{"id":192164,"date":"2016-10-02T20:26:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T02:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=192164"},"modified":"2016-10-03T08:29:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:29:02","slug":"some-budget-bills-advance-in-house-on-third-day-of-special-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/some-budget-bills-advance-in-house-on-third-day-of-special-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Some budget bills advance in House on third day of special session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc\" class=\"navis-slideshow\"><div id=\"192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc-slide1\"><img data-lazy=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/House-GOP.jpg\" \/><h6 class=\"credit\">Luke E. Montavon \/ For The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/h6><h6 class=\"permalink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/some-budget-bills-advance-in-house-on-third-day-of-special-session\/#192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc\/1\" class=\"slide-permalink\"><i class=\"icon-link\"><\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Republican Reps. John L. Zimmerman of Las Cruces and Sarah Maestas Barnes, Monica Youngblood and Conrad James, all of Albuquerque, discuss options before a vote to advance SB8 to the House Floor during a committee hearing on Sunday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc-slide2\"><img data-lazy=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Steinborn-Jeff.jpg\" \/><h6 class=\"credit\">Luke E. Montavon \/ For The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/h6><h6 class=\"permalink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/some-budget-bills-advance-in-house-on-third-day-of-special-session\/#192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc\/2\" class=\"slide-permalink\"><i class=\"icon-link\"><\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, shows a copy of what he called a \"rushed\" version of SB8 during a committee hearing on Sunday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc-slide3\"><img data-lazy=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/McCamley-Bill.jpg\" \/><h6 class=\"credit\">Luke E. Montavon \/ For The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/h6><h6 class=\"permalink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/some-budget-bills-advance-in-house-on-third-day-of-special-session\/#192164-2cf09b83e4a89eeb7a02cd11894dadcc\/3\" class=\"slide-permalink\"><i class=\"icon-link\"><\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, represented SB9 during a House committee hearing on Sunday.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Committees of the state House of Representatives <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434029\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Sunday<\/span><\/span> advanced several proposed budget fixes that were approved by the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>The House Appropriations Committee gave positive recommendations to two Senate bills, sending both measures to the full House\u00a0for debate.<\/p>\n<p>One of these was <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=8&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 8<\/a>, which would revert $89.8 million in unspent capital project money to the general fund.<\/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>The other legislation <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=9&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">SB 9<\/a>, was more controversial. It would cut $174.6 million, or about 2.8 percent, in appropriations made for the current budget year. Though\u00a0the bill\u00a0passed unanimously in the Senate, House Republicans have complained about the 1.5 percent cuts to the Children Youth &amp; Families Department, Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, presented an amendment that would increase\u00a0cuts to some agencies and lessen the cuts in others. But following objections from several Democrats on the committee \u2014 as well as spokesmen for the state judiciary and various colleges \u2014 the committee agreed to pass the bill with no amendment and allow the full House to consider possible changes.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0the House Ways and Means Committee voted to advance <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=6&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">SB 6<\/a>, which would change several tax laws. But the committee decided not to go along with one of the most controversial changes in that bill, reducing the gross receipts tax reimbursements for food and medical services that the state pays city and county governments. That would save the state $7 million.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate approved nearly a dozen bills as part of a \u201csolvency package\u201d to fix budget deficits of nearly $600 million. Then, after <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434030\"><span class=\"aQJ\">midnight<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434031\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span>, the Senate voted <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/senate-passes-bills-to-address-budget-shortfall-then-goes-home\/\" target=\"_blank\">to go home<\/a>. But if the House stays in session for three days, the Senate must return by <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434032\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>. Any Senate bills the House amends would then\u00a0to go back to the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Under Roch\u2019s amendment to SB 9, most state agencies would be hit with 5.5 percent budget cuts instead of the 5 percent in the Senate bill that passed. The Department of Public Safety and the Children, Youth, and Families Department budgets would not be cut at all. But the Higher Education Department would be reduced by 6\u00a0percent and The University of New Mexico would reduced by 8 percent instead of the 5 percent in the original Senate bill.<\/p>\n<p>Roch told the committee that the bigger cuts to UNM were caused in part by\u00a0recent controversies, including outgoing President Bob Frank\u00a0taking a $350,000 faculty position at the university\u2019s Health Sciences Center, and recent revelations of expensive dinners for donors authorized by the university administration.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Harper,\u00a0R-Rio Rancho, talking to reporters about SB 6, said reducing state gross receipts tax reimbursements would hurt many local governments.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, it would cost Santa Fe city government nearly $700,000 next year and Santa Fe County $211,000. Those figures would increase each year.<\/p>\n<p>SB 6 also would restrict the deduction to health care practitioners, and fix loopholes and limit eligibility requirements for the high-wage jobs tax credit. This would add about $26 million in revenues for the current budget year and $35 million for next year.<\/p>\n<p>The amendment adopted by Harper\u2019s committee would take $1.5 million out of the legislator\u2019s retirement fund and earmark that money for child abuse investigations by the Children Youth and Families Department.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the Senate budget bills have died in House Committees.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434033\"><span class=\"aQJ\">On Saturday<\/span><\/span> night the House Education Committee effectively killed one Senate budget proposal. On a party-line vote, the committee tabled <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=10&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">SB10<\/a>, which would have moved $25 million from school district operational reserves to the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t try to balance the budget at the expense of schools, teachers, and students,\u201d Roch said in a news release. \u201cThis bill punishes school districts that responsibly anticipated the current budget situation and built reserves to protect their ability to cover expenses and teacher salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_423434034\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span>, the Ways and Means Committee halted <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=5&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">a Senate bill<\/a> that would have delayed for two years the scheduled reductions in state corporate taxes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=2&amp;year=16s\" target=\"_blank\">A Senate bill<\/a> that would transfer $220 million of reserves from a tobacco settlement fund to balance the budget from the last fiscal year got through the House committee process and is awaiting action on the House floor.<\/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=1475545109803000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE-qsFaa6TSUXFKljWkOPW64DYzuw\">tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House Appropriations Committee gave positive recommendations to two Senate bills, sending both measures to the full House for debate. Some of the Senate budget bills have died in House Committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3305,196,107],"class_list":["post-192164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-special-session","tag-budget","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192164","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=192164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}