‘SNL’ imagines another Trump rally in NM

SANTA FE — “Saturday Night Live” opened this weekend with a satirical Trump rally set in Albuquerque.

“Hello, New Mexico — by far my favorite Mexico,” actor Alec Baldwin, playing Donald Trump, said as the skit began.

He went on to proclaim how happy he was to be in “Albacore,” the tuna capital of the nation.

The show also poked fun at Trump’s recent comment about the United States building a wall in Colorado — a state, of course, far from the southern border.

The faux Trump brought out a map with Colorado south of New Mexico, near “bad Mexico.”

“As you can see, most of America is good, except for the parts that are bad or lakes,” Baldwin said.

The Republican Party didn’t laugh it off.

State GOP Chairman Steve Pearce said the real Trump’s rally in New Mexico, last month in Rio Rancho, succeeded in attracting Democratic and Hispanic voters.

“The left can try to diminish the tremendous enthusiasm that New Mexico displayed for the President but for those of us who live in the state, it is obvious that the President will win New Mexico,” Pearce said in a written statement shared on social media.

President Trump, by the way, says he was just kidding about that border wall in Colorado. BUDGET CAUTION: The oil boom in southeastern New Mexico is filling the state’s bank account with cash.

But a key legislative committee is warning state agencies not to get greedy as they submit their budget requests.

Guidelines issued by the Legislative Finance Committee say lawmakers’ goal is to propose a balanced budget with a “single digit growth rate,” or less than 10%. That’s a healthy increase, of course, but it’s less than the amount expected to be available.

Staff economists have estimated that more than $900 million in “new” money will be available in the next fiscal year, a 13% increase over this year’s spending.

Unspent money, of course, can boost state reserves.

In any case, the formation of next year’s budget is still in its early stages.

The Legislative Finance Committee — a bipartisan panel of lawmakers — will hear an initial round of budget requests this week.

The governor and LFC will each issue separate budget proposals shortly before the legislative session begins Jan. 21. Passing a budget is the top priority of a 30-day session.