Legislative session crawls to grand finale
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Governor vetoes spending bills; lawmakers work on replacement measure
2/13/2008 - 2/14/08
It was supposed to end with a big showdown.But instead, this year's 30-day session appeared Wednesday night to be ending with a whimper.
A constitutional standoff between Gov. Bill Richardson and the Legislature was averted when Richardson acted on key spending bills Wednesday night, ahead of what he said was his deadline this morning. Instead, he met what lawmakers and the attorney general said was his deadline.
And even that action — a veto of all the capital outlay and part of the "junior" budget — hadn't angered lawmakers enough to override him as of Wednesday night.
The House, which typically goes into the wee hours on the last night of the session, recessed at 9:30 p.m. while the Senate was dealing with minor bills and nonbinding memorials.
Richardson axed $348 million of House and Senate projects. He also line-item-vetoed more than a half-million dollars in spending from the junior budget.
In short, his office said, the governor needed more time to look at the measures.
"We came to a conclusion earlier today that the governor had inadequate time within which to really provide the kind of scrutiny that's necessary for a capital outlay bill," said Chief of Staff James Jimenez.
That veto appeared to be one of Richardson's last acts at the Capitol on Wednesday. Soon after, he headed off to watch cage matches at Santa Ana Star Casino, several sources said.
Political leverage questions
Jimenez denied the vetoes were politically motivated.
Eric Witt, a legislative liaison for Richardson, agreed, arguing, "The bigger leverage point is the threat of a special session."
Some senators, however, said the vetoes indeed were done for political leverage. "The only thing that's happening now is this is being placed in a position of leverage," Senate Majority Leader Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said. "What else would it be? We all had agreements on everything on capital outlay."
Regardless of the governor's intentions, Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, said, the vetoes got the Legislature's attention. "The governor didn't feel like he had adequate time to evaluate a bill that was over 500 pages and 2,000 projects," he said.
Jimenez said the bill was so large that Richardson needed more time to look at it. "It's unfortunate that so much time and effort has been spent on just the spending bills. As you know when the governor kicked off this session, it was about health care, health care, health care," Jimenez said.
But while Richardson wanted more time to look at the capital outlay spending, Jennings said "we just want to give him a little more time to scrutinize health care. I think there are people that have questions about whether or not the information (on the cost) is accurate that has been given."
Richardson's health care bill appeared all but dead, stuck in the Senate Finance Committee, which hadn't placed the measure on its agenda. The proposal to insure all New Mexicans faced questions from the start of the session — the largest of which was the cost.
The future of capital outlay
Lawmakers weren't left scrambling after the vetoes because they had a backup capital outlay plan. Senate Bill 471, which is the same as the measure Richardson vetoed, had already passed the Senate by Wednesday night and was pending in the House. That chamber is expected to take up the measure this morning.
Jimenez said the governor hopes the House will pass that bill. If it passes, Richardson would have 20 days to decide which projects to keep and which to line-item veto.
House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé, said it will be up to the members of the House Democratic Caucus, which is scheduled to meet at 7:30 a.m. today, to decide whether the capital outlay bill will be heard.
The speaker said there is no upside in not passing the bill. "There's lots of smaller projects that are important to members and their constituents," he said.
Luján also said he believes overriding the governor's veto of the other bill is unlikely. "I didn't see anyone jump up and make a motion to override tonight," he said.
House Minority Whip Dan Foley, R-Roswell, agreed. "My feeling from talking to some of the Ds (Democrats) is that they don't have the appetite for an override," he said.
Some House Democrats were struggling with the notion of passing SB 471.
Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said he voted against the measure in the House Appropriations Committee "because I think we've already sent a bill up to the governor."
Wirth said he and other House members are trying to weigh all the options — voting for SB 471, as Richardson would like, opting instead to vote to override Richardson's veto of House Bill 43 or doing nothing.
Would it be hard politically to go home with no capital outlay?
"Yes that would be hard," said Rep. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. "It would be hard politically to vote to override the governor. It would be hard to turn (against) the Senate."
Richardson knows the top priority of most lawmakers is getting funds for projects in their districts, Robinson said.
In the Senate, Jennings said lawmakers were looking for compromise. "We have to look and see if there's a way to find a midground somewhere," Jennings said.
But senators including Robinson predicted no major legislation would pass in the remaining hours of the session. "I think it would be best to just let the system crash," he said. "I'm not sure very much can happen now."
Inevitable special session?
At the same time, Robinson said a special session could yield some kind of health care bill that would be acceptable to Richardson. Robinson is one of several lawmakers who thinks a special session is inevitable.
Richardson has said he hasn't ruled out a special session if the Senate doesn't pass his health care plan in a way that gives him the authority to appoint the executive director of the Health Coverage Authority. Getting that done, however, seemed unlikely.
Some Republican senators said the veto might not have been a good idea. Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, said, "I'd just as soon go home without any capital outlay."
Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque, said the vetoes could backfire. "What does he think his reception will be if he does that with the Senate?" he said.
Much of the attention in recent days had focused on Richardson and his deadline to act on the spending bills. The intrigue was spawned when Lt. Gov. Diane Denish on Saturday accepted the legislation on Richardson's behalf, because his office was locked. That started the deadline clock ticking, lawmakers and Attorney General Gary King said.
King issued an advisory letter Monday night saying he finds nothing in the law that would prevent Denish from accepting the bills on behalf of the governor.
Richardson's office didn't back down from his position that only he could accept the bills and start the clock ticking, which he says happened Monday, not Saturday.
"We still believe that's the case," Jimenez said. "What we decided to do, though, instead of fight over the issue, was to send a message back down to the Legislature that this capital outlay bill is important. ... The taxpayers need to be assured the governor can provide adequate scrutiny for them."
Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com or Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.