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.
The 2010 regular session will end with an answer to the state’s budget problem. But will it be a lasting answer? Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said Monday that the odds are “pretty high” that lawmakers will need to…
The sign posted on the door of the Senate Finance Committee room is clear: no domestic partnerships hearing until the budget is done. “This session is about fiscal appropriations,” Senator and Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said…
It was only supposed to be an informational meeting Saturday. But while Senators heard presentations on the state’s budget gap deep divides arose over how to close it.
The bill to repeal the state’s film credits is behind them, but film workers say by even introducing the idea costs not only them, but the entire state. Two more bills are targeting the credits and while they won’t repeal…
The House of Representatives could vote as early as Friday morning to raise $380 million in new revenue to help close next year’s budgetary shortfall. A half-cent hike in the state gross receipts tax and a 1-percent surtax on the state’s wealthiest residents are in the mixture of tax increases and targeted closure of tax deductions and loopholes. House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said Thursday afternoon he thinks he has the votes to push through the tax package.
State lawmakers sent Gov. Bill Richardson a message Wednesday evening: You have to share in more in the state’s budget pain, Governor. State lawmakers stripped millions of dollars from high-profile projects and initiatives Richardson has lobbied and pushed for around the state. Among the targeted items: a highway interchange in Belen already under construction; film/media production facilities and a proposed equestrian facility in Albuquerque.
New Mexico’s film tax credits survived an all out cut earlier in the session. But now there is another measure headed through the Roundhouse to cap those credits. Senate Bill 235 would cap the credit each production could get…
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has introduced what looks to be a competitor to the House’s budget bill. HB7 is the state budget bill. SB 228 is a near mirror image,…
The state’s budget appropriation bill is “$312 million dollars richer than revenues are willing to support,” state Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming said Monday. So the Senate Finance Committee, which Smith chairs, has canceled all agency hearings until members…
Hundreds of people turned a cavernous hearing room into cramped quarters Thursday to hear how more than 1,500 brick-and-mortar projects wound up on a 60-some-odd page list of projects targeted to lose state money. The bill could become the linchpin to the 30-day session. But if the large crowd of real people and dogged questioning by state lawmakers were any indicators, the legislation isn’t winning any popularity contests.
Politically, this bill will get more eyes than most any other bill this session, save perhaps the state budget. Over the next few days, many state lawmakers will review the over 60-some-odd page list of targeted projects to see if any of theirs is on it. The gyms, senior centers and bridges built with state money are often viewed as tangible evidence of what the lawmakers are doing for the districts.
Gov. Bill Richardson on Thursday said he would order nearly 20,000 state workers to take five furlough days. He also pledged to axe 1,000 vacant state jobs and make cuts at the agencies under his control. But state lawmakers said he could have averted some of the pain by taking action earlier this year.
A budget that largely protects K-12 education, while cutting deeply into most state agencies, won approval from the Legislature Friday evening. The bill, which trims more than $200 million in spending, now goes to Gov. Bill Richardson.
The solutions the Legislature is now considering to close this year’s budgetary shortfall rely heavily on a pot of money that once emptied cannot be refilled.
For the upcoming 2011 fiscal year, which starts next July, New Mexico must climb out of a deep financial hole. Barry Massey of the Associated Press has written an analysis of the state’s budget situation, and he gives us all some sobering facts to ponder.
Hundreds of millions of dollars remain unspent on thousands of brick-and-mortar projects the Legislature has approved in recent years. How much of that cash should be used to address the budget shortfall hasn’t yet emerged as a flashpoint between Gov. Bill Richardson and the Legislature as they try to reach a deal. But given recent history, it may well flare up.
New Mexico public schools could be cut by $77 million under a budget-balancing scenario that could be on the table in today’s deficit talks, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.
The paper reports that Senate Finance Committee Chairman, John…
Several state lawmakers working with Gov. Bill Richardson to balance this year’s state budget shortfall said Tuesday that the governor’s suggestions were a good first step.
Members of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico are orchestrating a statewide petition drive in hopes of pressuring state lawmakers to overturn a measure that has tens of thousands of public employees paying more into their pensions.
State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, offered KUNM a glimpse into the state’s financial future last week. It’s not particularly pretty.
