Chuck Jones’ Pepé Le Pew and hot air balloons featured on NM's Rose Bowl Parade float design

Despite 7.6% state budgets cuts across the board, the NM Tourism Department is moving forward with it's plans to participate in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade float.

Earlier this month Tourism Secretary Micheal Cerletti announced the float's theme, and tonight at the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum, the group unveiled the floats design.

Academy-Award®-winning Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat, entertainers of the young and the young at heart for more than 60 years, will take to the southern California skies aboard one of the Land of Enchantment’s most iconic images when New Mexico’s float – “Enchantment is in the Air” - travels Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, California January 1 in the 2010 Tournament of Roses® Parade.

Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat were created by the late cartoonist Chuck Jones. Even with his passing, Chuck’s ties to New Mexico remain strong - one of the three Chuck Jones Galleries is located near the Santa Fe Plaza.

The 2010 parade will be the fourth time in the past five years that New Mexico will be represented by a float in the Tournament of Roses® Parade, and it follows on the heels of last year’s float, “Hats Off To New Mexico – Beep Beep,” starring Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, which won the Bob Hope Humor (“most comical and amusing”). The 2008 float, featuring Roswell aliens and Spaceport America, was also honored, as winner of the as Grand Marshal’s Trophy “for excellence in creative concept and design.” It is one of the top three awards given each year.

“The response the state has received from our appearances in the previous Tournament of Roses® Parades and the media efforts we sponsored primarily targeting the Southern California travel market have been tremendous,” Secretary Cerletti said. “This is an incredibly effective way to reach potential visitors to New Mexico from all around the country and all over the world.”

Nearly 40 million Americans in 16.5 million households tuned in to watch the parade on nine national and international television networks each year. The Parade is also broadcast live in 150 countries and territories worldwide. Other media-oriented events promoting New Mexico in Southern California are also being planned.

“During these tough economic times, it is important to remember that the mission of the New Mexico Tourism Department is to attract domestic and international visitors to New Mexico,” Secretary Cerletti said. “It is vital that we do everything we can to take advantage of unique opportunities to reach potential visitors. The Tournament of Roses® Parade is just one such effort. What it means - ultimately – is more tourism dollars to the state’s economy, benefiting all New Mexicans.”

Once again, the New Mexico float is designed by award-winning float designer Raul Rodriguez and built by Fiesta Parade Floats of Pasadena, Calif. under contract with the Tourism Department.

Nothing says “A Cut Above the Rest” (the theme of the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade) like New Mexico’s hot air balloons. “It can be a huge undertaking or something quite simple,” Secretary Cerletti said of the challenge to create a float that can represent New Mexico’s diverse entertainment offering in a colorful, eye-catching design.

“Fanciful balloons - marvelous, mysterious, colorful balloons - evoke all of the wonder and fun of childhood’s simplest joys,” Cerletti added. “Those children, now adults, can relive those magical days of youth in New Mexico. Whether traveling a winding mountain road or floating high above over cities, villages or the wide open plains in a hot-air balloon, visitors to New Mexico are ‘A Cut Above the Rest’.”

The love-struck French skunk Pepé Le Pew is seeking “l’amour” as he yet again is in romantic pursuit to seduce Penelope Pussycat with amorous gifts of red roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates. In her attempt to escape the ever-persistent Pepé, Penelope dangles precariously from the gondola of a swaying hot-air balloon. Pepé turns from side-to-side as he offers tokens of his affections.

The picturesque landscapes of New Mexico are comically depicted in animation art form from the snow-capped trees of the majestic mountains, through the teetering rock formations on down to the colorful desert floor bursting alive with blooming yuccas.

Pepé and Penelope will be artistically crafted in layers of velvety black onion seed and crisp white coconut flakes. The colorful hot air balloons are created in a rainbow of materials including yellow and gold strawflower petals, green split peas, blue, hot pink and purple sinuata statice, dehydrated carrot and red bell peppers, safflower spice, sweet rice and coconut flakes. The gondola baskets are woven in cornhusk and kiwi vines. Fiesta Parade Floats worked closely with Warner Bros. to insure the figures of Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat were reproduced to their exact specifications.

