Gov. signs bill slashing most agencies’ budgets

$22 million in cuts to education vetoed

SANTA FE — Gov. Susana Martinez signed into law Monday a budget-cutting bill that slashes funding for New Mexico colleges and universities, courts and most state agencies in response to a stomach-churning plunge in state revenues.

However, the two-term Republican governor used her line-item veto authority to prevent $22 million in proposed cuts to K-12 initiatives run by the Public Education Department, saying the cuts would have gutted programs like free meals for students in highpoverty schools and stipends for teachers who perform well on the state’s evaluation system.

“To make cuts as deep as the Legislature proposed in (the budget-cutting bill) would be to abandon our goals in education reform, and to abandon our schools and students as they strive to meet them,” Martinez said in her bill-signing message.

Although the governor said she would direct PED to voluntarily reduce spending on such programs by $4.5 million, her veto drew criticism from one topranking lawmaker.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the move will increase pressure on Martinez and lawmakers to do additional belt-tightening during the 60-day regular session, which starts in January.

“We still have hefty lifting to do, and that just adds to the workload,” Smith told the Journal.

He also questioned whether the PED would be able to spend the

entire $22 million, saying much of the money spared by the governor’s veto pen had gone unspent by the PED in the past year.

The budget-cutting bill signed Monday by the governor calls for 5.5 percent spending cuts for most agencies, effective immediately. Some agencies will have smaller cuts, while Medicaid and child-focused services are among several programs exempted from the cuts.

New Mexico colleges and universities will face 5 percent cuts — amounting to $15.5 million for the University of New Mexico — and the judicial branch and district attorneys will see 3 percent funding reductions.

Martinez also used her lineitem veto authority to ax some proposed language in the budgetcutting bill, including a provision that higher education cuts be primarily for “non-instructional” expenditures.

The budget-cutting bill was part of a solvency package approved by the Legislature in the seven-day special session, which ended Oct. 6. The package, a mix of spending cuts and one-time fixes, will generate an estimated $352 million in savings for the current fiscal year — with the governor’s vetoes factored in — and will allow for a deficit in the budget year that ended in June to be backfilled. But it appears to not be enough to fully solve the state’s financial woes, as New Mexico is facing a projected $458 million shortfall for the budget year that started in July.

Meanwhile, Martinez also signed legislation on Monday that authorizes roughly $264,000 to pay for special session expenses, including per diem and mileage for lawmakers and pay for legislative staffers.

The governor had until Wednesday to act on bills passed during the special session. She had previously signed five of the seven passed bills.