AG sides with Senate on budget bill fight
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Ruling means governor must act by Wednesday on legislation received by Denish
2/11/2008 - 2/12/08
Gov. Bill Richardson must act on some key spending bills by a Wednesday night deadline, the attorney general said in an advisory letter to the state Legislature issued late Monday.
The Governor's Office has insisted the legal deadline for Richardson to sign or veto the legislation isn't until Thursday morning. That time frame would make it harder for lawmakers to try to override any line-item vetoes of projects that legislators included in the bills.
Attorney General Gary King's statement was the latest twist in a dispute that arose when Lt. Gov. Diane Denish agreed to accept the bills on the governor's behalf Saturday evening.
Senate leaders say her action triggered a 72-hour time period for the governor to act on legislation before it would automatically become law.
However, the Governor's Office has insisted Denish didn't have authority to receive the bills. The governor's chief of staff, James Jimenez, has argued the clock didn't start until Monday morning when the Governor's Office accepted the bills.
Denish said Monday that she didn't give it much thought when members of the Legislature's bill-drafting agency asked her to sign for receipt of key spending bills Saturday after Gov. Bill Richardson staffers couldn't be located to accept them. "It wasn't a big deal," Denish said. "I thought it was part of the process, part of following the rules."
Richardson's office was locked by 6 p.m. Saturday when clerks tried to deliver the bills and couldn't reach the governor's staff by phone.
Denish said Monday that she was within her right in acknowledging receipt of the bills Saturday evening. She said she had followed the advice of Legislative Council Services staffers, who had spoken to the attorney general. "I decided it was part of the process, established practice, the right thing to do," she said. "I signed for the bills at 6 o'clock."
Richardson's office, however, says Denish didn't have authority to accept the bills because Richardson wasn't out of the state and she wasn't the acting governor. A spokesman declined to say where the governor was that night.
However, in response to an inquiry from Legislative Council Service Director Paula Tackett, King issued a statement Monday night that said his attorneys "have found nothing in state law or these circumstances that would prohibit the lieutenant governor from accepting legislation on behalf of the governor and starting the clock on the time that the governor has to consider it."
If the bills were legally delivered to the executive branch on Saturday night, as Senate leaders say, Richardson would have to act on capital outlay and what is known as "junior budget" legislation by 6 p.m. Wednesday, giving the House and Senate time to sort through and attempt to override any vetoes.
Richardson, who in past years has angered some legislators by exercising line-item veto authority to eliminate individual projects, has already indicated he won't hesitate to veto what he considers pork projects in the junior budget bill.
He's already combing through the Legislature-passed $6 billion main budget for funding state government, on which he's scheduled to act today.
House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé, said the debate is a question for the lawyers. "I think that's a legal question," he said. "I don't have no reason to disagree with either one of them. If it's felt that it was clocked in at 6 (on Saturday), my opinion is it should be addressed at 6 (on Wednesday) accordingly," Luján said.
"However, if the governor feels that their actual acceptance of the bill was Monday morning, I still think it would be in his best interest, and everyone's best interest to just go ahead and accept the fact that the bill was sent by 6 o'clock (Saturday)."
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said he hopes the dispute doesn't end up in court, as some have suggested. "In my opinion, they were clocked in on Saturday," he said.
"We think the Constitution speaks for itself, and I don't think there's any way around it."
House Minority Whip Dan Foley, R-Roswell, said the Richardson administration clearly received the spending bills Saturday. "Playing games about when it clocked in, when it didn't clock in, doesn't help the process at all," he said.
Denish said the matter needs to be settled so such questions don't come up again in the future. "I think this is something that needs to be clarified between the governor and the Legislature," she said. "We need to define if it's established practice, accepted practice, or if the governor at his prerogative can accept the bills."
Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com.
