NOTES FROM THE ROUNDHOUSE
by Anna Crook
The legislative session ended on March 17, sending Governor Johnson 482 bills to either sign or veto. The deadline of April 6 has passed and the governor signed over 300 pieces of legislation.
We passed a budget of over $3.8 billion, which was an increase of 11.5 percent over last year, nearly twice the increase of the last few years. Governor Johnson signed the appropriations bill with $95 million in line-item vetoes to bring spending down to a reasonable level.
The Governor had asked for a $75 million tax cut across the board for the citizens of New Mexico who had paid these taxes.
This was later reduced to $72.5 million. This did not seem unreasonable, considering we had a surplus of over $500 million. A much lower tax cut was proposed. The governor offered a compromise of giving the cut over a two year period. The House leadership would not go along, although the Senate was agreeable to a workable plan. As a result, the capitol outlay project bill was vetoed. This was much to the dismay of most legislators, considering everyone wanted the capital outlay request for their communities.
We felt that fulfillment of the tax cut request and capital outlay request would have been a win win for everyone.
Had the Governor's tax cut request been approved, the capital outlay bill would have been signed and everyone would have been a winner.
This did not happen and, as a result, the capitol outlay bill was vetoed.
There are still rumors that a special session might be called to address this, but so far no word of such a happening has occurred.
Interim committee assignments should be complete in the next few days. Redistricting will be the next big issue. Stay tuned.
Anna Crook is a New Mexico State Representative, representing District 64. She is a member of the Taxation and Revenue and Transportation committees. She is also an Interim Member of the following committees: NM Finance Authority Oversight Committee, Revenue Stabilization & Tax Policy Committee, and the Water & Natural Resources Committee.
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