{"id":316703,"date":"2017-04-01T14:32:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T20:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=316703"},"modified":"2017-04-03T09:32:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T15:32:22","slug":"outstanding-blm-payment-complicates-states-budget-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/04\/outstanding-blm-payment-complicates-states-budget-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Outstanding BLM payment complicates state&#8217;s budget troubles"},"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>The state&#8217;s efforts to end its\u00a0current fiscal year in the black are being\u00a0complicated by a\u00a0$69.9 million payment from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that is delayed by\u00a0protests of lease agreements.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent analysis projects the state will end the current fiscal year on June 30 with $102 million in the bank &#8212; and that analysis is fluid. Another estimate\u00a0from less than a month ago projected an ending balance of $77 million. &#8220;The margin of error is slim,\u201d state Treasurer Tim Eichenberg\u00a0has said.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0estimates are\u00a0dependent on the money due\u00a0from the BLM for\u00a0oil and gas lease sales near Roswell. A BLM official told NMPolitics.net\u00a0the\u00a0$69.9 million is likely to come in time to pay the state&#8217;s fiscal year 2017 bills &#8212; but not certain.<\/p>\n<p>BLM spokeswoman\u00a0Donna Hummel said two environmental groups &#8212; Wild Earth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity &#8212; formally protested all parcels in the BLM&#8217;s Sep. 4 lease sale. That triggered a formal review\u00a0process that has yet to be completed. Until it is, there&#8217;s no certainty the leases will be finalized, or that the money the state is due because of those leases will come in.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the BLM completed its environmental assessments of the protests. There are &#8220;a couple more layers of review&#8221; by other federal agencies, but right now it looks as though the leases will be finalized and the state will receive its money by June, Hummel said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We feel confident, now that our review is finally complete, that the state will have the lease payment prior to the end of their fiscal year,&#8221; Hummel said. &#8220;&#8230; We do take protests very seriously and we don&#8217;t try to make any assumptions, but in this case it does look to be good news for the state&#8217;s budget.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though the state&#8217;s fiscal year ends on June 30, the payments could come a couple of months later and be used to pay outstanding bills.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the uncertainty is causing concern in the final months of the fiscal year. Lawmakers have already twice met to make cuts and sweep funds to help balance the state&#8217;s current fiscal year budget, which has been plagued by falling oil and gas prices. Gov. Susana Martinez has implemented a hiring freeze and is threatening furloughs and closing state parks, among other measures, to conserve cash.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/03\/how-urgent-are-new-mexicos-budget-woes\/\" target=\"_blank\">lots of disagreement about whether Martinez&#8217;s\u00a0actions are necessary<\/a>, but officials agree the situation is serious with the state&#8217;s cash reserves projected to be at effectively zero by the end of the fiscal year. The state is constitutionally required have a balanced budget, and there&#8217;s little room for error.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, the state needs money in reserves to protect its credit rating and keep the costs of borrowing money for infrastructure projects from rising.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., sparked a bit of concern on Friday when he tweeted about the delayed BLM payment to the state. &#8220;Informed today that BLM is forced to hold $69 million for NM schools, hospitals, &amp; roads due to frivolous environmental lawsuits,&#8221; Pearce\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepStevePearce\/status\/847900990036639744\" target=\"_blank\">tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are hearing this could extend into the next fiscal year, causing the state general fund reserves to drop to unprecedented low levels,&#8221; Pearce spokesman\u00a0Keeley Christensen told NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Martinez said he wasn&#8217;t aware of the situation mentioned in the Pearce tweet.<\/p>\n<p>Two budget experts in the state Legislature sent <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/New-Mexico-BLM-Letter-March-2017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a letter<\/a> to Pearce and other members of New Mexico&#8217;s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. on March 28 expressing concern about\u00a0the situation. They wrote that delaying the BLM payment beyond the end of the current fiscal year could have a &#8220;significant, detrimental impact&#8221; on the state&#8217;s ability to pay its bills and bond rating.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Delayed receipt of these funds would reduce projected Fiscal Year 2017 ending reserves to $25.3 million, or 0.4 percent of appropriations,&#8221; wrote Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup. &#8220;Due to the recent significant volatility in New Mexico&#8217;s revenues and uncertainty regarding economic conditions, 0.4 percent reserves in an unacceptably slim margin.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state&#8217;s efforts to end its current fiscal year in the black are being complicated by a $69.9 million payment from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that is delayed by protests of lease agreements.<\/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":[3329,196,147,107,116],"class_list":["post-316703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-legislative-session","tag-budget","tag-environment","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316703","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=316703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316703\/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=316703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}