![\"A](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n
“The impact of the budget decision will be felt all over the state, and the public can’t be shut out of the process,” Gregory P. Williams, president of the N.M. Foundation for Open Government\u00a0(FOG) Board of Directors, said. “New Mexicans need to be able to participate, and not just read about the result in the newspaper.”<\/p>\n
Williams’ comments come as FOG<\/a>, this reporter<\/a>, and others have called on legislative budget committees to open their meetings to the public. In the past, those\u00a0committees have done much of their work behind closed doors<\/a>. The N.M. Open Meetings Act<\/a> requires that the public be let in to those meetings, FOG says.<\/p>\n State government ended the last fiscal year on June 30 in the red<\/a>, largely because of falling oil and gas prices. New Mexico is\u00a0facing a shortfall in the current, 2017, fiscal year that some say could be as high as $500 million<\/a>. The Legislative Finance Committee predicts another \u201cgloomy\u201d fiscal situation<\/a> during the 2018 budget year.<\/p>\n Additional funding cuts and tax increases, in addition to taking money from existing surplus funds, are among the proposals some want the Legislature\u00a0to consider to address the shortfalls.<\/p>\n Gov. Susana Martinez has suggested that lawmakers meet to address the 2016 and 2017 shortfalls in one four-hour special session. “We walk in and walk out,” the Albuquerque Journal quoted her as saying<\/a>.<\/p>\n FOG balked at that idea.\u00a0“Should the Legislature and the New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez determine that a special session is necessary, that session must be as transparent and open as possible,” a FOG news release states. “It has been suggested that party leaders may pre-negotiate solutions to the budgetary issues, and then rubber-stamp them in a very short session. These types of back-room negotiations would effectively shut the public out of the process.”<\/p>\n Williams said FOG is “sympathetic to the cost of a special session, but these critical budgetary decisions cannot be made behind closed doors.”<\/p>\n Martinez has rejected calls to raise taxes in the past. Many Democrats say the shortfalls must be addressed without cutting education spending, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the state budget.<\/p>\nShortfalls are ‘the result of the problem’<\/h3>\n