Senate leaders warn of legislative logjam if budget bill not passed soon
Posted at: 02/07/2012 6:10 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
There was no movement on the long-overdue budget bill at the state legislature Tuesday. It remains on a temporary agenda in the House of Representatives, while Senate leaders warn of a legislative logjam if they do not get the budget soon.
The budget was due out of the House last Tuesday - a week ago - and while action is expected tomorrow it will leave the Senate only a week to work on the bill, which is the only absolutely mandatory piece of business in the entire 30-day legislative session.
The $5.6 billion dollar budget will run state government and the public schools and universities for the next budgetary year that starts July 1.
"It's extremely frustrating," said Sen. John Arthur Smith, the Deming Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. " It's even more frustrating for the advocates that have bills out there, saying Senate Finance, why aren't you hearing my bill, why aren't you hearing my bill? Well it's not retribution, it's a mathematical issue with us."
Mathematics, as in how can they decide what to spend, if they do not know how much money they have? And they will not know that until the House passes the budget.
What held things up in the House was a dispute over how much power to give Governor Susana Martinez to cut spending if revenues fall shorter than expected or cut taxes on small businesses if new money rolls in the way state government economists predict it will. The House Appropriations and Finance Committee worked out a compromise and passed the bill to the House floor Monday morning.
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