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.
A proposed state budget currently before state lawmakers would grant Gov. Bill Richardson a power the New Mexico Legislature has zealously guarded in the past: the power of the purse string.
Under a proposed $5.35 billion state budget legislative leaders agreed to and lawmakers are currently contemplating, Richardson would gain the power to cut monthly allotments to state agencies next year.
Next year’s proposed spending plan calls for trimming spending and a handful of tax hikes and revenue-generating mechanisms to close a projected budget shortfall of several hundred million dollars next year.
But if all those tools aren’t enough and revenues fail to keep up with spending levels, the proposed spending plan requires the governor “reduce general fund allotments to all agencies, funds, programs.”
The general fund, the state’s main money account, pays for day-to-day operations of state government. The allotments go out monthly to pay for services, programs and personnel. Put another way, 1/12th of an agency’s annual budget arrives each month.
Signing over the legislature’s power over the purse string may not sound like a big deal. But keep in mind the last time a governor tried to unilaterally fiddle with the monthly general fund allotments, the Legislature sued.
And won.
The result was the 1995 ruling, Schwartz v. Johnson, named for then-Gov. Gary Johnson. The state Supreme Court that Johnson had acted unconstitutionally by unilaterally deciding to regulate monthly cash allotments to state agencies without legislative approval.
In essence, the court found that Johnson had appropriated money, which is constitutionally reserved for the Legislature.
Legislative staff said Monday night they couldn’t remember the last time the Legislature had granted such authority to a governor.
The authority granted to the governor comes as some lawmakers worry that state officials have over-estimated the projected growth of revenues next year. State officials have predicted that revenues will increase by 6 percent next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
This projection comes as the Legislature’s budget arm, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), has estimated that this year’s revenues are coming in below expectations. A recent report from the LFC estimated that state revenues were $40 million below expectations, a point that Richardson’s administration contests.
Some lawmakers believe revenues won’t come in at that rate given the economic hard times, and that makes them wonder if the budget gap is larger next year than state officials say it is. If so, the authority granted the governor to cut allotments would then come into play.
