[LWVNM Action] Governor vetoes judicial raises & HB2 Junior - may trigger a special session for ovveride

[Richard Mason]

*Copyright © 2022 Albuquerque Journal*

SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham rejected legislation Wednesday that
would have boosted the pay of New Mexico judges by 33% and authorized $50
million for a grab-bag of extra state spending – her first vetoes of the
year.

Facing a noon deadline to act, she blocked seven bills altogether from
becoming law, or about 11% of what was passed in this year’s 30-day session.

The vetoes deeply angered lawmakers. The chairman of the influential Senate
Finance Committee late Wednesday called for the Legislature to call itself
back into session through an emergency procedure and override the veto of
the $50 million spending package.

The clash centered on Lujan Grisham’s rejection of legislation that had
cleared both chambers without a dissenting vote. The supplemental
appropriations bill called for about $25.2 million in one-time spending and
another $25.2 million in ongoing spending for a host of purposes picked by
individual lawmakers.

But Lujan Grisham said the legislation, Senate Bill 48, circumvented the
normal budget and capital outlay process used for large spending bills, and
she noted that some of the projects set to receive funding wouldn’t get
enough to actually complete them.

“This is unacceptable,” Lujan Grisham said.
As for the hefty judicial raises, a spokeswoman for Lujan Grisham said New
Mexico judges and justices are already in line to receive 17% raises, and
that “a drastic additional change in compensation” on top of that deserves
more scrutiny in a longer legislative session.

Lawmakers quickly objected to the vetoes.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said judicial pay
raises are necessary to recruit and retain judges, especially lawyers with
civil expertise who make substantially more in private practice.

The proposal, Senate Bill 2, called for bringing the pay of Supreme Court
justices into line with the salary of federal magistrates, or about
$205,500 this year, a 33% increase. Lower-court judges would have seen
corresponding increases.

Compensation for the judiciary, he said, is often overlooked in executive
budget proposals.

“We had the money,” Muñoz said. “Every executive has tortured the judicial
branch. We know we need good judges. We know we have to pay the right way.”

Judges and justices are still set to receive hefty raises, even without the
approval of Senate Bill 2. As it stands now, before the 17% goes into
effect, justices make about $154,000 a year and district judges get
$138,000.

Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said the governor was glad to
deliver the 17% raises to the judiciary, but that a more drastic change
“merits additional discussion and consideration during a longer legislative
session.”

Spending bill

The supplemental spending legislation vetoed Wednesday would have
authorized state funding – mostly in small chunks – for a host of projects
favored by legislators.

Examples include funding for student speech and debate clubs; a school
police officer in Aztec; meals for home-bound residents; an Indigenous
Wisdom Curriculum project; and medical equipment for a San Juan County
hospital.

Muñoz and Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, R-Belen, urged lawmakers
Wednesday to convene an extraordinary session to override the veto. It
would take approval from three-fifths of each chamber for the Legislature
to call itself into session, a procedure employed successfully only once,
in 2002.
“The veto of this legislation,” Baca said, “is a shameless attempt to beat
the legislative branch into submission and again eat away at our
appropriating authority. The Junior Bill contained funding for law
enforcement, senior centers, the courts and other critical needs throughout
the state.”

Muñoz called the veto “inexplicable” and said convening another session
would allow lawmakers to address the quick rise in gasoline prices amid the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. They could take up a suspension of the state
gas tax, he said, in addition to veto overrides.

In her message, Lujan Grisham said she hoped the veto would be a catalyst
for changing the practice of supplemental spending bills. They are
generally proposed when times are good and give each lawmaker a certain
amount of funding to allocate.

The governor said she wasn’t convinced the $50 million “upholds principles
of fiscal responsibility or, on the whole, represents a wise investment at
present.”


Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said she was confused and disappointed
by the governor’s veto but that it was too early to discuss a veto
override, which would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

“Many of those were needed projects for local communities that were
identified by legislators,” said Lundstrom, who is the chairwoman of the
House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Lujan Grisham and the Democratic majorities in the Legislature have clashed
periodically over spending authority and priorities.

In 2021, for example, the state Supreme Court sided with legislators over
who had spending authority over federal pandemic funds.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/action/attachments/20220310/2a8861e2/attachment.htm>