We’re not going to not fund higher education. That is extremely important to the Legislature and to me. We set it aside because I didn’t have a balanced budget. Since I didn’t have a balanced budget we had to set things aside. And then we’re going to put it back, of course, the [funds for] higher ed and the Legislature. – Governor Martinez, in comments Monday appearing to tone down her rhetoric over the attention she has drawn from her veto of all higher education funding
The Crib Sheet is a collection of stories, events, and ideas that are shaping the conversation in New Mexico and D.C. politics.
[New Mexico]
- The Governor’s veto of higher education funding continues to gain national attention. She has also instructed Cabinet secretaries in her administration “to come up with employee furlough plans that could be rolled out by as soon as next week.”
- Interest in the Permian Basin remains strong. With two months to go in FY 2017, revenues from monthly oil and gas lease sales from the State Land Office are over $61 million; the previous fiscal year total was roughly half that amount. Acreage in New Mexico “is now going for twice the amount companies paid back in September” as energy companies “have quietly spent more than $13 billion in recent months” in the New Mexico Permian.
- A Santa Fe priest’s Facebook post rallying support against the Santa Fe Mayor’s push to tax soda and other surgery drinks prompted the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to announce their support for the tax. His post has since been taken down.
- Xcel Energy has begun work on a large transmission line as part of a $400 million project to bring wind energy from the Great Plains area to load centers in and around California.
- According to a report by the American Lung Association Doña Ana and Bernalillo counties “have had the poorest measured air quality in the state over the past three years”.
- The 2017 New Mexico housing market could be in for a “record-setting year”.
[D.C.]
- Energy Secretary Rick Perry has requested a study of the U.S. electric grid to examine “whether policies that favor wind and solar energy are accelerating the retirement of coal and nuclear plants critical to ensuring steady, reliable power supplies.”
- The EPA announced yesterday that it will postpone regulations planned by the Obama administration to minimize methane emissions from oil and gas wells.
[Tech & Strategy]
- A piece in Campaigns & Elections covers the “growing disconnect between digital consultants and the many vendors who service or provide products to them.”
- Yesterday the Presidential Inaugural Committee released its final report with the FEC; Gizmodo has a list of the tech companies that donated to the Trump victory celebrations.
- While Republicans publicly say the recent Congressional special election results prove there is nothing to worry about, privately many say the close outcomes could be “a harbinger of tough times ahead”.
[Culture]
- Starting this fall the Santa Fe Community College will offer additional classes geared towards filmmaking.
- Recently New Mexico chefs have been making frequent appearances on the Food Network cooking show “Chopped”, with three of eleven winning the cooking competition.
