that the Legislature should raise taxes, not make cuts, to address the shortfall.
Stewart said there were numerous bills ready to be introduced that would raise various taxes to generate revenue and close this year’s shortfall.
“I still believe we need revenue now,” Stewart said, to cheers.
Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, meanwhile, told the same crowd of teachers and school board members said that the state Senate had close to enough votes to support a tax increase.
There is an ongoing battle behind the scenes over what the the budget fix will look like — mainly spending cuts and the use of federal stimulus dollars or whether tax increases will play a role in the mix.
“That’s to understand we are being ruled by a conservative coalition [that says] we can just take care of taxes in the (January regular session),” McSorley said. “For people to say we can just put this off to a tax year, is nuts, just nuts.”
“I don’t trust the people that say let’s just put it off until the regular session,” McSorley added.
