Even though Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed this year’s Capital Outlay budget, which would have mostly restored funding for public school buildings, local legislators were able to move money around in the Capital Outlay reauthorization that she signed.
In addition to vetoing the Capital Outlay bill, which would have used $46.1 million in Severance Tax Bonds to restore money taken from the public school’s Capital Outlay fund at the beginning of the session, Martinez vetoed large swaths of the bipartisan budget approved at the end of the session.
She has publicly said she will call a special session to come to an agreement with legislators on a new budget that does not include tax increases.
She also mentioned a special session in her veto of Senate Bill 462, the Capital Outlay bill.
In her veto, she wrote that the legislature had failed in its duties by not finding “real solutions” to balance the budget.
“Instead of passing a balanced budget, one that does not raise taxes on our families and businesses, it passed a tax package full of tax increases,” Martinez wrote in her veto message. “With a special session looming, and the state experiencing a serious cash shortage, it is imperative that we keep our severance bond capacity open to address the current shortfall.”
While the small number of Capital Outlay projects in the bill were all nixed, Martinez did sign the Capital Outlay Reauthorization bill, April 7, which extended deadlines for current projects, like the construction of the new State Police office in Española, and cannibalized old projects. Eight projects in Rio Arriba County were either reauthorized or reappropriated.
Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Sandoval counties, said some of his older projects that appeared to have fallen were reappropriated for other worthy causes.
He had $40,000, originally slated to purchase vans for the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 22, rolled over to the state Environment Department, to pay for water lines on Riverside Drive.
The deadline to spend that money was also extended to 2019.
One project supported by Richard Martinez, Rep. Nick Salazar, D-Colfax, Mora, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties and Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos counties, that allotted $200,000 for a drug treatment center in Velarde, was reauthorized until 2019.
Salazar, in an April 6 interview, said there was no new Capital Outlay for lawmakers to pass out to their constituents this year.
The bonds used to fund Capital Outlay went to pay for state facilities instead, he said.
The projects reauthorized include funding for the Northern New Mexico Food Hub.
There was $300,000 originally authorized in 2014, which Richard Martinez, Salazar and Rodella each included in their Capital Outlay requests that year.
The project now authorizes greenhouses to be built anywhere in Rio Arriba County, rather than just at the Tierra Amarilla Detention Center. Included in that reauthorization is technology upgrades at County community centers.
The bill extends the deadline to spend money on water system upgrades to the La Madera Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association.
Money originally set aside for renovations at the Los Luceros historic property will now be used to renovate a building into a farming science center in Alcalde, part of the New Mexico State University’s Agriculture Science Center.
Funds totaling $800,000 earmarked in 2013 for the Cumbres and Toltec project, meant to repair the railroad water tank in Sublette and a visitor gateway center in Chama, will now be used to pay for the renovation of railroad passengers cars.
Special session
Salazar said a special session could be called next week.
The special session will need to be held in order to establish a balanced budget for the state, after Gov. Martinez vetoed the $350 million tax package proposed by the Legislature. She approved a spending plan that the lawmakers gave her, but vetoed $774.8 million from it, including funding for the state’s colleges and universities.