![\"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
By adjourning sine die, senators formally declared their work during the special session done. The Senate left unheard three crime bills<\/a> Gov. Susana Martinez pushed\u00a0that many Democrats said were\u00a0politically motivated.<\/p>\n Senate Republicans didn’t want to adjourn without considering the crime bills, but they’re the minority\u00a0in the chamber. All Democrats voted to go home.<\/p>\n Just before the Senate adjourned around 12:20 a.m. on Saturday — 12 hours after the session began — Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said he wished the Senate would have considered the crime bills. “But the Senate did work together today, and that is the important thing,” he said.<\/p>\n Senate Democrats\u00a0refused to address\u00a0anything but the state’s budget shortfall — which\u00a0was $130 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30 and estimated to be another $458\u00a0million in the current fiscal year. The budget bills approved by the Senate add up to $423 million, so they don’t quite plug the hole in the budget that is\u00a0caused primarily by falling oil and gas prices.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, senators celebrated\u00a0their work.<\/p>\n “Senate tonight resolved State’s largest structural deficit,” Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, tweeted<\/a> as the Senate was passing budget bills. “So impressed with colleagues who put together this plan,” he wrote in another tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n The governor’s office wasn’t pleased.<\/p>\n “Senate sine die after not solving a thing & leaving victims’ families without justice,” Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Piatek tweeted<\/a>. Communications Director Christopher Sanchez tweeted<\/a> that the Senate’s move was “unbelievable.”<\/p>\n What happens next isn’t clear. None of the Senate’s bills can be enacted without approval from the House and governor. The House can attempt to bring senators back to work if it stays in session until Wednesday.<\/p>\n The Senate’s budget fix came in the form of about\u00a0a dozen\u00a0complicated bills that would take money from the state’s $219 million Tobacco Permanent Fund<\/a>, make widespread cuts<\/a>, sweep funds from various accounts<\/a>, defund certain capital outlay projects<\/a>, freeze corporate tax cuts<\/a> approved in 2013, and reduce payments to cities and counties<\/a>, among other things.<\/p>\n The governor and House members have also expressed support for using\u00a0the money from a settlement with tobacco companies to help address the budget shortfall. But reaching\u00a0agreement on how to come up with hundreds of millions of additional dollars, even after more than two months of negotiations, has been\u00a0difficult. The governor has insisted she\u00a0won’t\u00a0back any bills to raise taxes.<\/p>\n The Senate approved most of its budget bills easily with bipartisan support. But\u00a0legislation to freeze corporate tax cuts narrowly passed the Senate on a 21-20 vote. The House won’t likely pass that bill.<\/p>\n Senators voted to cut most state agencies’ funding by 5 percent, with some exceptions. The judiciary would see a 3 percent cut. Some funding for health-related agencies would be cut by 2.5 percent. Some law-enforcement and other agencies would see 1.5 percent cuts. A few areas wouldn’t be cut at all.<\/p>\n Senators ignored a plea from New Mexico State University, given\u00a0the $32 million in cuts it’s made in recent years, to\u00a0consider\u00a0higher-education funding school-by-school<\/a> rather than imposing an\u00a0across-the-board cut.<\/p>\n Higher education would be\u00a0cut by 5 percent across the board under\u00a0the Senate’s plan — which amounts to a reduction of about $10 million for\u00a0NMSU.<\/p>\n Another issue that was contentious during negotiations was a plan to take money from public school district’s cash balances — funds\u00a0some of those districts might have used to soften the blow of state cuts. The proposal initially would have calculated sweeps based on the size of a district’s reserves. Some districts complained they would be unfairly penalized for having saved\u00a0money.<\/p>\n Friday afternoon,\u00a0Las Cruces Public Schools spokeswoman Jo Galv\u00e1n told NMPolitics.net\u00a0the district had $8.4 million in its reserves, and\u00a0needed\u00a0that money to pay expenses such as insurance until federal reimbursements came in. The reserves also cover contingencies like increased utility costs in an unusually cold winter.<\/p>\n “The state’s budgetary cuts should not be on the backs of teachers or the classrooms,” LCPS Interim Superintendent Steven Sanchez said.<\/p>\n Former LCPS\u00a0Superintendent Stan Rounds led negotiations on behalf of the state’s school districts, and\u00a0the deal eventually approved\u00a0by senators\u00a0calculates sweeps based on district enrollment rather than the size of cash balances.<\/p>\n After the deal was reached, Sen. Bill Soules, a Las Cruces Democrat who chairs the Education Committee, told NMPolitics.net\u00a0the bills approved by the Senate\u00a0would cut K-12 funding by about $100 million — including sweeping $25 million from cash balances.<\/p>\n Some\u00a0said the school district sweeps are\u00a0painful but necessary.\u00a0Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said during debate on that bill that\u00a0districts are “giving money that they can’t afford to give.”<\/p>\n “I’m going to vote for this bill. I don’t like it. I was part of the process that made it much better,”\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n The Senate also voted to accelerate the Legislature’s phasing out of funds for\u00a0cities and counties. In 2013\u00a0the state approved\u00a0a 15-year phase\u00a0out of the so-called \u201chold harmless\u201d payments \u2014 money\u00a0to help\u00a0cities and counties make up for revenue lost when the state stopped\u00a0taxing sales of groceries and medicine\u00a0in 2005<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe details<\/h3>\n
School district sweeps<\/h3>\n
Less money for cities and counties<\/h3>\n