Bipartisan panel asks for probe of gov.’s virus spending
Council questions whether Lujan Grisham overstepped her authority by not waiting for legislative approval
Members of a bipartisan legislative panel that includes Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth and House Speaker Brian Egolf — both Santa Fe Democrats — have agreed to begin a legal probe into whether Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham overstepped her authority in unilaterally approving $30 million in state funds for use in New Mexico’s emergency response to COVID-19.
So far, less than $4 million has been spent, a legislative official said.
The 40-member Legislative Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask outside attorneys to investigate whether the governor should have asked
for authorization from the Legislature for the funds.
State law allows the governor to make emergency expenditures of $750,000 without lawmakers’ approval, David Abbey, director of the Legislative Finance Committee, told members of the council during a virtual meeting Tuesday.
The governor used an emergency response law to authorize two separate appropriations at far greater sums: one totaling $10 million and another for $20 million.
The Governor’s Office has argued it complied with state law, but top Democratic leaders are asking for an explanation from the governor and a legal investigation into whether the spending should have gone through the Legislature first.
“We’re dealing with emergency powers being used for the first time to address the most significant health crisis our state has ever faced, and given that, it’s important that the two branches of government have a discussion about appropriation authority, especially because this crisis is far from over,” Wirth said in an interview.
Previous governors have invoked the same law to spend in excess of the $750,000 limit. But they OK’d the spending in multiple increments.
Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an email the All Hazards Emergency Management Act allows the governor to authorize “larger amounts if the situation warrants it” to “avoid or minimize harm in the event of an emergency — exactly what she has been doing.”
The reason New Mexico avoided the mounting numbers of COVID-19 cases seen in other states is because of Lujan Grisham’s “decisive and quick” decision-making, Sackett said.
“If the Legislative Council would prefer a different mechanism for responding to life-and-death emergencies under the laws they write, they are empowered to make one,” she added.
During a Los Alamos fire more than a decade ago, the governor at the time invoked the same emergency clause to spend about $7.5 million on fire response, Abbey said. That was done with multiple authorizations of $750,000.
For many lawmakers who are backing the probe, it’s not simply a question of whether the $30 million should have been authorized in two or 40 separate orders.
At the heart of the issue is the separation of powers between the executive branch and the Legislature — the body given the authority to appropriate money by the New Mexico Constitution.
“I think that emergency money needed to be done,” said Senate Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. But, she added, “I’m always concerned if and when we have a governor that we feel is taking away some of our authority, because once you lose that authority you never get it back.”
Outgoing Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said in an interview he thinks the governor “basically overstepped” her authority by not asking the Legislature to appropriate the money.
The fact that the Lujan Grisham administration has spent only a fraction of the money underscores that point, he said.
Republicans for months have decried the emergency expenditures, arguing they were in excess of what state law allows. Tuesday marks the first time Democratic leaders have joined the call to investigate.
Egolf advised House Minority Leader Jim Townsend, R-Artesia — who first proposed asking the council’s attorneys to look into the spending — to amend his motion to note he and Wirth would send a letter to Lujan Grisham, “asking her to lay out her position on why the administration believes this is appropriate.”
It was a rare display of bipartisan skepticism of the Democratic governor.
“This Legislature and this Legislative Council has the authority and the responsibility to protect the integrity of the Legislature. … It wasn’t a question of whether the rule was $800,000 or even $8 million,” Townsend said.
Egolf said after the meeting his top concern was not about whether the governor exceeded her authority; rather, he questioned whether the governor should have authorized the money with 14 executive orders instead of two.
For others, the question was broader. “This isn’t a criticism of our current governor; this is about making sure the system is appropriately balanced no matter who the governor is,” Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, said after the meeting. “I think we’re in an extraordinary situation, and none of us have dealt with this before, and we’re trying to figure out where the lines are.”
Legislative Council members also approved a motion Tuesday to allow legislators to take part in interim committee hearings remotely ahead of the 2021 legislative session that starts in January.