New State Senate Proposal Cuts K-12 Ed. by $150 Million

October 20, 2009

The New Mexico state Senate has advanced a new budget scenario that would cut state government deeper than other plans that have been introduced.

The proposal, Senate Bill 15, would cut state agencies by $314 million, including a 6 percent cut to public education.

On Monday morning, the Senate Committee on Committees ruled the bill “germane” on a 6-2 vote — meaning the panel agreed that the bill is relevant to Gov. Bill Richardson’s proclamation, which sets the agenda for the special legislative session.

The proposal likely will antagonize Richardson, who for weeks had said he wanted no cuts to K-12 school funding, but on Friday agreed to consider $40 million in cuts as long as they cost-saving measures don’t hurt classroom instruction.

Among other things, it would cut K-12 public education funding by more than $140 million, according to a spreadsheet given to state lawmakers. K-12 education accounts for roughly 40 percent of the state’s $5.2 billion budget.

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Monday he would not comment on the Senate proposal.<br /&gt ;

No consensus on the plan

“I’m not voting for anything without other options,” one of the dissenters to the bill, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, told his colleagues on the Committee on Committees.

Cisneros said he opposed the bill on its merits because Richardson has prohibited the Legislature from contemplating tax increases in the special legislative session to address this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall.

“You can’t do this if your hands are tied,” Cisneros had said just before the meeting.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said the new proposal reflects the worsening economic reality facing New Mexico. The state’s revenues continue to sag, meaning even if state lawmakers approve a budgetary fix, it likely will worsen. That might mean state lawmakers would have to address this year again in the regular January legislative session or — in a worst-case scenario — have another big shortfall to take care of after the 2010 budget year ends June 30.

“It’s painful as hell, but it reduces the dilemma for us a little” in the next budget year,” Smith said of the new proposal.

In addition to cutting public education, the bill would trim higher education by nearly $52 million.

It also would trim the low-income health insurance program known as Medicaid by $14 million. The corrections department, meanwhile, would take a $16.5 million hit while the Department of Health would lose $10.4 million, the spreadsheet shows.

The bill also stop extra funding the state had planned to put in the state Educational Retirement Board and the Retiree Healthcare Authority, which is underfunded. The Senat e also ruled germane four other bills Monday morning. Most would cut spending.