New Mexico lawmakers react to governor’s vetoes in budget
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SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed a more than $10 billion budget into law but not before using the veto pen to strike a few things from it. News 13 spoke with leaders in the House and Senate about their reactions to some of what didn’t make the cut.
New Mexico governor signs state budget with some line-item vetoes
“I think the budget is in pretty good shape, and the budget for New Mexico right, makes New Mexico pretty well safe from recessionary pressures,” said Senator George Muñoz (D-Gallup).
Lawmakers are proud of the record $10.2 billion budget passed this session—”New Mexicans should look forward to new exciting things in our state because of the work and investments in the budget and our collaborative efforts to do it,” said Representative Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces).
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However, not everything made it past the line-item veto: “This year we saw sort of, I would term it really a normal rate of line-item vetoes,” Small said.
“Governors do what governors do. They’ll line item and strike stuff. But I think the part that really bothers me the most is the accountability portion,” Muñoz said.
More than 80 line item vetoes are in this budget, including one that would have helped lawmakers figure out how much money to allocate to schools. “Striking language for the legislature for both education committees and finance committees not to help PED submit the SEG number is really unusual,” Muñoz said, “The SEG is the student education formula. So each student has a value placed upon them and I think it’s currently around 14,000 a student.”
The governor also struck language requiring the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department to report to the legislature. “People want to know where their dollars are going right? Are we serving our kids correctly in education or do we need more money? Are we meeting performance measures on the environment or are we just throwing money into the wind? Are kids at CYFD the most vulnerable foster kids? Are they being protected? Are they getting the services? Are the families getting the help they need?” Muñoz asked.
In response, lawmakers say they’ll still demand accountability. “We’re gonna ask for the exact same information back, we’re going to demand transparency, we’re going to rigorously evaluate outcomes,” Small said.
“You can strike language in and play around in House Bill 2 but we’re going to get the numbers,” Muñoz said.
In a letter to lawmakers, the governor says most of her vetoes over reporting requirements would be addressed in legislation.
