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.
Message to New Mexico state lawmakers: Don’t take off next week if New Mexico remains without a state budget for next year.
Gov. Bill Richardson told media Tuesday he’d call state lawmakers back into special session if they don’t have a state budget deal by Thursday at noon, the end of this year’s 30-day legislative session. Thanks to KNME’s New Mexico in Focus for the video.
“If the Legislature fails to come to an agreement by Thursday, I will be forced to call a special session next week,” Richardson said during a mid-afternoon news conference in his fourth-floor Capitol office.
The House and Senate have passed competing budget packages. But as of Tuesday morning the two chambers disagreed on how much to cut in spending or generate in new revenue through tax increases and tax code changes.
The House has relied more on tax increases than the Senate to close a projected budget shortfall of several hundred million dollars for next year. The Senate, meanwhile, has cut deeper.
Two participants involved in a Tuesday morning meeting between House and Senate Democratic leaders told the Independent an agreement was not in sight at that point.
Richardson’s threat appeared as much a prod to action as a big stick to hold over the Legislature. The governor hoped to avoid a special session by state lawmakers agreeing on a state budget deal in the next day or so.
“I strongly believe we could avoid that (special session),” Richardson said. “We can compromise. I plan on working with the House and Senate on a plan we all can agree to. But I want to send a message that I’m just not going to support anything that comes up. It has to be good for New Mexico and reflect the values of this administration.”
Richardson then offered suggestions on how the two chambers could compromise.
The House could live with an ¼-penny or 1/8-penny increase to the state gross receipts tax rather than the half-penny hike the chamber has proposed.
The Senate, on the other hand, could tax soft drinks and candies instead of the many types of food they proposed, including tortillas and white bread, yogurt, spaghetti, hot dogs and white rice.
The House and Senate budget plans differ in big ways, especially in the tax measures.
In addition to the half proposed half-penny hike to the state’s gross receipts tax, the House also relies on a 1.5 percent surtax on the income earned by New Mexico’s wealthiest residents and a measure that would net taxes from out-of-state owners of business partnerships on income earned here.
The Senate would add $1 to the state cigarette tax in addition to the withholding tax on out-of-state business partnerships and the food tax.
Overall, the Senate plan raises nearly half the revenue as the House bill, generating $180 million through tax increases vs. $340 million in the House bill.
The Senate bill meanwhile cuts deeper, calling for $120 million in cuts vs. about $70 million proposed by the House.
Richardson said he’d worked with state lawmakers over the past four weeks in coming up with a budget deal, although he has come out publicly favoring the House’s budget version to the Senate’s.
“Throughout the session I’ve made myself available to the Legislature, holding extensive meetings with individual members and members of the leadership,” Richardson said. “I’ve offered several ideas and suggestion publicly and privately on the budget even while the senate refused to talk to the House, I talked to both chambers.”
