{"id":975,"date":"2006-12-11T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-11T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/state-has-lots-of-money-for-2007-legislative-session\/"},"modified":"2006-12-11T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-11T15:05:00","slug":"state-has-lots-of-money-for-2007-legislative-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/state-has-lots-of-money-for-2007-legislative-session\/","title":{"rendered":"State has lots of money for 2007 legislative session"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Legislature and governor are going to have a lot of money to deal with in the 2007 legislative session that begins in January.<\/p>\n

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

The continuing increase in oil revenues means the state will have an unprecedented $723 million to spend on increasing the budget and cutting taxes, and $1.08 billion to spend on capital outlay, an increase from the $913 million that was available during this year\u2019s session.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have the amount of money we have in order to address the needs of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d Rep. Luciano \u201cLucky\u201d Varela, D-Santa Fe and chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, told the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

But he also cautioned, appropriately, that increasing the state budget too much could hurt the state if a future downturn in the economy cuts revenue to the state.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for us to try to contain the appetite for spending, both by the executive and the Legislature,\u201d Varela told the news service.<\/p>\n

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

The LFC is set this week to make decisions on a proposed budget for the next fiscal year that begins in July. Both Gov. Bill Richardson and Varela are advocating tens of millions of dollars in tax cuts.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> also wants to spend.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe consistent strength of our economy gives me confidence that we can cut taxes, invest in our schools and make health care available to more New Mexicans, while maintaining prudent cash reserves,\u201d he said in a news release.<\/p>\n

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

Tax cuts are good, but the state should also use this money to help those who live in such poverty that they won\u2019t benefit from tax cuts. My wife is a social worker, and she visited two homes in rural Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> last week where it was colder inside than it was outside.<\/p>\n

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

Education, economic development, health care, infrastructure and funding for non-profits that help those in need should continue to be top priorities. I like a tax cut as much as anyone else, but others need the cash more than I do.<\/p>\n

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

And investing in economic development will help ensure the economy remains healthy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Legislature and governor are going to have a lot of money to deal with in the 2007 legislative session that begins in January. The continuing increase in oil revenues means the state will have an unprecedented $723 million to spend on increasing the budget and cutting taxes, and $1.08 billion to spend on capital […]<\/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-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","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=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}