Senate Democrats still haven’t decided whether they’re on board with Gov. Bill Richardson’s plan for the special session that begins Friday.
That’s according to Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, who announced today in a news release that his caucus will “wait until they receive confirmed revenue figures… before deciding on how best to meet the needs outlined by Governor Bill Richardson in the upcoming special session of the New Mexico Legislature.”
Richardson, who had already scaled back his health-care proposal to try to build consensus around it, announced Tuesday that he will also scale back his tax-cut package after new revenue estimates revealed a dramatic drop in the amount of new money that will be available.
Several weeks ago, forecasters projected that the state would have a $392 million windfall for one-time expenses and another $392 million for recurring expenses. On Tuesday, the governor released a new revenue estimate that said, because of falling oil and natural gas prices, the state will have a $225 million revenue windfall for one-time expenses and $351 million for recurring expenses.
But Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told The Santa Fe New Mexican that another preliminary estimate showed the windfall revenue for one-time expenses had fallen to between $100 and $150 million.
“In advance of the special session, everybody is speculating about the specific impact the decline in oil and gas prices will have on projected revenues for the State of
“Waiting until confirmed numbers are available, probably late Thursday or Friday, is the prudent thing to do before deciding how best to meet the needs of New Mexicans,” Sanchez said.
“Confirmed” numbers are those that are reviewed and agreed upon by the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group. It is an independent and professional group of economists from the state departments of Finance and Administration and Taxation and Revenue, the Highway Department, University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the Legislative Finance Committee. Both the legislative and the executive branches have historically relied upon their expertise and insight to provide accurate forecasts.
Last week, the New Mexico Independent explored the possibility that the Senate, as it has done in the past, will adjourn sine die and refuse to consider any of the governor’s proposals.