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.
Video still courtesy KNME
Using his line-item veto authority, Gov. Bill Richardson last week canceled a legislative demand that his administration trim 1,900 vacant positions from state government.
Because the targeted positions are vacant, the trimming wouldn’t have saved New Mexico any money. But the cutbacks would have shrunk state government long term, a fact that led the Legislature to adopt the measure during the recently concluded special legislative session.
Currently there are roughly 4,000 vacancies out of more than 20,000 positions across state government.
“It was a good-faith effort on our part to show that we were trying to downsize government at every level,” said Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe, who sounded piqued Monday by the governor’s action.
Varela submitted the provision as an amendment during a floor debate in the House of Representatives after GOP lawmakers had tried to add a stronger job-cutting measure to the state budget.
“Ask them why he vetoed this knowing that we had almost 4,000 vacant positions and the public wants to downsize government,” Varela said of Richardson. “The executive thinks they’re the ones to dictate to the public the size of government.
Added Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Tucumcari: “I certainly hope the Governor will recognize the need to unilaterally reduce the number of state employees,” in the next fiscal year.
On Monday the governor’s office did not respond to an e-mail from The Independent seeking an explanation of the line-item veto.
Roch’s unsuccessful amendment during the House budget debate would have automatically cut vacant state government positions rather than authorizing Richardson’s administration to carry through with the elimination of vacant positions.
“The vetoed language in House Bill 2 revealed the Legislature’s willingness to yield to Governor Richardson, in that the provision granted a legislative power (i.e., the adjustment of FTE (full-time equivalents) levels) to an executive agency like the State Personnel Office,” Roch wrote in an e-mail to The Independent. “The Legislature holds the power of the purse, and with it, the power to dictate the number and purpose of positions on which general fund dollars are spent.”
The vetoed provision, tucked at the end of the 247-page state budget, on page 244, would have given the State Personnel Office authority to review the 4,000 ”authorized unfunded positions,” or vacancies, and “eliminate one thousand nine hundred positions” by July 1.
The provision was part of a state budget that trimmed spending from the previous year’s levels to address what is projected to be a budget shortfall next year of several hundred million dollars.
