{"id":191948,"date":"2016-10-01T22:08:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T04:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=191948"},"modified":"2016-10-02T19:59:18","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T01:59:18","slug":"bickering-intensifies-on-second-day-of-special-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/bickering-intensifies-on-second-day-of-special-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Bickering intensifies on second day of special session"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_191951\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-191951\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Gentry and Egolf\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf-1170x782.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gentry-and-Egolf.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Clyde Mueller \/ The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">House Majority Floor Leader Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, and Minority Floor Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, have a conversation Saturday in the hallway outside the chamber. Partisan bickering intensified Saturday as Democrats continued to accuse Republicans of distracting from New Mexico\u2019s financial woes by stacking the agenda with tough-on-crime policies.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even though the state Senate wasn\u2019t present for the second day of the special legislative session, the partisan bickering intensified <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032897\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span> with Republicans accusing House Democrats of shirking their duties. In response, Democrats said Republicans are using crime-and-punishment legislation as a cynical political ploy while giving less attention to New Mexico\u2019s budget deficit.<\/p>\n<p>In this rare election-year special session, the Senate late <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032898\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span> passed several bills, most of which are part of a \u201csolvency package\u201d to address the deficit. Then, shortly after <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032899\"><span class=\"aQJ\">midnight<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032900\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span>, the Senate <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/senate-passes-bills-to-address-budget-shortfall-then-goes-home\/\" target=\"_blank\">voted to adjourn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 special legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In doing so, the Democrat-controlled Senate left before it could act on three House crime bills \u2014 including reinstating the death penalty \u2014 pushed by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>House Majority Leader Nate Gentry,\u00a0R-Albuquerque, vowed later <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032901\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span> to stay in session and force the Senate to return next week. Raul Burciaga,\u00a0director of Legislative Council Services, said <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032902\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span> that if that happens, the Senate would have to return <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032903\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>. But such extra time is not free. Each day of the special session costs taxpayers more than than $50,000. Each chamber has passed its own \u201cfeed bill\u201d to pay for the session, but neither has passed both the House and the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they want to shut down state government, I guess that\u2019s their prerogative,\u201d Gentry said of Democratic senators. \u201cBut we\u2019re trying to be the grown-ups in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He called the Senate\u2019s departure disrespectful to the families of victims of violent crime who came to Santa Fe <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032904\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Friday<\/span><\/span> to testify at a House committee meeting.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the governor was even harsher. \u201cThis is a flawed hodgepodge of bills that Senate Democrats cobbled together in the middle of the night so they wouldn\u2019t have to consider legislation to crack down on dangerous criminals,\u201d Michael Lonergan\u00a0said in a statement. \u201cTheir proposal isn\u2019t serious, and their unwillingness to negotiate and compromise is arrogant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the vote to adjourn split along party lines in the Senate, nearly all of the solvency bills were approved by huge bipartisan margins.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith,\u00a0D-Deming, told reporters <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032905\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span> that the Senate did its job. Smith said he and Senate Republican leader Stuart Ingle\u00a0of Portales worked for several weeks on the budget measures.<\/p>\n<p>As for the crime bills, Smith said, \u201cI suspect after the election, the emergency won\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His reference was clear, a jab at Martinez and House Republicans for pushing reinstatement of the death penalty now instead of during the regular 60-day session starting in January, when diminished time pressures would mean more people would have a chance to testify on the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Gentry said the House would amend some of the Senate bills on the budget. That would mean the Senate would have to come back to accept or further amend the legislation. He and other House Republicans followed through <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032906\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Saturday<\/span><\/span> afternoon when they added an amendment to <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=2&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 2<\/a>. The bill would transfer $220 million of reserves from a tobacco settlement fund to balance the budget from the last fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>Smith told reporters that such amendments amount to \u201ctweaking for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Rep. Christina Trujillo\u00a0of Albuquerque said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s a political movida, but it sounds to me like it\u2019s a political movida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032907\"><span class=\"aQJ\">On Saturday<\/span><\/span>, a group of 11 Senate Republicans told reporters that their Democratic counterparts should have waited until the Senate could hear the crime bills.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Democrats \u201care not the dictators of New Mexico,\u201d said Sen. Bill Sharer,\u00a0R-Farmington. \u201cWe\u2019d certainly like our friends to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The animosity spilled over to social media. The governor\u2019s supporters were busy on Twitter bashing Senate Democrats. \u201cVery clear that Senate Democrats would rather campaign and raise $$ than consider legislation to crack down on dangerous criminals,\u201d tweeted Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez.<\/p>\n<p>And the state Republican Party in a statement accused Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, of adjourning the Senate \u201cso he could attend a campaign rally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim Farrell,\u00a0a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said Sen. Sanchez <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032908\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Saturday<\/span><\/span> attended a party in his honor given by advocates of a drug rehabilitation programs in Valencia County. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a campaign rally and it wasn\u2019t a fundraiser,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n<p>Gentry said the House and the Senate were close on the dollar amounts of the various budget fixes approved by the Senate. \u201cBut not on priorities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate package included $174.6 million in spending reductions for state agencies, including 1.5 percent cuts to the Children, Youth and Families Department, the Department of Public Safety and Public Education Department. Gentry said the cuts for those departments weren\u2019t acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Smith responded, \u201cWe avoided having to have furloughs for corrections officers, law enforcement officers and educators. We were getting close to the state writing hot checks and drastic furloughs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One bill would return $89.8 million in unspent capital construction money to the general fund. Another would reduce the gross receipts tax reimbursements for food and medical services, which the state pays city and county governments. This would save the state $7 million, but it would reduce funding to Santa Fe city government by nearly $700,000 next year and Santa Fe County by $211,000. Those cuts in aid to local governments would get larger each year.<\/p>\n<p>Though most of the finance bills cleared the Senate easily, one made it through by just one vote. That was <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=5&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 5<\/a>, which would delay for two years the implementation of planned corporate income tax reductions. The House Ways and Means Committee voted\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_855032909\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span> to table the bill, effectively killing it. The bill, which is opposed by the governor, would keep the rate at 6.9 percent temporarily. This would add $13.8 million in revenues to the current year\u2019s budget and $23.4 million in revenue to next year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate also approved a bill that would make it legal to research industrial hemp. In 2015, the Legislature passed a similar bill by wide bipartisan margins, but Martinez vetoed it. She said the small amount of the chemical THC found in industrial hemp \u2014 the chemical found in much larger concentrations in marijuana \u2014 could present problems for law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Steve Terrell at 505-986-3037 or <a href=\"mailto:sterrell@sfnewmexican.com\" target=\"_blank\">sterrell@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Read his political blog at <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/roundhouse&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475464315230000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_yldONliTqL5I3gfPpIyKVDuIaA\">tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup<\/a>.\u00a0New Mexican reporter Andrew Oxford contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Majority Leader Nate Gentry vowed to stay in session and force the Senate to return next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3305,196,142,107],"class_list":["post-191948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-special-session","tag-budget","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191948","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=191948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}