{"id":268997,"date":"2017-01-10T20:30:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T03:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=268997"},"modified":"2017-01-11T15:29:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T22:29:31","slug":"governor-seeks-more-cuts-including-reduced-employee-take-home-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/01\/governor-seeks-more-cuts-including-reduced-employee-take-home-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor seeks more cuts, including reduced employee take-home pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Susana Martinez proposed cuts to take-home pay for state workers and teachers and other budget reductions on Tuesday to address a projected $69 million shortfall in the current fiscal year and keep a balanced budget for the next year.<\/p>\n

\"Susana

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Predictably, the governor continues to oppose\u00a0tax increases to balance the budget.<\/p>\n

“This sends a message that it\u2019s up to state government to tighten its own belt \u2013 not our hardworking families,” Martinez said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Also predictably, Democrats weren’t happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real challenge with the governor\u2019s solvency proposal is in implementing these devastating cuts with less than five months remaining in the 2017 fiscal year,\u201d said Sen.\u00a0John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chair of the Senate Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Martinez\u2019s priorities are clearly outlined in her budget, and her priorities clearly do not put New Mexico families first,\u201d\u00a0said Debra Haaland, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The state has already made\u00a0several hundred million dollars in\u00a0cuts to the state budget in recent months. Those cuts have resulted in layoffs at New Mexico State University<\/a> and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The governor’s new proposal set the stage for a battle as the Legislature convenes for a 60-day session next Tuesday: With Democrats retaking control of the House of Representatives this year,\u00a0many in that party are prepared to fight against additional cuts and instead push tax increases to address the budget shortfall.<\/p>\n

Martinez isn’t having it. Her proposal<\/a>\u00a0would reduce take-home pay for tens of thousands of state employees and teachers by increasing their contributions to their retirement plans — and reducing the state’s contributions — by 3.5 percent.<\/p>\n

Martinez also proposes eliminating\u00a0the distribution of so-called “hold-harmless” payments to cities and counties that have raised gross receipts taxes to compensate for an eventual phase-out of those payments, including the City of Las Cruces<\/a> and Do\u00f1a Ana County.<\/p>\n

She wants to extend budget cuts enacted last fall for another fiscal year, and increase the cuts to the budgets for higher education and the Legislature.<\/p>\n

And the governor\u00a0proposes taking\u00a0nearly half the money out of\u00a0what she\u00a0called “slush funds” held by school districts around the state — $120 million of $232 million currently in those accounts.<\/p>\n

Rhetoric aside, as NMPolitics.net reported during last year’s special session<\/a> in October, those aren’t “slush funds.” In October the Las Cruces Public Schools had $8.4 million in its reserves. Spokeswoman\u00a0Jo Galv\u00e1n said that money was set aside\u00a0to pay expenses such as insurance until federal reimbursements came in\u00a0and\u00a0cover contingencies like increased utility costs in an unusually cold winter.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said senators were glad to see a plan from Martinez but he was concerned by\u00a0her proposal\u00a0to take money from school districts. “Calling these local school reserves a \u2018slush fund\u2019 is disheartening,” Wirth said.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Martinez said her proposal would “reduce the size of government” while protecting critical services and leaving some money in reserves.<\/p>\n

“If we abandon our reforms, continue growing government, and look to taxpayers to bail us out, we should not expect the bright future that is within our grasp,” Martinez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her proposal would reduce take-home pay for tens of thousands of state employees and teachers by increasing their contributions to their retirement plans — and reducing the state’s contributions — by 3.5 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3329,196,118,107,208,271],"class_list":["post-268997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-legislative-session","tag-budget","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse","tag-susana-martinez","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268997","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=268997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}