Heath Haussamen
There’s been a lot going on at the Roundhouse in the week after voters dictated a massive shift in power.
Budget numbers are getting dramatically worse, leadership positions are up for grabs, political appointees are moving to classified jobs and the incoming governor is threatening to fire them all.
How things are going to shake out isn’t clear. But here’s where things stand:
- • The Richardson administration said Thursday that the state’s budget shortfall will be at least $452 million next year. That’s almost $200 million more than the Legislative Finance Committee has estimated, because the Richardson administration isn’t assuming that the new Legislature and governor will renew cost-saving measures that expire at the end of the year. In addition, federal stimulus money is drying up.
- • After the Albuquerque Journal reported that additional Richardson political appointees had moved into classified jobs in recent months – which would seem to make their jobs more secure – the Martinez transition team sent a letter to Richardson demanding that it halt such moves and stating anyone who makes such a move after Nov. 3 will be fired when Susana Martinez takes office.
- • There may or may not be a new speaker of the House in January. Rep. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces is considering running, even exploring the possibility of a bipartisan coalition. That could lead to Cervantes becoming speaker. Or House Democrats might pick someone else to be speaker. Or Ben Luján could retain the position.
- • House Republicans might also change leadership. Rep. Larry Larrañaga of Albuquerque is challenging Tom Taylor of Farmington for the position of minority leader at this weekend’s caucus meeting.
- • There’s even another potential pay-to-play scandal brewing that might affect the administrations of outgoing Gov. Bill Richardson and outgoing Land Commissioner Pat Lyons.
Not surprising
The upheaval was expected given the shift voters mandated last week – electing a Republican governor, electing the first Republican secretary of state in 80 years and taking eight seats in the New Mexico House from Democrats and giving them to Republicans.
Things started out nice between Richardson and Martinez with a meeting and photo op earlier in the week, but quickly turned nasty with Martinez’s threat to fire political appointees who transfer into classified jobs, and then fighting over the budget.
“The revelation of a near half-billion dollar deficit is far worse than expected and confirms our suspicions that the Richardson/Denish administration has been hiding the ball all along with respect to the true budget deficit,” Martinez said of the new budget numbers.
Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos, in an article published by The New Mexico Independent, had this to say in response:
“It’s not surprising that Susana Martinez doesn’t understand the state budget and the growth of Medicaid since she ignored it during the campaign and has not yet accepted our offer for a thorough briefing. She can’t keep her unrealistic promises and still balance the budget.”
We know New Mexico is going to have a fiscally conservative governor in January. We know that Democratic lawmakers say her campaign promises are unrealistic and that she’s going to have to shift gears. We know the usual coalition of Republicans and moderate and conservative Democrats will lead the Senate in January. We know to expect a big, ugly fight over the budget.
But we don’t yet know who will be leading the House. We don’t know who Martinez will hire to fill cabinet positions and other key state jobs. We won’t know until she takes office if she’s serious about firing people who move from exempt to classified jobs.
The next couple of months are going to be very interesting.