Font ResizeSANTA FE - New Mexico's colleges, universities, prisons and courts would get less money under a budget proposed Friday by the Legislative Finance Committee.
Its members recommended a $5.39 billion state budget. This plan would not raise taxes, and would maintain funding levels for Medicaid and K-through-12 classroom programs.
Nearly $400 million more in state money would be poured into Medicaid, though it mostly would replace federal funds that have been exhausted.
New Mexico used more than $1 billion in federal stimulus money in the last three years to pay for its government operations. That reservoir of federal taxpayers' money has run dry, so the state should replenish it in select areas, such as Medicaid and public schools, the committee said in its budget proposal.
Under its plan, the state budget would grow by $187 million from last year. But the budget would be 10 percent smaller than in 2009, when it exceeded $6 billion.
Legislators and then-Gov. Bill Richardson reduced spending after the national recession hit.
Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican completing her first week in office, will offer her own budget proposal Monday. In a statement, she said she applauded the committee for recommending no tax increase.
Martinez has said she would not cut money for public school classrooms. But, she said, other budget reductions are certain because state government, like every household, has to live within its means.
Committee members took one position identical
Their plan for schools assumes $22 million in reductions to the formula funding. This would curtail duplication and inefficiency, the 16 legislators on the committee said in a statement.
Their chairman, Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, said New Mexico's school bureaucracy is ripe for change - and cutbacks. He said a reorganization of the Department of Education is needed "to make it more responsive."
His committee suggested statewide cuts in higher education totaling about $15 million.
The Department of Corrections and the judiciary also would see their budgets cut.
Three other large departments - health, transportation and Children Youth and Families - would get increases.
On paper, Medicaid would receive a whopping 42 percent budget increase, but most of that would replace federal funding that expired.
Enrollment growth for Medicaid would be restricted to approximately 1.4 percent. About 574,000 of the state's 2 million people depend on the program in one way or another.
Since the recession, state government has eliminated about 2,400 jobs. About 23,500 state authorized positions remain.
About 500 jobs, which are mostly vacant, would be cut under the legislative plan, said David Abbey, director of the Finance Committee.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith said times are lean, but he sees reasons for optimism. Mines in the southern part of the state are reopening, the oil business has stabilized or even shown signs of growth, and corporate income tax collections are up, he said.
New revenue forecasts are due next month. If the numbers remain on an upswing, balancing the budget would be less painful, Smith said. But if the fragile recovery breaks down, more cuts could be possible.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp. com.
