Lawmakers prepare for tough session

Get ready, New Mexico.

The 30-day legislative session starting Tuesday won’t be like the kinder, gentler sessions of this decade’s early years, when money flowed freely and the living was comparatively easy.

Lawmakers will converge on Santa Fe Tuesday with one overriding mission: to rescue the ship of state from drowning in an ever-growing pond of red ink.

It’s going to hurt, whatever they do.

Problem is, state lawmakers don’t know exactly how to pull off this rescue mission.

The debate over how to address next year’s $500 million to $900 million budget shortfall – the size of the gap depends on whom you ask — revolves around this question: Is it better to cut spending — reducing services and state worker salaries along with merging state agencies — or raise revenue through increasing taxes and fees?

It’s a divisive debate that has thrown the majority Democratic Party into disarray. Progressive Democrats generally favor raising revenue; conservative Democrats lean in the opposite direction. Those Democrats in the middle acknowledge you need both spending cuts and new revenue. But how much of each, and where to focus attention — all that remains undecided.

For example, House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, has proposed a broad-based tax increase – raising the state’s gross receipt tax by a half cent.

But Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wonders if it wouldn’t be more prudent tack might be to take small bites, raising a tax here, and a tax there, rather than pass a broad based tax increase.

Crafting a majority out of this confusion will take time, and inspired leadership.

Republicans, meanwhile, are watching the Democrats’ internecine warfare and just saying no to tax increases.

“I will not vote for a budget that has tax increases, because that is penalizing taxpayers,” said GOP Rep. Kathy McCoy, R-Cedar Crest.

The session is shaping up to look an awful lot like a train wreck to use a bit of Capitol argot.  But not everyone is expecting a large-scale derailment.

“This upcoming session is going is going to be one of the toughest we’ve had,” Gov. Bill Richardson told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce last week.

Richardson, who is facing his most difficult legislative session in his final year as governor, remains optimistic that reasonable minds will prevail.

“My prediction is that we will resolve our differences, and it won’t be as contentious as those predicting that it will be a very, very difficult session,” he told the crowd.

One unknown that could help state lawmakers reach an agreement is the potential for a second wave of federal money coming from Washington. If a second stimulus materializes, the question will be: How much does it help New Mexico’s bottom line?

Both the governor’s and Legislature’s preliminary budgets already assume an extra injection of Medicaid dollars – potentially up to $160 million — coming from Washington, which would ease the pressure on the government’s low-income health insurance program.

But even with help from Washington, the session won’t be easy. As if the budget problems weren’t enough, the state’s cash shortage isn’t the only item on the Legislature’s agenda.

Several other issues threaten to complicate – maybe even slow down — the budget debate, from election-year politics – state House lawmakers are up for re-election — to hot-button legislation surely to provoke a heated, prolonged debate: domestic partnerships.

Domestic partnership legislation, if passed, would grant many of the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples. But the legislation has never passed the New Mexico Legislature due in large part to an alliance of the Catholic Church and Protestant Evangelicals.

Richardson is pushing for the legislation, and there’s talk of an agreement between advocates and the Catholic Church.

Then there’s state lawmakers’ favorite topic: capital outlay, or brick-and-mortar projects.

One of the first bills likely to be dropped this week would claw back $150 million from stalled brick-and-mortar projects around the state. The money would then be put into the state’s main account, the general fund, to help pay for operations.

Lawmakers haven’t seen the list of projects losing money, but when they do a small insurrection might occur.

Many state lawmakers see brick-and-mortar projects–such as senior centers and gyms–as tangible evidence they can point to when up for re-election.

With House lawmakers up for re-election, look for vigilance from that chamber.

Each item is capable of becoming a major distraction to state lawmakers during the short session. Magnify that by several times and you can see how all these issues could distract lawmakers from the main task at hand: crafting a state budget that inflicts pain.

Consider yourself warned, New Mexico. Get ready to hurt.