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2017 New Mexico Legislature: Opening Day Recap

2017 New Mexico Legislature: Opening Day Recap

Santa Fe – Lawmakers gathered at the Roundhouse during a balmy afternoon in Santa Fe to officially begin the 53rd New Mexico Legislature. A couple of hours after both legislative chambers convened the Sergeant at Arms bellowed from the floor of the people’s House and announced the arrival and entrance of Susana Martinez – it was time for the Governor’s second to last State of the State address and the ceremonial kickoff to the 2017 Legislative Session.

The Governor delivered a 45 minute speech that touched on the familiar themes of her tenure: solving a budget deficit without raising taxes, public safety, education, and her go-to economic development ideas such as LEDA and JTIP (government programs that provide a questionable ROI to taxpayers but provide some political cover to the Country Club political class).

Regrettably, her push to “prioritize our spending” runs counter to her appeal to lawmakers not to gut corporate welfare spending. Government spending that picks winners and losers should be first on the chopping block but when spending cuts are on the agenda special interest lobbying activity picks up and taxpayers end up with the tab.

The Governor’s proposal to balance the budget includes spending cuts like reducing pension contributions to teachers and state workers as well as raiding government accounts for unspent money, suggestions that have unions and Roundhouse liberals up in arms. In the Democrats’ response to the governor, Senator (and potential 2018 gubernatorial candidate) Joseph Cervantes from Las Cruces said in a 25 minute speech that “the state of our state is unacceptable” and that her pension plan was “against New Mexican” values, because you cannot be a contemporary Democrat without supporting Big Labor. The rhetoric on both sides is predictable and mundane.

To be fair, the business-as-usual Santa Fe mentality was at least partially broken up by the Senate unexpectedly and unanimously approving a notion to save video recordings of its meetings and posting them online in a small win for advocates of open government:

Now, both Senate and House floor sessions and committee meetings that are live or previously recorded can be viewed here.

All in all, the mood in the Roundhouse this year was generally subdued and respectful, and unlike last year’s “shame on you” outburst, the first day of the 2017 session was unremarkable. Newly minted Speaker of the House Brian Egolf announced the makeup of House committees and in a television interview affirmed opposition to the Governor’s cuts to higher education in a nod to his labor allies.

In his speech Senator Cervantes said Democrats’ goal “will be balancing the budget by sharing the sacrifice among all New Mexicans”.  Unfortunately for New Mexican taxpayers, the rhetoric of “shared sacrifice” reflects a protection of the status quo and more of the same: a continued unwillingness to budge from old spending habits that we can no longer afford.