At the Roundhouse: Badlands

Democratic progressives might be on a roll in the New Mexico Legislature, but they have badlands to cross even before they encounter arctic receptions from Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

Those badlands are in the progressives’ own territory, one floor below Martinez’s fourth-floor offices in the Capitol.

Call that troublesome turf the Senate Finance Committee. El Malpais. The Jornada del Muerto for many spending dreams.

Progressives generally want to invest in people, as opposed to business, to improve things in New Mexico. And progressive agenda items, like health and education initiatives, usually carry price tags.

The Senate Finance Committee is chaired by a Democrat, Sen. John Arthur Smith of Deming, and he is a fiscal conservative.

Smith is not a tea party type. He’s a down-home, practical kind of a guy who thinks you shouldn’t spend more money than you have and that it’s a good idea to save. They are age-old ideas that many people used to consider wise. The buck often stops at his his door.

The Senate Finance Committee has 10 members: six Democrats and four Republicans.

As James Monteleone pointed out in his Journal story this morning on the push for more early childhood education money, it would take only Smith and the four Republicans to make for a tie vote in the committee. Bills do not advance on tie votes.

Republicans are not expected to embrace Senate Joint Resolution 3, the proposed constitutional amendment to tap the Land Grant Permanent Fund for more money for early childhood education. And Smith  has expressed misgivings, if not outright opposition.

The Land Grant Permanent Fund proposal is headed for Smith’s committee. The proposed constitutional amendment doesn’t go through the governor — it would go straight from the Legislature to voters — but many other progressive proposals would require Martinez’s approval. And, if they carry a price tag, they have to go through the Senate Finance Committee first.

Meanwhile, debate over the permanent fund proposal seems to have less to do with the need for more early childhood programs than where to get the money.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, has voiced the progressive perspective on the issue, dismissing fiscal worries and saying his first concern is providing more help to families and kids.

“This fund is not our state’s future,” Sanchez said this week. “The kids of this state are our state’s future.”

Smith and the State Investment Council, which manages the Land Grant Permanent Fund, say that drawing down the fund’s principal threatens its ability to yield good returns for education down the road.

“I know about the need out there,” Smith told Monteleone recently. “But somebody’s got to try and watch the purse strings.”