Reps. John Heaton and Ben Lujan (with Nick Salazar) in a committee meeting during the 2009 special session.

New Mexico state lawmakers struggled to pass a mid-year state budget fix last week, but in a possible sign of how difficult things may become politically, at least one public employee union is already throwing out a seldom-used threat in New Mexico: Democratic lawmakers, we’ll work to unseat you if you cut education.

“We are making it very clear to separate those who want to use education as a slogan and those who want to do something constructive,” said Christine Trujillo, president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Mexico (AFT-NM).

Union representatives and members will grade lawmakers on how they vote on education funding during the regular legislative session in January, Trujillo said.

While AFT’s threat applies to Democratic lawmakers in general, the practical effect falls most heavily on Democratic House members, who are elected every two years and face re-election next year.

But several House Democratic lawmakers sounded unfazed by the potential challenge late last week.

“That’s their prerogative. But I think we’re the only friends that they have,” House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said of AFT’s aggressive tone.

“You’re looking at the people that’ve been carrying their bills for 20 years,” said the chairman of the House Education Committee, Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque.

Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, said coping with such challenges comes with Democrats controlling the New Mexico Legislature.

“We have to be responsible,” Heaton said. “When you are the majority party, all of the obligations fall on your shoulders to try to do the right things. That responsibility comes with being in the majority. That’s just part of it.”

The union’s increasingly aggressive tone comes as state lawmakers and Gov. Bill Richardson prepare for what many predict will be the most difficult legislative session in decades. State lawmakers and Richardson may face a $1 billion shortfall when they meet in Santa Fe in January to write next year’s state budget.

Some state lawmakers predict that deep spending cuts and tax increases will be part of the debate in January.

New Mexico state legislators do not often have strongly supported opponents in primary elections; they are usually only opposed by members of the opposite party in general election votes. But judging by recent history, AFT’s threat to support challengers in a primary may not be an idle one.

The educators’ union broke with other public employee unions last year to endorse challengers running against sitting Democratic incumbents prior to the June 2008 primary. Then Rep. Dan Silva and Sens. James Taylor and Shannon Robinson lost to Eleanor Chavez, Eric Griego and Tim Keller, respectively.

“They did endorse Tim Keller and Eric Griego. They contributed and a number of their employees did get involved,” recalled Neri Holguin, who managed Keller’s and Griego’s campaigns. “I was particularly grateful for their endorsement.”

In recent days New Mexicans have caught a glimpse of how bad the state’s financial situation could become. Joe Williams, the state’s corrections chief, said two prisons would close and hundreds of non-violent inmates would go free if he had to cut $21 million, or 7.6 percent, from this agency. Meanwhile, state lawmakers and their staff jousted with the Richardson administration over whether or not the budget fix the Legislature passed last week exempted the government’s low-income health insurance program from cuts.

Among the measures the Legislature passed last week to help address this year’s $650 million shortfall was one that ordered Richardson to cut 7.6 percent of spending at dozens of agencies under his control. The governor can reach that 7.6 percent threshold by cutting deeper in some places than others, state lawmakers and legislative staff have said. In other words, he has the discretion to trim spending at one agency deeper than another as long as the 7.6 percent is cut in total.

Throughout the special legislative session, Trujillo and other AFT members often touted a poll showing a majority of New Mexicans opposing education cuts.

And sometimes they appeared to be recruiting individuals to run against incumbent lawmakers.

“’Want to announce early for one of these conservative Democrats’ seat in the House and win in Nov 2010?’” John Ingram, also of AFT-New Mexico, commented during a live blog hosted by the Independent during last week’s special legislative session.

K-12 education was largely protected from cuts during the recent special legislative session, although the legality of a fund transfer that would help cushion local school districts from cuts remains unclear.

Trujillo acknowledged that AFT is thinking ahead to guard against deep cuts in K-12 education and at colleges and universities in January despite the state’s increasingly bleak finances.

“The weekend before the special legislative session, 3,200 people showed at the Capitol,” Trujillo said. “Three thousand people got up on a Friday morning when they could have done something else. Three thousand people felt compelled to go to Santa Fe and tell legislators how serious this was. If those politicians don’t understand the depth of their concern, I don’t know what else to do.”

