{"id":2853,"date":"2008-02-10T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/denishs-acceptance-of-funding-bills-leads-to-face-off\/"},"modified":"2008-02-10T19:54:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T01:54:00","slug":"denishs-acceptance-of-funding-bills-leads-to-face-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/denishs-acceptance-of-funding-bills-leads-to-face-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Denish’s acceptance of funding bills leads to face-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> appears headed toward a showdown with lawmakers over whether the lieutenant governor had the authority to accept the junior budget and capital outlay bills on Saturday and start the clock on the time the governor has to act on them. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One powerful senator said the dispute will end up in court if the governor doesn\u2019t back down.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lawmakers on Saturday gave final approval to House Bill 43<\/a>, the capital outlay bill, and Senate Bill 165<\/a>, the junior budget bill. The House apparently approved them after senators threatened to quit working and go home unless that happened.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The New Mexico Constitution gives Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> three days, excluding Sundays, to act on any bill sent to him before the third-to-last day of the session. If there\u2019s no action, the bill goes into law without his signature. Last year the Legislature, for the first time during Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s tenure, approved the funding bills early enough that the governor had to act before the end of the session, giving lawmakers time for veto override attempts if necessary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After several years of significant line-item vetoes, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> left the funding bills largely intact in 2007.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After the capital outlay and junior budget bills were approved on Saturday, the Legislature made several attempts to deliver them to the governor and his staffers, with no success. So the Senate approached Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, who agreed to accept the bills for Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> shortly after 6 p.m. That would give Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> until about 6 p.m. Wednesday to act.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s chief of staff, James Jimenez, sent a letter to the Senate today stating that Denish is not a member of Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s staff and that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was in the state on Saturday, so Denish did not have the authority to act as governor. Because of that, she had no authority to accept the bills, he wrote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jimenez invited the Senate to present the bills to the governor\u2019s office at 8 a.m. on Monday, which would give the governor until 8 a.m. on Thursday to act.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With the session ending at noon Thursday, the difference is significant in giving legislators time to analyze the governor\u2019s line-item vetoes \u2013 if he makes any \u2013 and attempt to override some or all of them.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ll be in court\u2026 if he breaches that line\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

Sen. John Arthur Smith<\/a>, D-Deming and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said he believes the governor and his staffers made themselves intentionally unavailable on Saturday to delay acceptance of the bills. He said the Senate will hold to its belief that Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> has until just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday to act.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be in court \u2013 there\u2019s no ifs, ands or buts about it \u2013 if he breaches that line,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re supportive of the lieutenant governor basically for her courage to stand up and do what she thought was completely right.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In an interview, Jimenez said the governor\u2019s staffers were in the office for much of Saturday, but several senators, including Smith, told the governor\u2019s legislative director that they were heading out of town. Smith said the threat of leaving Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was part of the attempt to get the House to act on the funding bills, which he said the House was delaying for the governor.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jimenez said Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s staffers stayed at the Roundhouse until about 5 p.m. Believing that senators might be headed home and suspecting that little work would be done, the governor\u2019s office closed at that point, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jimenez reiterated during the interview the governor\u2019s position that Denish is a separate, elected official, not a member of the governor\u2019s staff, and she couldn\u2019t act as governor because Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was in the state, so she had no authority to accept the bills.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Denish and her spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. House Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a>, D-Namb\u00e9, said when reached by phone that the House was debating the governor\u2019s health-care bill and he could not talk.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a>, R-Roswell, sided with Smith, saying Denish is \u201cpart of the executive branch\u201d and it was reasonable to assume the governor\u2019s staff would be at work on the last Saturday of the session and able to accept bills.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the law says the governor gets to decide when it\u2019s delivered to him,\u201d Foley said. \u201cThe governor should just do what he needs to do. Let\u2019s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Smith said the Senate will spend the next few days working on other bills, assuming the governor will act on the capital outlay and junior budget bills by Wednesday. The Senate will only take action if Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> tries to do something after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have a constitutional issue here. I guess if he wants to ignore that then we\u2019ll have to address it,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 8:10 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a news release, Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a>, R-Las Cruces, accused the governor of deliberately closing his office on Saturday to prevent delivery of the bills.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor has sniped at us and called us a \u2018do-nothing\u2019 legislature. But we have worked diligently. We have successfully completed a $6 billion budget and work on over half a billion in critical capital investment, only to find the governor was not in his office to accept some of these important funding bills,\u201d Rawson said. \u201cHe has a responsibility to accept the people\u2019s work in a timely manner. He was disingenuous to call us names, especially in light of the fact he is now abusing his responsibility to the people of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Update, Feb. 11, 9:45 a.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Attorney General Gary King<\/a> said his office will weigh in today on two questions \u2013 whether the governor is required to keep staffers available to accept bills while the Legislature is in session, and whether Denish had the authority to accept the bills for the governor on Saturday. The opinion will most likely come in the form of an advisory letter, he said. His office is at work on it now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson appears headed toward a showdown with lawmakers over whether the lieutenant governor had the authority to accept the junior budget and capital outlay bills on Saturday and start the clock on the time the governor has to act on them. One powerful senator said the dispute will end up in court if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","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=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}