{"id":8039,"date":"2009-10-19T00:07:21","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T06:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=8039"},"modified":"2009-10-19T07:31:26","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T13:31:26","slug":"three-abq-dems-wont-support-education-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/three-abq-dems-wont-support-education-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Three ABQ Dems won’t support education cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sens.

Sens. Tim Keller, right, and Cisco McSorley speaking Saturday in Santa Fe<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018It\u2019s my estimation that in the House Democratic caucus there is not the stomach for cutting any education at all,\u2019\u00a0Rep. Mimi Stewart says<\/h4>\n

Sens. Cisco McSorely<\/a> and Tim Keller<\/a>\u00a0and Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/a>, all Albuquerque Democrats, say it’s time to raise taxes to curb the state\u2019s widening budget shortfall. And all three are trying to prevent cuts to education in the current special session.<\/p>\n

They vow they won\u2019t support Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s proposed 1.5 percent cuts\u00a0to school funding<\/a>. Instead, they want to find revenue raisers, including tax increases.<\/p>\n

But a Senate committee on Sunday rejected as not germane several revenue-raising bills. Though the governor’s special session proclamation<\/a> specifically states that\u00a0lawmakers can’t consider “measures reducing salaries or raising tax rates, reducing or eliminating tax credits, rebates, exemptions, or deductions, or imposing new taxes,\u201d\u00a0some say the governor’s proclamation isn’t appropriate.<\/p>\n

Some even say it’s unconstitutional, but, apparently, the majority of the members of the Senate committee that decides whether bills are germane don’t agree.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.

Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/p><\/div>\n

Stewart said Richardson told the Democratic caucus he would consider revenue-raising bills in the January regular session.<\/p>\n

“So, what we are trying to do is get out of this special session without any cuts to education,” she said. “Come January, the governor said he would look at all the revenue bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

McSorely said revenue-raising measures need to be implemented now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t trust the people who say we should put it off to a regular session,\u201d McSorely said. \u201cI have never known a Republican to vote for a tax increase in the regular.”<\/p>\n

Keller\u00a0called the idea of\u00a0cutting education but not raising revenue “irresponsible fiscal budgeting.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a budget crisis.\u00a0 No one can deny that, and it\u2019s forecasted to be worse,” he said. “So for me, whatever we can do to help that is germane.\u00a0I don\u2019t really buy any other argument, regardless of what\u2019s on a message or otherwise, that somehow both sides of the equation —\u00a0income and expenditures —\u00a0are not germane.”<\/p>\n

Poll supports efforts of Stewart, Keller and McSorley<\/h3>\n
\"Joe

Joe Guillen, president of the state school board association; Charles Boyer of NEA-N.M.; Carmen Lopez of N.M. Parent Teachers Association; and Christine Trujillo, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, share the new poll results on Saturday.<\/p><\/div>\n

The efforts of Stewart, Keller, McSorley and others have the backing of education groups throughout the state, whose position may have been bolstered by the results of a Research & Polling, Inc. survey conducted for New Mexico Education Partners.<\/p>\n

That poll shows that 81 percent<\/a> of New Mexicans think the stage budget should be balanced \u201cwithout cutting public school funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 75 opponents of education cuts met inside the capitol on Saturday, ahead of the start of the special legislative session, to discuss the new poll and to urge legislators to avoid any cuts to education funding.<\/p>\n

Stewart told the crowd that there are a number of Democratic House\u00a0members who will not vote for education cuts.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s my estimation that in the House Democratic caucus there is not the stomach for cutting any education at all,” she said.<\/p>\n

The president of the American Federation of Teachers <\/a>union, Christine Trujillo, told the crowd that the governor\u2019s new proposal, released on Saturday afternoon, is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey absolutely have to listen to this or their heads are in the sand,\u201d Trujillo said. \u201cEvery single issue that we have talked about for months and months and months to the Legislature and to the governor about making sure they fund education adequately and sufficiently is resonating with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AFT's

AFT President Christine Trujillo hands out oversized telephone messages to be given to state legislators. <\/p><\/div>\n

McSorely, who\u2019s been in the Legislature for 26 years, said he believes there are 22 votes in the Senate to support some sort of tax increase. He said any increase implemented now wouldn\u2019t take effect until February 2010 and he doesn\u2019t want to wait until the regular session in January to consider revenue raisers.<\/p>\n

‘More money in the classroom, less\u00a0 on bureaucrats’<\/h3>\n

But not everyone agrees that education shouldn’t be cut. Paul Gessing with the Rio Grande Foundation also spoke in the rotunda on Saturday. He said New Mexico spends less on\u00a0education — at least in the classroom — than the top five states in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico, contrary to popular belief, spends a lot of money on education. We have the eighth highest per capita spending on education in the country. There\u2019s plenty of administrators and other highly paid folks we can look at getting rid of,\u201d Gessing said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have proven that bureaucracies actually harm education results,” he said. “The top five states in the country, as far as results, spend about 65 percent\u00a0of their money in the classroom on education, whereas the bottom five, of which —\u00a0surprise, surprise — New Mexico is a part… we spend 59.5 percent\u00a0in the classroom.”<\/p>\n

‘A heap of trouble’<\/h3>\n
\"Albuquerque

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks<\/p><\/div>\n

On the other hand, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks said the budget can\u2019t be balanced by cutting waste alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked in APS now for almost two years and I just don’t find the waste that most people think exists there. In fact, our general administration budget is less than 1 percent. You can’t cut that and balance any budget,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

The superintendent of the state\u2019s largest school district, Brooks said lawmakers will “definitely” have to look at revenue enhancements, but said APS might be able to handle cuts up to 3 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a plan to try to keep our cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.\u00a0 If it’s any more than 3 percent,\u00a0we’re in a heap of trouble,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Brooks said lawmakers who claim raising taxes will hurt their re-election chances should take a close look at the new poll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all say they can’t raise taxes because it will hurt their election. If that be the case, then I would think they would pay some attention to this poll that says if they do cut education their election is in jeopardy,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Photos and story by Peter St. Cyr, who is a contributing writer for this site and an Albuquerque<\/span> radio reporter. He can be reached at peter.stcyr@gmail.com<\/span><\/a><\/em>. Heath Haussamen contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sens. Cisco McSorely and Tim Keller and Rep. Mimi Stewart, all Albuquerque Democrats, say it’s time to raise taxes to curb the state\u2019s widening budget shortfall. And all three are trying to prevent cuts to education in the current special session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[118,107],"class_list":["post-8039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}