{"id":194932,"date":"2016-10-07T20:36:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T02:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=194932"},"modified":"2016-10-07T21:01:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T03:01:36","slug":"bean-counters-have-yet-to-tally-total-costs-for-special-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/bean-counters-have-yet-to-tally-total-costs-for-special-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Bean counters have yet to tally total costs for special session"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Mexico lawmakers likely spent less than the $264,400 in taxpayer funds they had allocated to pay for the special legislative session that ended <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472518\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>, a Legislative Council Service spokesman said <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472519\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span>.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The bean counters have yet to tally total costs for the session. Per-diem and mileage checks must still be paid to 112 legislators, who are reimbursed at the federal rate of $0.54 per mile driven in addition to a $163 daily rate for expenses such as meals and lodging. Unlike most states, lawmakers in New Mexico receive no salary.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/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>Costs to temporarily convene legislators in Santa Fe has been a political issue since before the session began.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers initially anticipated the special session would only deal with how to fix a budget deficit of several hundred million dollars.\u00a0But Gov. Susana Martinez added a proposed death penalty reinstatement\u00a0and other crime measures to the agenda for the session, which came during an election season in which all legislative seats are up for grabs next month.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Democrats highlighted what they said is the $50,000 average daily cost of special sessions while arguing that the crime measures should be considered in the regular 60-day session that begins in January. Republicans countered that the expense of extending the special session was worth trying to bring justice for crime victims.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Other costs include paying Roundhouse staffers such as legislative aides, security personnel and janitors who clean up messes left by lawmakers, some of whom <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472520\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Thursday<\/span><\/span> debated a death penalty reinstatement\u00a0bill from <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472521\"><span class=\"aQJ\">12:30 a.m.<\/span><\/span> until almost <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472522\"><span class=\"aQJ\">6 a.m.<\/span><\/span> as caffeinated reporters watched on from the press gallery. Several lawmakers took to the House lounge for sleep during the debate, according to Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Harry Georgeades, owner of the Bull Ring, a downtown Santa Fe steakhouse frequented by lawmakers and lobbyists, said <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472523\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span> said he spotted familiar faces during the special session, which lasted over a period of seven days beginning Sept. 31.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did see a little spike \u2014 nothing crazy,\u201d Georgeades said. \u201cBut a good spike. It was so fractured. I mean, the House worked late, the Senate went home early.\u201d<!--more--><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The Democratic-controlled Senate met twice, first in a marathon session from <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472524\"><span class=\"aQJ\">noon<\/span><\/span> Sept. 31 until just after <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472525\"><span class=\"aQJ\">midnight<\/span><\/span>, passing several budget measures. The Republican-controlled House considered both budget and crime bills as it met each day except <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472526\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Tuesday<\/span><\/span>. Senators then returned and met again for less than an hour <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472527\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Thursday<\/span><\/span>, sending the House budget to the governor\u2019s desk while refusing to consider House crime bills.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>John Yaeger, assistant director for legislative affairs at the Legislative Council Service, said in an email <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_844472528\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span> that the council service will likely not calculate final costs for the session for several weeks.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The Legislature met in special session 17 times between 1990 and 2015, according to the Legislative Council Service. Those sessions lasted an average of seven days and cost $307,025. The average cost per day for the special sessions held over that 25-year period was $43,589.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><i>Justin Horwath can be reached at 505-986-3017 or <a href=\"mailto:jhorwath@sfnewmexican.com\">jhorwath@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico lawmakers likely spent less than the $264,400 in taxpayer funds they had allocated to pay for the special legislative session that ended Thursday, a Legislative Council Service spokesman said Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3305,196,107],"class_list":["post-194932","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\/194932","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=194932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}