Senate burns midnight oil trying to reach deal

Posted at: 10/21/2009 5:53 PM | Updated at: 10/22/2009 7:32 AM
By: Gadi Schwartz, Eyewitness News 4; Matthew Kappus, KOB.com

Sen. Michael Sanchez

State senators worked late into the night Wednesday to hammer out a deal to fix New Mexico’s $650 million deficit.

Lawmakers may be close to solving the state’s budget crisis, the leader of the New Mexico Senate said. But by 11:00 p.m., lawmakers still had not reached a deal.

Majority Leader Michael Sanchez said he expected the Senate to act on a package of cuts and fund transfers late Wednesday. The Belen Democrat raised the possibility that lawmakers could be headed home as early as Thursday. But any bills passed by the Senate would first have to go to the House for its approval.

The Senate has taken a break so Republicans can examine the bills.

"We want the right side of the aisle to look at those bills our caucus has been working very hard as I'm sure the other side has been working to a resolution to hopefully get us out of here by tomorrow afternoon- maybe noon if we get in early enough,” Sanchez said.

At this point, it is unclear if one of those bills addresses the hot button issue on cuts to education, which is something that many progressives in both the House and Senate have been adamant about voting against.

Print Story