Font ResizeSANTA FE - They still talk about the time a House speaker and a state senator exchanged words, elbows, shoves and perhaps punches in the Capitol.
That was in 2000, when it seemed that roundhouse punches inspired the nickname of New Mexico's circular Capitol building.
This year's legislative session, which begins at noon Tuesday, may be much more placid, even with a freshly elected Republican governor and Democrats controlling both houses of the Legislature.
Bad times - with more than 80,000 state residents unemployed and state industries hoping the beginnings of a fragile recovery will hold - could mean a less partisan, more cooperative atmosphere at the Roundhouse.
"I represent a conservative area, and the people expect us to work together. I can't get anything done, but we can," said Rep. Dona Irwin, D-Deming.
Irwin said her priorities are being frugal and balancing the budget.
Gov. Susana Martinez said she will fight for her proposed budget, a $5.4 billion plan. It calls for about $41 million more in spending than the draft offered by the Legislative Finance Committee, but both proposals are in the black.
Martinez and the committee agreed on big concepts, such as no tax increases, cutting the size of public school administration and reducing spending for colleges and universities.
They disagreed on other issues, including the committee's proposal to cut funding for prisons.
Martinez said she would fight any reduction for the corrections department. A
Mostly, though, Martinez and Finance Committee members began the new year in concert, saying the people will gain more with less spending in many areas. Medicaid and classrooms are exceptions that would get money funding.
In her first executive moves, Martinez reduced cabinet salaries an average of 10 percent, fired two chefs at the governor's residence, put the state's $5.5 million jet up for sale and ordered an evaluation of Spaceport America. The $209 million enterprise in Sierra County is supposed to draw tourists and people who want to journey into space, but Martinez said its finances and contracts must be scrutinized.
Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, said he had yet to meet the governor, but he liked a lot of what she has had to say, particularly about cutting administrative costs in New Mexico's 89 school districts.
"Education takes the bulk of the money, and we're top-heavy in administration," Begaye said. "I want to cut the layers between superintendents and principals, take the savings from that downsizing and use it for early childhood development, Medicaid, roads and highways, and to build up our reserve account."
High-profile New Mexico residents have their own ideas about what government should do.
Drew Dix, a Medal of Honor recipient for valor in Vietnam, lives outside Silver City. He said he liked the tone Martinez had set because he wants a government that does not feel compelled to take on every project.
"Government's main responsibility is to protect the country and its people. We have come to depend too much on the government to do everything for us, and that's a mistake," Dix said in an interview.
Betsy James, an Albuquerque author of books aimed at young adults and perhaps their parents too, said cuts in school administrations are necessary, but they are only a small part of solving problems in education.
"If we don't begin to teach critical thinking, messy doesn't begin to describe the situation we're going to be in in a generation," James said. "Europe and the rest of the world are going to leave us in their dust."
She said school enrichment programs must be enhanced, and paperwork for teachers must be lessened so they can excel at their craft.
Norm Ellenberger, once a state icon as basketball coach at the University of New Mexico, said people have to change their ways if they want a better government.
"We as Americans are so spoiled in the fact that our lives are pretty good," said Ellenberger, 78, who is still coaching high school basketball in Wisconsin. "We don't always put the right people in government, and the people in there need to understand why we put them there."
State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said he is in office to manage the public's money wisely.
Smith said he expected factions in his party to call for tax increases during the session, contending that deep cuts had hurt services and programs. But Smith, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sounded a bipartisan theme for himself, saying he looked forward to working with Martinez's administration to hold down spending.
A freshman legislator, Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-Alamogordo, is moving to Santa Fe for the session with her 160-pound Great Dane, Owen. She said her goal is to look out for him and the public.
"We need a balanced budget before we can do anything," said Herrell, 46, who worked as a legislative aide for two years before she defeated 16-year Rep. Gloria Vaughn in last June's Republican primary election.
In prior careers, Herrell "flipped" houses and operated a boarding kennel. Her vision for New Mexico, she said, is to cut the size of government, loosen regulations to create more private development and fight any proposed new taxes.
"I hope we can do this in a way that won't be hurtful, especially to smaller organizations," she said.
Martinez, the first Hispanic woman elected governor in New Mexico and the nation, said she enters the legislative session focused on one fight - fixing budget problems by changing Roundhouse culture.
Across the years, Martinez said, people paid more than enough taxes, but state government overspent. Changing that equation is her first job, she said.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898.