The colorful landscape of New Mexico comes vividly alive in over 50,000 roses. The unique rock formations are created in butterscotch and bronze chrysanthemums with striations of roses including brown Leonodis, Café Ole, Coffee Break and tan Caramel and Sahara roses. The desert floor comes vibrantly alive in orange rose shades of Saturno, Star 2000, Mercedes, Tropical Amazon and Verano. Fluffy clouds of white coconut flakes float above the landscape floor. Yucca blossoms have been created in over 10,000 white dendrobium orchid florets individually glued onto small welded rods.

Cost-saving ideas emerge out of frustration

While lawmakers in Santa Fe are starting to express frustration on limitations imposed on them by Gov. Bill Richardson’s special session proclamation, Republicans are blaming the Richardson administration for not preventing the problem in the first place.

On Tuesday, a group of Republican legislators released a list of 48 budget-cutting items they say the administration can enact without any legislative action, including releasing non-violent criminals three months early, selling the state’s jet and canceling the state’s contract for a float in the 2010 Tournament of Roses® Parade.

“The governor has the power to approve cuts in executive agencies. If he would have taken proactive steps, we would not be spending $50,000 a day debating this problem,” House Minitority Whip Keith Gardner (R-Roswell) said.

The governor’s office was quick to respond to the House Republicans.

“The same legislators who are critical of spending during the past seven years are conveniently forgetting important details about those budgets, including the overwhelmingly support from the Legislature for each of those spending plans,” a message on the governor’s blog said.

Slamming the door on early release?

But the early release of non-violent criminals, to save money, isn’t sitting well with all Republicans.

“We need less criminals on the street,” Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said. “I would need to know how they define ‘non-violent criminal. Burglars are not classified violent, but we’re trying to take them off the street and reduce property crime in Albuquerque.”

Gardner said he would consider a burglar to be violent too, and said he doesn’t agree with all the items on the list himself.

“Were talking about people who make a ‘knucklehead decision – folks who get sent to jail for contempt of court,” Gardner said.

He said anyone who breaks the law deserves to be punished, but he’d like to consider alternative sentencing or other forms of punishment.

“We should not have people in jail that we’re mad at and need to keep people in jail that we’re scared of. The judiciary is best poised to decide who is or is not a threat to society,” Matt Kennicott a staffer with the Republican House Caucus. “Keep in mind, the point of the list is that they are ideas that the executive could have enacted to help fix the budget before calling the legislature into special session at the rate of $50,000 per day.

Getting the most 'bang for the buck'

Gardner also wondered out loud if the New Mexico Tourism Department’s participation, for the fourth time in five years, gives the state the most ‘bang for the buck?’

NM Tourism Secretary Michael Cerletti has defended the state’s participation.

“It is important that the New Mexico tourism industry does everything it can to take advantage of unique opportunities to reach potential visitors,” Cerletti said. “The exposure offered New Mexico each year is significant.”

In fact, nearly 40 million Americans in 16.5 million households watch the parade on television New Year’s day. The Parade is also broadcast live in 150 countries and territories worldwide.

Will lawmakers settle for a hodgepodge fix?

Gardner said if the structure of government isn’t changed lawmakers would be settling on a ‘hodgepodge fix.’

Lawmakers had wanted to consider a combination of expenditures and revenue measures, but the Governor isn’t willing to consider them until January.

Putting it all on the table

“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,” Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe), the Vice-Chair of the Senate Rules Committee said.

Wirth isn’t the only senator that feels that way. Several of his colleague are echoing his remarks.

“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,” Sen. Bernadette Sanchez (D-Bernalillo), Chair of the Senate Conservation Committee said.

Sounding frustrated himself, Gardner wants the governor to enact cost-saving ideas now.

“We have to quit spending, and we need to decide on more than just taking baby-steps here. We need long-term solutions. We have to act now, “ Gardner said. “Every month we don’t act we add an additional 1/12th burden, because we’ll have fewer months to recover.”

“He (the Governor) has a fiduciary responsibility to help solve this problem,” Gardner said. “He wants to spend one-time dollars, the same as a cash loan, and then he hopes the problem rights itself — if the economy improves.”

No one is making any predictions

At the conclusion of the fourth day of floor debate and caucus meetings, Gardner isn’t making any predictions when the session might adjourn.

“I want to be home by the weekend. Unfortunately, I’m not confident that we will be,” Gardner said. “If we don’t look at long-term solutions then we could get called back into session, or we’ll be dealing with the budget problems big time in the 30-day session (in January).