Lawmakers to debate suing governor over vetoes
Questions raised ‘about separation of powers and checks and balances’
Legislators may soon return to Santa Fe for a special session, but they may head to court, too.
Senior lawmakers will meet Thursday to discuss suing Republican Gov. Susana Martinez for vetoing funding for New Mexico’s public universities and the entire legislative branch of government, moves that Democrats say were unconstitutional.
Lawmakers also will consider court challenges of five to 10 vetoes by Martinez during the legislative session that ended last month. They say Martinez’s actions violated the state constitution because she did not explain those vetoes in a written message. Democrats maintain that the bills actually became law because her attempts at vetoes were improper.
The Legislative Council, a committee of lawmakers overseeing legal affairs for the state Senate and House of Representatives, will convene at the Capitol as a rift between Martinez and the Legislature only seems to deepen.
Martinez last week gutted much of the budget approved by legislators, and she has promised to call lawmakers back to Santa Fe for a special session to rework the spending plan.
The governor also has vowed to reject any tax increases, but Democratic legislators and some Republicans argue the state needs more revenue to avoid further cuts in government services.
A lawsuit would drag the showdown out of the Capitol and into the state Supreme Court.
“We’ve got questions about separation of powers and checks and balances,” said Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, a Democrat from Santa Fe and a member of the Legislative Council.
Wirth did not say Tuesday whether legislators will decide to act this week. And the public will not be able to watch lawmakers discussing their strategy. The council
will meet in closed session, which members say is allowed to discuss legal matters.
But the most likely option is for a few legislators to petition the state Supreme Court to ask for a ruling on whether the governor has the right to veto the budget for an entire branch of government and cancel the funding for all state universities.
Democrats could also challenge the governor’s vetoes of specific bills without explanatory messages. Those bills included a measure allowing research of industrial hemp and a separate proposal to make it easier for local governments to pay for expanding access to broadband internet.
A few similar disputes have occurred in New Mexico’s 105 years of statehood.
On the question of veto messages, the New Mexico Supreme Court has previously stated that “the clear purpose of the veto … is to give the house in which a bill originated an opportunity to consider the governor’s veto of the bill and his objections thereto.”
Lawmakers point to such decisions as evidence that Martinez had to explain vetoes made during the legislative session, not discard bills without providing reasons.
The Governor’s Office has dismissed such arguments. Chris Sanchez, a spokesman for Martinez, described the Democrats’ threats of a legal challenge as a stunt.