Special session looms even before adjournment for New Mexico legislature

Barry Massey

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000 | 8:53 a.m.

SANTA FE - Time runs out today on the Legislature's 30-day session, but lawmakers face the likelihood that Gov. Gary Johnson will call them back to work in a special session to craft a new budget.

The Democratic-led Legislature gave final approval to a $3.4 billion budget package, but the Republican governor was likely to veto the measure. The governor doesn't have to act quickly. He has 20 days to sign or veto bills passed in the final stretch of a legislative session.

A veto would mean there's no money to pay for operations of public schools and general government operations once the next budget year starts on July 1.

In the rush toward adjournment, lawmakers finished work on a host of proposals. Sent to the governor were measures to:

-Loosen regulation of telephone companies such as U S West in hopes of encouraging more advanced telecommunications services through industry competition.

-Phase-in full-day kindergarten over five years.

-Ban so-called partial-birth abortions.

-Divert more lottery proceeds to a college scholarship program to ensure the awards don't fall below 100 percent of tuition next year.

-Allocate $1.5 million for prison upgrades to deal with several recommendations by a panel of national corrections consultants. Included are salary plan improvements for guards and more staff to focus on inmate gang problems.

Among the unfinished items on the legislative agenda was a request by Indian tribes for new gambling compacts to lower the share of casino proceeds they must pay the state. But the Legislature may have another chance to consider the gambling question.

Johnson has said he probably would put Indian gambling on the agenda if a special session was necessary to deal with the budget.

The governor said Wednesday that he hasn't selected a date for a special session, but it won't be scheduled immediately after today's adjournment. Administration officials speculate that a "cooling off" period will improve chances of a budget deal during a special session.

This year shaped up as a repeat of the confrontation between Johnson and Democrats during last year's 60-day session, when the governor vetoed two budget packages passed by the Legislature and called a special session in May.

Johnson vetoed the Legislature's initial budget bill last week, only hours after it was passed.

The Senate approved the latest budget on a 25-16 party-line vote on Wednesday. The budget package passed the House 39-30, sending it to Johnson and his veto pen.

Johnson said there was no way for him to use his line-item veto powers to make the latest budget acceptable by merely reducing spending.

"The problem with vetoing it into shape is I can do that, but I can't add appropriations," Johnson said at a news conference.

The governor contends the measure shortchanges several administrative agencies - such as the Health Department and Children, Youth and Families Department - but spends too much in other areas such as education. Johnson also objects that the Legislature's budget draws down the state's cash reserves to cover proposed spending increases.

Democrats contend that Johnson has been unreasonable in his demands and said they've made good faith efforts to accommodate many of the governor's requests for extra money for agencies.

"It's the governor's checkbook that is out of balance, not the Legislature's," said Rep. Max Coll, D-Santa Fe, chairman of the House committee that handles the budget.

The impasse over the budget, in many respects, is as much about the deeply seated philosophical differences between Johnson and Democratic leaders as it is over money.

"We have an administration that mismanages, has no heart and treats New Mexicans with indifference," said Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon, D-Albuquerque.

Overall, the Legislature's latest budget provides for a 5 percent increase in spending in the fiscal year starting July 1.

The biggest part of the budget goes to public schools - $1.6 billion. That's an increase of $93 million, or 6 percent, over current spending. Included in the budget package is $11 million for early childhood literacy and full-day kindergarten programs, and slightly more than 6 percent pay raises for teachers.

Johnson, in his budget recommendations to the Legislature in January, proposed a $51 million increase for schools, a 3.3 percent increase.

"Let's be honest, this fight isn't about underfunding or overspending. It's about public schools," said Sen. Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City.

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