Roosevelt County Chamber’s
Legislative Report
May 24, 2017
Legislative Report
May 24, 2017
Special Session opens at noon
The New Mexico Legislature will convene in special session at high noon today in Santa Fe. Top priority for the lawmakers is to balance the state budget.
Of course they did offer up a balanced budget just before adjourning the regular 60 day session in March but that solution contained a $30 million tax increase that the Governor quickly vetoed along with all funding for the state’s universities. The special session has taken its sweet time in getting here as everyone awaited the outcome of a lawsuit filed by legislators claiming the Governor’s vetoes were unconstitutional. That ruling went in favor of the Governor a few weeks ago.
Republican Governor Susana Martinez would like to have the budget balanced through use of tax reform, primarily gross receipts tax, along with utilizing excess legislative retirement fund monies and foregoing capital outlay (pork barrel) spending in legislative districts. The Democratic controlled legislature believes budget cuts have gone far enough and the budget needs to contain new revenue from taxes.
It’s reported that the House Republicans are tightly banded together to hold onto their veto-proof numbers but if they start to defect the Governor may be forced to bargain on tax increases. She was seen on Albuquerque television reports recently waffling a bit over questions about re-instituting a food tax. We’ll see what happens.
Magistrate Court Funding in call
The legislature is restricted to debate on just the items outlined in the Governor’s call during a special session. One other item included in that call of great interest locally is restoring funding for local magistrate court buildings. The Roosevelt County Commission recently discussed the fact that the state is now in default on lease payments for its brand new court building in Portales.
The legislature is restricted to debate on just the items outlined in the Governor’s call during a special session. One other item included in that call of great interest locally is restoring funding for local magistrate court buildings. The Roosevelt County Commission recently discussed the fact that the state is now in default on lease payments for its brand new court building in Portales.
