![\"The](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/CapitolBuilding-336x198.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
The U.S. Capitol Building<\/p><\/div>\n
“Delayed receipt of these funds could worsen the state’s already precarious financial position, adding to the significant uncertainty of New Mexico’s current economic forecast,” the Democrats wrote in a Wednesday letter<\/a> to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.<\/p>\n “Furthermore, without this or other payments the state is counting on, New Mexico could end the fiscal year with negative reserves, which would violate the state constitution and could trigger extreme action,” they wrote.<\/p>\n U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n asked the BLM to “complete the leasing process as expeditiously as possible, and promptly provide payment to the state of New Mexico.”<\/p>\n The most recent analysis projects the state will end its\u00a0current fiscal year on June 30 with $102 million in the bank \u2014 and that analysis is fluid. It\u2019s also dependent on receiving the nearly $70 million from the BLM.<\/p>\n The money the state would receive if the leases go through comes from a $146 million oil and gas lease sale near Roswell in September. BLM spokeswoman\u00a0Donna Hummel said last week<\/a> that the agency had\u00a0completed its environmental assessments of the protests filed by Wild Earth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity. There are \u201ca couple more layers of review\u201d 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 Still, Hummel reiterated Friday that the formal process is ongoing and there’s not yet certainty the payment will come through.<\/p>\n