Denish’s acceptance of funding bills leads to face-off

Gov. Bill Richardson appears headed toward a showdown with lawmakers over whether the lieutenant governor had the authority to accept the junior budget and capital outlay bills on Saturday and start the clock on the time the governor has to act on them.

One powerful senator said the dispute will end up in court if the governor doesn’t back down.

Lawmakers on Saturday gave final approval to House Bill 43, the capital outlay bill, and Senate Bill 165, the junior budget bill. The House apparently approved them after senators threatened to quit working and go home unless that happened.

The New Mexico Constitution gives Richardson three days, excluding Sundays, to act on any bill sent to him before the third-to-last day of the session. If there’s no action, the bill goes into law without his signature. Last year the Legislature, for the first time during Richardson’s tenure, approved the funding bills early enough that the governor had to act before the end of the session, giving lawmakers time for veto override attempts if necessary.

After several years of significant line-item vetoes, Richardson left the funding bills largely intact in 2007.

After the capital outlay and junior budget bills were approved on Saturday, the Legislature made several attempts to deliver them to the governor and his staffers, with no success. So the Senate approached Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who agreed to accept the bills for Richardson shortly after 6 p.m. That would give Richardson until about 6 p.m. Wednesday to act.

But Richardson’s chief of staff, James Jimenez, sent a letter to the Senate today stating that Denish is not a member of Richardson’s staff and that Richardson was in the state on Saturday, so Denish did not have the authority to act as governor. Because of that, she had no authority to accept the bills, he wrote.

Jimenez invited the Senate to present the bills to the governor’s office at 8 a.m. on Monday, which would give the governor until 8 a.m. on Thursday to act.

With the session ending at noon Thursday, the difference is significant in giving legislators time to analyze the governor’s line-item vetoes – if he makes any – and attempt to override some or all of them.

‘We’ll be in court… if he breaches that line’

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said he believes the governor and his staffers made themselves intentionally unavailable on Saturday to delay acceptance of the bills. He said the Senate will hold to its belief that Richardson has until just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday to act.

“We’ll be in court – there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it – if he breaches that line,” Smith said. “We’re supportive of the lieutenant governor basically for her courage to stand up and do what she thought was completely right.”

In an interview, Jimenez said the governor’s staffers were in the office for much of Saturday, but several senators, including Smith, told the governor’s legislative director that they were heading out of town. Smith said the threat of leaving Santa Fe was part of the attempt to get the House to act on the funding bills, which he said the House was delaying for the governor.

Jimenez said Richardson’s staffers stayed at the Roundhouse until about 5 p.m. Believing that senators might be headed home and suspecting that little work would be done, the governor’s office closed at that point, he said.

Jimenez reiterated during the interview the governor’s position that Denish is a separate, elected official, not a member of the governor’s staff, and she couldn’t act as governor because Richardson was in the state, so she had no authority to accept the bills.

Denish and her spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Nambé, said when reached by phone that the House was debating the governor’s health-care bill and he could not talk.

House Minority Whip Dan Foley, R-Roswell, sided with Smith, saying Denish is “part of the executive branch” and it was reasonable to assume the governor’s staff would be at work on the last Saturday of the session and able to accept bills.

“I don’t think the law says the governor gets to decide when it’s delivered to him,” Foley said. “The governor should just do what he needs to do. Let’s move on.”

Smith said the Senate will spend the next few days working on other bills, assuming the governor will act on the capital outlay and junior budget bills by Wednesday. The Senate will only take action if Richardson tries to do something after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, he said.

“We do have a constitutional issue here. I guess if he wants to ignore that then we’ll have to address it,” Smith said.

Update, 8:10 p.m.

In a news release, Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, accused the governor of deliberately closing his office on Saturday to prevent delivery of the bills.

“The governor has sniped at us and called us a ‘do-nothing’ legislature. But we have worked diligently. We have successfully completed a $6 billion budget and work on over half a billion in critical capital investment, only to find the governor was not in his office to accept some of these important funding bills,” Rawson said. “He has a responsibility to accept the people’s work in a timely manner. He was disingenuous to call us names, especially in light of the fact he is now abusing his responsibility to the people of the state.”

Update, Feb. 11, 9:45 a.m.

Attorney General Gary King said his office will weigh in today on two questions – whether the governor is required to keep staffers available to accept bills while the Legislature is in session, and whether Denish had the authority to accept the bills for the governor on Saturday. The opinion will most likely come in the form of an advisory letter, he said. His office is at work on it now.