Court funding fight

Dems, Gov. continue to trade accusations

Senate puts the brakes on emergency court funding bill passed by the House

SANTA FE — A bill providing more than $670,000 in emergency funding to the New Mexico court system has hit a speed bump in the Senate, as a tug of war between the legislative and executive branches intensified.

With the looming prospect of jury trials being halted statewide due to a lack of funds, the House on Monday voted 68-0 to pass the bill, which is supported by Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration.

But the Senate put the brakes on the measure Tuesday, assigning it to two committees.

That sets the stage for an emergency meeting today of the state Board of Finance, a seven-member board controlled by the governor that had put off a decision on the courts’ funding request in December.

Martinez, the state’s two-term GOP governor, has already vetoed two court funding proposals approved by lawmakers during this year’s 60-day session. In doing so, she has criticized the Democratic-controlled Legislature for not examining ways to reduce court spending.

An influential Democratic senator said the Senate’s approach to the House-approved funding bill complies with the governor’s request.

“We’re going to give it the scrutiny she’s requesting,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, told the Journal.

He also accused Martinez of trying to starve the state’s judicial branch, saying, “It’s been a long history of her not recognizing the needs of the courts.”

Without additional money being provided in the next several weeks, Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels has warned jury trials will be suspended starting March 1. In addition, there are planned employee furloughs — and related closures — at the state Supreme Court.

The House-approved legislation, House Bill 261, would provide an immediate infusion of $593,000 for the court system’s jury fund and $83,000 to the Supreme Court.

That would allow the judicial branch to keep paying for jury trials until mid-April, court officials have said. Additional funding would then have be provided in the annual state budget bill to keep jury trials going through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Despite the two previous vetoes, a Martinez spokesman on Tuesday suggested the Legislature has failed to come up with an adequate court funding measure.

“As the governor has said before, if the Legislature doesn’t act, she will,” Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez said.

The bill pending in the Senate would appropriate less money than the proposals axed by Martinez, but it would not change the cost of jury trials, which average about $99,000 per week statewide.

The Administrative Office of the Courts has already moved to reduce juror pay — jurors currently get $6.25 an hour — and mileage reimbursement rates. In all, the judicial branch’s budget makes up less than 3 percent of total state spending.