{"id":1495,"date":"2007-03-29T23:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-30T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/senate-oks-road-funding-public-financing-bills\/"},"modified":"2007-03-29T23:02:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T05:02:00","slug":"senate-oks-road-funding-public-financing-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/senate-oks-road-funding-public-financing-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate OKs road funding, public financing bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After tacking an amendment on to one and completely rewriting another, the Senate has approved two of the proposals on the special session agenda. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Senators approved House Bill 6<\/a>, which would expand the public financing system to include judicial elections, but amended it to take affect only if voters remove the state\u2019s retention system and subject judges to a competitive election process.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They also approved House Bill 2<\/a>, which would have provided $208 million for road projects around the state, but only after scaling it back and reworking it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The House must come back and consider the changes made by the Senate. That chamber is scheduled to convene at noon on Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s action by the Senate came after it twice voted to adjourn the session without considering any of the proposals. Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> called today\u2019s news a victory.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI am pleased that the Senate took the time to debate and take action on two pieces of our agenda,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cWhile the House still has to act, I am encouraged by the passage of a transportation package that allows us to move forward and partner with cities and counties to build critical local road projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The decision to consider the bills came after the Senate took a break this afternoon so Sen. John Arthur Smith<\/a>, D-Deming, and Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a>, R-Las Cruces, could negotiate with Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s administration on the road-funding bill.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bill, dubbed Governor Richardson\u2019s Improvement Plan \u2013 or GRIP \u2013 II, has been controversial in the Senate for the past two years because GRIP I is some $300 million over budget. The original version of GRIP II, which has been approved by the House in the special session, would have funded $208 million in road projects through the sale of bonds.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The new bill funds about $108 million in road projects with existing money, so no debt is incurred. There was money left over from this year\u2019s regular session because of vetoes by Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and slightly smaller tax cuts than anticipated.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The amended bill was approved on a vote of 24-12.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a true compromise,\u201d Smith said. \u201cNow we have money going to where there are legitimate needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Spaceport road funded, commuter rail not<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The new road bill provides $10 million for a road to Spaceport America<\/a>, whereas the original version of the bill would have provided $25 million. It also provides $25 million to help fund unfinished GRIP I state road projects and $75 million to fund some city and county road projects proposed in the original GRIP II bill. Funds for maintenance of state highways are also included.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, the new version of the bill dictates that projects will be funded as they are ready and local match money becomes available. The lack of such a provision in GRIP I allowed the Richardson Administration to spend the funds in any order it saw fit.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bill also prevents the money from being spent on the Northern New Mexico<\/st1:place> commuter rail. Overruns in that project are the primary reason GRIP I is over budget.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe\u2019re not putting more money into the railroad,\u201d Rawson said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Smith said he was glad the Senate agreed to provide some money for the spaceport road in advance of Tuesday\u2019s election in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> on whether to raise the gross receipts tax to help fund the spaceport.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe send a message to the voters that we\u2019re behind this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Smith said the funding will be enough to help the spaceport project proceed. When the Legislature convenes again in January, it can decide whether the addition $15 million is needed, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Campaign finance, feed bills approved<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The campaign finance bill was approved, but not before the Senate tacked on a Rawson-proposed amendment that makes the bill only take affect if voters eliminate the retention system for judges.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Currently, state judges face only one competitive election, then run for retention after that. Many are appointed before their competitive election, giving them the advantage of incumbency. Rawson said the retention system doesn\u2019t provide competition, so there\u2019s no need for public financing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If voters opt to change the system to one of competition, public financing would kick in under the version of the bill approved 20-15 by the Senate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Senate also approved the feed bill. Tacked on to it was a Rawson amendment dictating that lawmakers will only be paid per diem during the special session for days they actually worked, so days a chamber is in recess won\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What will House do?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Smith said Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a> was not involved in today\u2019s negotiations, so he doesn\u2019t know what the House will do with the proposals when it convenes at noon on Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the House will take it,\u201d Smith said, adding he believes the Senate will vote to adjourn sine die over and over again if the House doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson doesn\u2019t think that will be necessary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the House will agree with them,\u201d Rawson said.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the new road bill provides $25 million for GRIP II projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After tacking an amendment on to one and completely rewriting another, the Senate has approved two of the proposals on the special session agenda. Senators approved House Bill 6, which would expand the public financing system to include judicial elections, but amended it to take affect only if voters remove the state\u2019s retention system and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","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=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}