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.
On Wednesday evening it became clear lawmakers didn’t have a budget deal, Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe said, while speaking to reporters after the close of the 2010 regular session. Democratic leaders say the difference between their budget and the Senate’s was narrowed to $50-$70 million dollars but there were still sticking points they couldn’t overcome.
At the end of the 2010 session there was little that would make anyone happy. But the failure to pass a budget and an impending special session left House Republicans particularly frustrated. “I feel like we ended in…
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, says a special session is now a “certainty” because the Legislature “just flat ran out of time” to come up with a budget compromise.
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…
Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said the House should vote Tuesday on whether to accept substantial changes to the state budget made by the Senate on Saturday. If the House agrees with the changes, that means the state budget…
Gov. Bill Richardson picked sides Monday, saying he preferred the House state budget to the one passed by the Senate Saturday.
“New Mexico taxpayers expect serious solutions to the budget impasse, rather than taxing tortillas as the Senate proposes,” Richardson…
New Mexico would tax food for the first time in years, add $1 to the state cigarette tax and net taxes from out-of-state owners of business partnerships on income earned here.
Meanwhile, state agencies would get fewer dollars and several hundred jobs would disappear from state government. That mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes was part of a $5.276 billion state budget proposal that the Senate passed 25 to 17 early Sunday morning to help close a projected shortfall of several hundred million dollars next year.
State employees and educational workers would contribute an additional 1 percent into the state’s retirement funds according to a bill the Senate Finance committee approved Saturday morning.
The bill, which would save $27.4 million, is part of a proposed state…
Public school teachers and state workers would pay more toward their retirement while several, but not all, state agencies would get fewer dollars next year under a state budget plan approved by a powerful Senate committee on Thursday.
Also roughly 250 more state jobs across state government would disappear than in a House-approved state budget plan that served as the starting point for the Senate proposal. Many of those targeted state government positions are already vacant, legislative officials said.
The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday reduced by more than half the amount of new revenue the House approved to generate through tax increases, from $340 million to roughly $150 million.
The Senate did this by replacing two House-approved tax…
Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell said Tuesday that broad-based cuts are a ‘very possible’ step to balancing the budget. But Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, disagreed, saying ”When you say ‘across the board’ you balance the budget on the backs of…
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.
In a straight party-line vote, the New Mexico House passed a $5.6 billion budget Friday evening. Both sides of the aisle dug deep over a budget that neither is happy with. For Democrats, it was tough decisions over where to…
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…
Their voices were clear and their shouts were loud in the Roundhouse rotunda on Tuesday. One week into the legislative session and Better Choices New Mexico wants every law maker to know more budget cuts aren’t the answer. And…
A little bit overweight? Smoke a few now and then? It could cost you more for health insurance if you’re a New Mexico teacher. Many New Mexico teachers used to have what could be described as a “Cadillac” health insurance…
Myra Wilson is 34 years old, the mother of three, and in recovery from a decade-long addiction to hard drugs — crack cocaine and methamphetamine. By the time she was 28, she was barely surviving. Her children had been sent to live with relatives and she was moving from motel to motel, letting herself be abused and at times stealing from others to feed her addiction.