Photo by Sara Grajeda

A budget that largely protects K-12 education, while cutting deeply into most state agencies, won approval from the Legislature Friday evening.

The budget passage came after an exhausting and confusing day in which state lawmakers dueled and disagreed before finally finding common ground. Five Senate amendments were added to a bill that originated in the House of Representatives. The changes, which had appeared at first to be a major obstacle, turned out to be nothing more than a speed bump to passing the budget.

The House agreed with four of the five amendments, and asked the Senate to withdraw the fifth amendment, which it did.

That decision effectively sent the budget bill, which trims more than $200 million in spending, to Gov. Bill Richardson for his signature.

Of the Senate amendments, the only one that substantially altered the budget restored $5 million for state police, which had been facing 7.5 percent cuts.

While the amendments didn’t substantially alter the budget, they threw the Senate into chaos for most of Friday, as senators hurled charges and counter-charges at each other, exposing a rift among Democratic state lawmakers that had been simmering for days—if not longer.

Starting from the beginning, Democrats fought among themselves over Gov. Bill Richardson’s decision to take tax increases off the agenda as a way to address this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall.

Some Democrats said the governor’s prohibition meant tax increases should not be part of the budget fix, even if they philosophically supported raising taxes. Others pushed hard for tax increases despite the governor’s ban.

That debate was often heated and and antagonized both factions. Those sore feelings were on display Friday, especially after debate on an amendment offered by Sen. Eric Griego, which was adopted after Lt Gov. Diane Denish cast a dramatic tie-breaking vote.

“This is a hell of a way to do business,” Griego said of the effort to remove his addition.

“To say we can’t amend this bill one iota? I’m sorry, things have to change up here. …I know pepole are enjoying the positions of power they have…and I know some of us are going to be retaliated against” Griego said, “But I’m a Barelas boy…”

“We’re not even able to consider [cutting] a pork project but we’ll cut schools,” he said, sounding incredulous.

Added Albuquerque Democratic Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque: “I’m upset that someone squeezed arms here.”

The insinuation was that top Democrats had pressured other senators to reconsider their votes to remove Griego’s amendment.

Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, took offense, saying neither he nor any other senate leader pressured anyone.

“I am ready to go unpack my car and stay here ’til hell freezes over,” Jennings said.

Sen. Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, ultimately stood up to say the debate had degenerated to name-calling and personal attacks and the motion to remove the amendment was removed.

The budget bill keeps K-12 education largely unharmed by paying a big annual expense for local school districts — property insurance premiums – out of a little-known state fund. If school districts don’t have to pay the insurance premiums, they could better handle the 2 percent in spending cuts laid out in the legislation.

It is one-time money, meaning next year school districts won’t see their premiums paid, but several local school officials said they approved anyway.

But the pain in the new, leaner state budget for state services other than education or Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program, will ripple across the state, warned Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.

“I’m advising you not to not go back into your senior centers,” Smith said to his fellow lawmakers. “Stay away from there. But you can speed there though because the state police probably are not going to be on the highways as much as they were.”

Smith was talking about the roughly 7 percent cuts to the majority of state agencies, including children services and state prisons. In protecting K-12 education and touching lightly on higher ed, the legislation makes shallow cuts to the programs that make up a majority of the state budget — $60 million from K-12 education and higher ed. But the legislation wrings $95 million in savings from dozens of state agencies.

The budget bill didn’t make many people happy. Republicans – and some Democrats — said it didn’t cut deep enough to prepare for what say will be a $1 billion shortfall in the next budget year.

Progressive Democrats weren’t happy because the budget bill didn’t allow for tax increases to help close this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall.

In addition to the budget bill, the Legislature will close this year’s $650 million shortfall using legislation that “sweeps” state funds of unused money, claws back money from unfinished brick and mortar projects and uses federal stimulus dollars that disappear Dec. 31, 2010.

All those bills had passed by 7 p.m. Friday. Both chambers then quickly adjourned after an long, and sometimes tense, special legislative session.

“No one was happy with what we had to do,” said House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe. “Our actions in this session provide the breathing room we need for now before we come back in January. This is part of our job as lawmakers to make the hard decisions.”

Some anticipate that the state may face a much tougher challenge when state lawmakers convene the 2010 regular session in January, when a $1 billion shortfall may greet them as they cobble together a spending plan for fiscal year 2011.