Add another item to the Legislature’s to-do list for a special session on redistricting that will be held next month at the state Capitol.
Gov. Susana Martinez announced this afternoon she plans to ask lawmakers to approve $450,000 to continue the supplemental food stamp assistance program that benefits about 4,000 low-income, elderly and disabled New Mexicans.
In June, Martinez said she would use discretionary federal stimulus money to extend the food stamps program through September, the deadline for using such funding.
However, there is currently no authorized funding to continue the program through the rest of the budget year, which runs through June 2012.
Sens. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, and Lynda Lovejoy, D-Crownpoint, will sponsor the legislation during next month’s special session, Martinez said.
Other issues Martinez has said she plans on adding to the agenda include proposals to repeal the law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses, extend current contribution rates into the state’s unemployment fund, elimate loopholes in the in-state preference law for businesses and approve a capital outlay bill that failed to pass during the final minutes of the legislative session that ended in March.
-- Email the reporter at dboyd@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-992-6281
