Lawmakers will have a much smaller pot of capital outlay money to draw from next year than they did this year or in 2006.
According to a projection from the Legislative Finance Committee, about $370 million will be available in 2008 for state building projects, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting today. This year, there was about $1 billion available, and last year it was about $750 million.
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chair of the LFC, said lawmakers should focus this year on fully funding projects that currently only have partial funding, thereby reducing the $1.3-billion backlog in unspent funds.
That will be a tough sell to lawmakers who are up for re-election in 2008, he acknowledged to the newspaper.
It would be good if lawmakers could quickly resolve capital outlay funding and get it off the table, because it’s likely that, in the 30-day session that begins Jan. 15, they’re going to be asked to tackle ethics and health-care reform, and I’m betting there’s a good chance that failure to resolve either one to the satisfaction of the governor and lieutenant governor will result in a special session.