Rue repeats call for annual audits of governor’s contingency fund
GOP senator’s legislation would ensure increased transparency on spending
On top of providing the governor funds for running an office and paying staff, the state budget gives New Mexico’s top elected official an extra chunk of money that is not audited and goes into a separate bank account.
Known as the governor’s contingency fund, it has long been used for miscellaneous expenses, from entertaining dignitaries to hosting parties.
But a Republican legislator is repeating his call for more transparency in how the governor spends this money, which has amounted to about $70,000 annually in recent years.
Sen. Sander Rue of Albuquerque has filed legislation that would ensure the fund is audited annually like any other fund in New Mexico government.
Though Republican Gov. Susana Martinez campaigned on government accountability, the measure has floundered in past years and it is unclear whether she would sign it.
“Transparent and open government seems to be a really good idea when you’re running for office, not such a good idea anymore once you get elected to office,” Rue told reporters Friday.
Martinez is hardly the first governor to use a contingency fund. It is a long-running perk of the job. But she has drawn attention to it like none of her predecessors.
The fund helped pay for a 2015 holiday party at a Santa Fe hotel that led to reports of noise and bottles being thrown off a fourth-floor balcony. Infamously, the governor — with
speech that seemed slurred — told a police dispatcher to call off officers sent to the hotel room to investigate.
The episode made national news and raised questions about how the Martinez administration is using the obscure fund.
The Governor’s Office contends it has been more transparent about the funds than past administrations, reporting to the Department of Finance and Administration each quarter how much money it has used and breaking the spending into five categories: supplies, food and beverage, contract services for events, miscellaneous and subscriptions. The Governor’s Office also has said that it cut the size of the fund significantly.
Still, the contingency fund remains expressly exempt from audit.
Rue’s legislation, Senate Bill 52, would move the money into the state treasury and ensure it is audited annually like other funds managed by the Governor’s Office as well as subject to the state’s open-records law.
The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request to comment for this story or provide details about the fund’s current status, but in the past, spokesmen for Martinez have been noncommittal about calls for greater transparency in the contingency fund.
There is no guarantee the bill will even reach her desk, however.
Before becoming speaker of the state House of Representatives last year, Rep. Brian Egolf, a Democrat from Santa Fe, proposed a similar measure in 2016 that never even received a committee hearing.
Rue revived the bill last year; it passed the state Senate on a vote of 27-2 but died in the House.
Asked if Democrats, who control both chambers in the Legislature, might be hesitant to approve the bill on the chance that their party will win back the governor’s office next year, Rue said: “I hope any future governor would embrace transparency and open government and this would be part and parcel of that.”
Rue also is sponsoring legislation this year calling for an annual audit of the state’s transparency website, known as the Sunshine Portal, to ensure agencies are posting the required information.
And he is sponsoring a bill that would require state agencies to post on the Sunshine Portal information about any financial settlements involving harassment or discrimination. Information about those settlements is already available through the Inspection of Public Records Act after 180 days. But Rue’s bill would require posting information about the size of the settlement and the agency involved within 30 days. This, he argues, would help observers identify patterns of misconduct in government agencies.