SANTA FE – New Mexico lawmakers signed off Friday on a $6.2 billion budget for next year, but the House and Senate appeared to be on a collision course over a massive public works package as the clock ticked toward today’s noon finish line of a 60-day legislative session.
The politically charged debate over the $264 million capital outlay package hinged on how to best fund highway repair and construction projects around the state.
Gov. Susana Martinez has pushed for money to be earmarked from state bonds, but top-ranking Senate Democrats have stood firm against the approach, saying roadwork should be paid for by an increase in the gas tax rate or from the state’s cash reserves.
With little time left in the session, neither the Republican-controlled House nor the Democratic-controlled Senate appeared likely to blink, casting doubt over the package’s fate.
“I don’t think I have a reputation of playing chicken,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, told reporters Friday. “I don’t do a lot of bluffing.”
But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, accused Senate Democrats of holding the public works package hostage over the proposed gas tax hike, saying, “I can only imagine how that will resonate with the voters.”
New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Vigil criticizes Republican changes to a public works funding measure. She made the comments Friday during a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee. (Eddie Moore/Journal)
Lawmakers typically approve an annual public works package that includes money for senior centers, water projects, sports fields and other types of infrastructure. It is generally funded by bonds backed by severance tax revenue from oil and gas production.
The House’s changes to a Senate-approved version of the bill included cuts to proposed courthouse security upgrades, senior center renovations and Indian Country schools. Those cuts were made to include $45 million for statewide road projects.
“It seems like we are cutting education and senior services in order to fund road projects,” said Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park, during a Friday hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee.
But Finance and Administration Secretary Tom Clifford, a Martinez appointee, said funding the road projects out of the state’s cash reserves – as the Senate had proposed doing – would be fiscally imprudent.
He said paying for highway work with bonds would be a better approach, adding, “This is not taking on long-term debt – it’s short-term financing.”
The House GOP revisions were approved on a party-line 7-6 vote in committee, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats opposed. It was expected to be voted on by the full House later in the day.
If approved in the House, the measure would then head back to the Senate for a vote on whether to sign off on the changes or reject them. If a compromise between the two chambers is not reached by today’s adjournment, the entire package would be killed.
Other projects included in the public works package included:
• $16 million for a new building at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas.
• $12.5 million in funding for a state “closing fund,” actually a local government grant program used to defer the cost of business expansion and relocation.
• $5.6 million for security upgrades at state-run prisons.
• $4 million for a new hangar at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences.
Meanwhile, the House voted unanimously Friday to accept Senate changes to the $6.2 billion spending plan for the coming year, sending it to the governor’s desk for final action.
The proposed budget would increase overall state spending by roughly $83 million – or 1.3 percent – over this year’s levels. It would provide salary increases for new teachers and State Police officers, but not for rank-and-file state employees.
In other Friday legislative action, Senate Democrats thwarted a last-ditch attempt by Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, to “blast” a proposed late-term abortion ban out of committee to the Senate floor. The abortion legislation had been tabled last week in a Senate panel.
Although many election-related bills remained stalled at the Roundhouse, the House did give final approval Friday to a watered-down bill that would require a more thorough state database of registered lobbyists.
The legislation, House Bill 155, had originally called for lobbyists to disclose the issues they were hired to lobby on, but that language was stripped out in a Senate committee.