NM senators expressing frustration in Santa Fe

Four Democrat senators, in Santa Fe on Tuesday, expressed frustration over the limitations imposed on their deliberations by the Governor Bill Richardson's proclamation convening the special session.

It spells out the matters the legislature can consider during a special session to fix the state budget deficit, reads very narrowly.

It specifically stated that the matters to be considered “shall not include measures reducing salaries or raising tax rates, reducing or eliminating tax credits, rebates, exemptions or deductions, or imposing new taxes.”

Political analyst, blogger and Albuquerque photographer Mark Bralley said lawmakers should have adjourned immediately after reading the governor's proclamation on Saturday.

"They should have returned the proclamation back to the governor and waited until he sent them a document that didn't strip them of their constitutional prerogatives," Bralley said.

“We were not given the opportunity to vote on important options for balancing the budget. While I would not personally support some of the tax options that were introduced and found not germane under the Proclamation, we should at least have had the opportunity to debate those measures and vote on them,” said Senator Carlos R. Cisneros (D-Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos), Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

Republicans came up with a list of 48 actions they believe Richardson should have taken before calling them back to Santa Fe. Surprisingly, the list included releasing non-violent offenders from corrections three months early. Not as surprising, they also said the governor should have sold the plane. They also want the state tourism department to cancel its contract to participate with a float in the 2010 Rose Bowl Parade.

Echoing the sentiments of Cisceros, Senator Richard C. Martinez (D-Los Alamos, Rio Arriba & Santa Fe), Vice-Chair of the Judiciary Committee said, “regardless of the merits of the individual revenue measures that were not found germane, we never had an opportunity to weigh their merits or the merits of any other options.”

“We needed to have both expenditures and revenues on the table to find a combination would get us to a balanced budget as required by the Constitution,” said Senator Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe-25), Vice-Chair of the Senate Rules Committee.

Several other senators echoed Wirth's remarks. They noted that because of the proclamation, they were compelled to vote “no” to considering the taxation measures when the Committees’ Committee reported they were not germane because of the language in the Proclamation.

“As legislators, our responsibility is to craft a balanced budget. To do that we need to consider all options; we cannot balance the Fiscal Year 2010 budget without somehow generating revenues. That’s why I voted for finding some of the tax measures germane in spite of the Proclamation’s language – something I see as restricting our constitutional duties,” said Senator Bernadette Sanchez (D-Bernalillo-26), Chair of the Senate Conservation Committee.

Stars of the 2008 Elections Recognized in New Mexico.

Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon,
Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse-Oliver,
and young voters,and bloggers like Matthew Reichbach
are celebrating election day success.

As you may have noticed, I didn't post anything on the day after the election. It took half a day to recover from my 18-hour shift on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I've been sorting thru audio and will post some great interviews with NM Attorney General Gary King, State Auditor Hector Balderas, Lt. Governor Diane Denish, and Analyst Joe Monahan in the next few days.

I'm preparing my thoughts and will be a panelist this week on KNME's New Mexico In Focus. The group will be discussing election results in New Mexico, the impact of race and the election of the country's first African American as president, possible cabinet/ambassador positions for key leaders in New Mexico, and what the election results mean for Obama. Will the big wins give Democrats the political clout they need to stir things up in Washington? Plus will update all the down ballot races, and discuss the relatively clean election in our state. Please plan to watch the show on Friday night at 7pm on channel 5.

I've also been thinking about the stars of the election. Certainly NM Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon, who was nearly eaten alive after the problems with the Super Tuesday Caucus, deserves credit for huge election victories across the state. It appears the legislature will pick up three new Democratic senators, and perhaps four new Democratic Representatives. Colon gets our top star for the state going blue, from top to bottom. He also gets our Top Star for upgrading our credentials in Denver and promising us a ticket to the inauguration in Washington this January.

Maggie Toulouse-Oliver, and the NM State Senate, gets our props for their contribution to Election 2008. The vote count delay jinx has finally been lifted. New Mexico will not be the last state to count their votes. The legislature authorized county clerks to start counting absentee ballots five days early, and early voting machines the morning of the election. While some close races still require provisional ballots to be counted, the results were posted early. Toulouse-Oliver told me early in the cycle she wanted to run "free, fair and accurate" elections. She met those expectations and gets another one of our stars awarded to her.

We would be remiss for not awarding a triple gold star to freelance photographer Mark Bralley. He made our blog look great with current and fresh pictures. Heck he's responsible for this blog's creation. His encouragement and advice was both welcomed and cursed.

We also tip our hats to Joe Monahan. We, like thousands of others, read Joe's blog first thing every morning. He's the king of the hill, and was the first to understand the implications, downline, of six-term Senator Pete Domenici resignation. Joe's been like a big brother always willing to share advice, especially when trying to chase down answers to our questions from candidates unwilling to even take questions at their own news conferences.

We also want to award stars, to all those young energized voters, campaign staffers, volunteers and bloggers (like LP at NMFBIHOP, Barbara and Mary Ellen at Democracy for New Mexico, and the entire staff at the NM Independent) who worked so hard during the election. They also get one of our stars. UPDATED: Plus all the bloggers on my recommended links section to the right.

At the end of the election cycle, we also want to say "thank you" to all the candidates who gave us access, including Sen. John McCain, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (albeit for :32 seconds), both U.S. Senate candidates, Tom Udall and Steve Pearce, all the congressional candidates, and each of their media handlers. We know most of you staffers will be leaving the state, seeking new jobs (on the Hill), and we just wanted to take this opportunity to say, what we heard so often during the campaign, "thank you...move along."

Tune back to our blog posts on Friday, and over the weekend, for great audio interviews, and make sure to watch KNME this weekend for my appearance with Gene, Marco, Jim, Margaret and David.


Photo Credits: MG Bralley