Showdown looms over state budget bills

Governor, lawmakers spar over Denish's constitutional role in accepting legislation

Doug Mattson | The New Mexican

2/10/2008 - 2/11/08

Gov. Bill Richardson's staff locked the door to his office Saturday before the Legislature could deliver spending bills that the governor had threatened to veto.

Now a legal dispute is brewing that could determine whether Richardson can sit on the bills until legislators run out of time to override any veto before they adjourn at midday Thursday.

On Saturday evening, with the Governor's Office shut down and his staff unreachable by phone, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish accepted the budget and capital outlay legislation.

But the governor's chief of staff, James Jimenez, said Sunday that Denish wasn't acting on Richardson's behalf and that legally she couldn't take on constitutional powers as acting governor because Richardson hadn't left the state.

The governor has three days to act on legislation once he officially receives a bill, and Jimenez said Sunday that the governor won't accept the spending bills until this morning.

Senate leaders, however, contend Denish's action means the 72-hour clock in which the governor must act already has started ticking.

The disagreement, which Senate leaders said could end up in court, is the latest run-in between lawmakers and the governor, who threatened last week to veto a "junior budget" bill that includes a list of lawmakers' favorite projects.

Richardson in past years has upset some legislators by using his line-item veto authority to kill their projects.

In the waning days of this session, having their capital outlay projects on his desk — with the implicit threat of vetoing them — could give the governor more sway over lawmakers as he pushes for bills he wants in the Legislature's final hours.

The "junior budget" bill was sent to the Governor's Office along with a general obligation bond bill and a capital outlay bill, Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said Sunday. When the doors were found locked, efforts were made to reach governor's staff by phone, he said. When that failed, Denish, who presides over the Senate and was in the chambers Saturday, accepted the bills about 6 p.m.

"We sent the junior budget up around 4:15 p.m., and nobody was there," Jennings said. "I think (the Governor's Office) had notice that we were going to do that. In compliance with the (state) constitution, the lieutenant governor received the bills."

However, Jimenez said the Governor's Office won't clock the bills in until 8 a.m. today.

"This is a really slippery slope, and it's quite an unusual precedent to say (the lieutenant governor) can fulfill his constitutional duties," he said. "What other powers can they say she can assume when the governor is in the state?"

Jimenez said the governor's staff locked the doors and left around 5 p.m. after senators told them they would be going home for the day about that time. Jennings said the Senate stayed on the floor until about 7:30 p.m.

The constitution requires that the current 30-day legislative session end at noon Thursday. If the governor accepts the bills at 8 a.m. today, he could wait 72 hours and veto all or parts of them just four hours before the session ends, giving lawmakers little time to muster a possible veto override.

The governor's blog warned Friday that he was inclined to veto the junior budget bill because it was "packed with unnecessary budget pork." He also criticized the Legislature for not yet passing a universal health care package or fully funding a salary package for state workers.

The state's annual capital outlay spending pie is roughly divided into thirds — a third for the governor and a third each for the House and Senate.

Jennings said it was the first time in his 29 years in the Legislature that the Governor's Office has been unavailable to accept bills. "I think nobody could find (governor's staffers)," Jennings said. "I think they vanished — up in smoke — so I don't know where they were. This is the sixth year for the administration, and I think they know what happens."

But Jennings stopped short of suggesting Richardson was making it harder to get for lawmakers to get their bills passed. "If there was some plot ... she would have known about it," he said of Denish. "Otherwise, she wouldn't have been there either."

Denish's office would say only that it was a disagreement between the Legislature and the governor.

But some senators contend there is a fundamental issue at stake. They contend the constitution requires the governor to have someone in his office to accept legislation when it's delivered.

"I guess we'll let the courts look at it," said Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.

Jimenez said that the constitution does not specify when the Governor's Office must be open.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.