New Mexico Legislature races clock to fix budget shortfall
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico lawmakers were racing against the clock Monday in efforts to raise new money to sustain public school budgets and state agency services in response to a sustained slump in the state’s oil and natural gas sectors and a lackluster state economy.
The 60-day legislative session ends Saturday at noon, with time also running down for approval of a minimum wage hike and a long list of policy reforms that might overhaul campaign finance disclosures, allow medically assisted suicide and respond to federal initiatives from President Donald Trump and Congress.
The Democrat-led House of Representatives on Monday was combing through a Senate-approved plan to increase [auth] tax revenues and fees by roughly $350 million to fill a budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year.
“We’re in the tweak stage, we’re not in the square-one stage,” Democratic House Speaker Brian Egolf said of negotiations on the revenue bill.
Read more: http://rdrnews.com/wordpress/blog/2017/03/13/new-mexico-legislature-races-clock-to-fix-budget-shortfall/