{"id":13353,"date":"2010-02-18T09:52:57","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T16:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=13353"},"modified":"2010-02-18T12:26:23","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T19:26:23","slug":"senators-want-an-extraordinary-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/02\/senators-want-an-extraordinary-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators want an extraordinary session"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

A deal to balance the state\u2019s budget fell apart in the early hours of the morning, and now some senators say that chamber has the signatures to call the Legislature into extraordinary session so lawmakers, not the governor, control the agenda.<\/p>\n

The question is whether the House will agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enough signatures to call ourselves back. We prefer that but the House must concur. We have to agree on a date. Probably March,\u201d Sen. Eric Griego<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, wrote in an e-mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be a Special Session…the Senate is willing…now up to the House. The Senate wishes to call itself into Session so that the Legislature may drive the agenda,\u201d Sen. Linda Lopez<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, wrote on her Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason for extraordinary instead of special is to avoid the guv putting unwanted restrictions on what can be considered,\u201d Sen. Steve Fischmann<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, wrote in an e-mail. \u201cSo long as the extra session looks at the whole budget & removes any consideration of \u2018messaged\u2019 bills, we\u2019ll be on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor has already promised to call a special session for next week if lawmakers don\u2019t pass a budget-balancing package of bills before the regular session expires at noon today. And lawmakers have given up on working out a deal today.<\/p>\n

The governor can call a special session, and he would control the agenda by setting it in his proclamation. An extraordinary session can be called if three-fifths of House members and three-fifths of senators agree to it. Any topic would be germane in such a session.<\/p>\n

The Legislature has only called itself into extraordinary session once \u2013 in 2002, after then-Gov. Gary Johnson vetoed the state budget.<\/p>\n

Rep. Karen Giannini<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, said on the New Mexico Independent\u2019s liveblog<\/a> that she doesn\u2019t know what the House will decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave no idea which will happen \u2013 I\u2019m not in the leadership, and that\u2019s where decisions will be made,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, said New Mexicans should be \u201cfurious\u201d that the 30-day regular session is about to end without a budget fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing we were supposed to accomplish was a budget,\u201d she wrote in an e-mail. \u201cIf I got to choose \u2013 it would be a special session.\u00a0 An extraordinary session is completely open, just like a 60-day session,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Update, 10 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI favor a special that is limited 2 only the budget to include taxes. I think it should be held after a brief, say a week or two, cooling-off period,\u201d said Rep. Elias Barela<\/a>, D-Belen.<\/p>\n

Update, 10:15 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cExtraordinary. It\u2019s good politics for those saps having to run for re-election,\u201d Rep. Antonio \u201cMoe\u201d Maestas<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, said. He added that such a session could come in mid or late March.<\/p>\n

Update, 11:15 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA special would probably be best to deal with the budget as long as the governor\u2019s message allows us some flexibility. Anything goes in an extraordinary, therefore there is a possibility of it getting out of control and getting distracted from the primary reason for the session,\u201d Rep. Nate Cote<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, wrote in an e-mail. \u201cHence, it may not be in the best interest of the taxpayer to come back in extraordinary session. I am disappointed we could not mesh the Senate and House bills for an acceptable budget bill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: A deal to balance the state\u2019s budget fell apart in the early hours of the morning, and now some senators say that chamber has the signatures to call the Legislature into extraordinary session so lawmakers, not the governor, control the agenda. The question is whether the House will agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[118,107],"class_list":["post-13353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}