{"id":354334,"date":"2017-05-24T14:40:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T20:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=354334"},"modified":"2017-05-24T23:43:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T05:43:30","slug":"nmsus-carruthers-asks-for-funding-stability-for-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/05\/nmsus-carruthers-asks-for-funding-stability-for-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSU’s Carruthers asks for funding, stability for higher education"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers made a plea to lawmakers on Wednesday to resolve their budget standoff with Gov. Susana Martinez and provide stability to the state’s colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

\"Garrey

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Garrey Carruthers<\/p><\/div>\n

“It’s time now to put higher education in the proper perspective as the driving force for improvement in the State of New Mexico,” Carruthers told members of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee on the opening day of the Legislature’s special session.<\/p>\n

“We need a quick fix,” he said.<\/p>\n

The session is aimed at resolving a budget dispute that has left the state’s colleges and universities in limbo as the new fiscal year approaches on July 1. Martinez vetoed in March<\/a> all funding for higher education and the Legislature in addition to a bill that would have raised various taxes to fund the state budget.<\/p>\n

The House and Senate rejected an attempt to override<\/a> Martinez’s budget vetoes in the opening moments of the session on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The vetoes included about $190 million in funding for NMSU.\u00a0“If we were not to receive that $190 million, it would essentially bankrupt the university, probably within 4-5 months,” Carruthers told members of the committee.<\/p>\n

Carruthers testified that since the 2016 fiscal year, higher education — which accounts for about 13 percent of money in the state’s general fund — had absorbed 44 percent of cuts to the general fund. NMSU has already cut $32 million<\/a>\u00a0— including 727 jobs — from its budget in recent years.<\/p>\n

Carruthers, who was joined at the committee meeting by other state college and university leaders, detailed the “collateral damage”\u00a0the veto has caused at\u00a0NMSU:<\/p>\n