Contact: Isaac Padilla
Office: 505/986.4819
Mobile: 505/264.6512
Isaac.Padilla@nmlegis.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Senate Democrats Fix Budget Crisis with Bipartisan Solution
Successfully Ushered Legislation to Close $600 Million Shortfall without Tax Hikes, Protecting Classrooms and Children, Priorities for Families
(Santa Fe, NM) – New Mexico Senate Democrats tonight successfully passed a package of bipartisan legislation that balances the state’s budget. In fact, for the 2017 Fiscal Year, the measures create a surplus of $91 million. The Senate’s blueprint, passed during the one-day special legislative session, erases an estimated $600 million deficit for Fiscal Years 16 and 17 through a combination of expenditure cuts, unspent balance sweeps, revenue adjustments and re-purposing of capital outlay funds. Democrats called for shared sacrifice, while protecting the priorities of families, children and classrooms.
“It wasn’t easy, but the Senate’s bipartisan action tonight ensures that state revenues will match expenditures for the first time in nearly two years. With a small surplus of funds of approximately 1.5%, the people of New Mexico can be confident that we will avoid a financial and constitutional crisis that threatened us only a short time ago. I am very proud of my Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate who came together in a spirit of cooperation to put our state above partisanship. It is a huge accomplishment. And we did it all without raising taxes,” said Senate Majority Leader, Michael S. Sanchez.
The Senate budget agreement contains $212 million of prudent expenditure cuts to state government, spread across all agencies and departments. A package of revenue adjustments that closes unnecessary loopholes worth an additional $45 million was passed. $77 million worth of unspent and unused fund balances in numerous government accounts were part of a ‘sweep’ bill. Those funds will be reallocated to shore up the state’s bottom line under the Senate plan. The Senate also re-purposed $89 million of capital infrastructure funds sitting idle from past years. The total package, worth more than $423 million, moves the state from a negative balance in FY 17 of $326 million to a positive $91 million in reserves.
“Senators from both sides of the aisle worked hard to arrive at a plan that will be effective, fair, and that requires shared sacrifice. We were presented with a huge problem, and we fixed it. It will not be painless, however, because we are facing a very large budget gap. The cuts were as prudent as possible. Our economy is not fully healed by any measure, however. We still have high unemployment and stagnant economic activity, and we have much work to do,” said Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen.
After completing its duty to balance the state’s budget, the Senate voted sine die to adjourn.
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