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Gov. Susana Martinez still doesn’t like using state dollars for the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. For the second year in a row, she cut state money for the park being developed on Santa Fe’s Museum Hill from the capital outlay bill approved by the Legislature.
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Last year, she called money for the Botanical Garden “wasteful pork.” Her veto this year eliminates $140,000 the Legislature approved for the multi-year project spearheaded by a nonprofit.
The financially strapped Santa Fe Children’s Museum fared better. Martinez okayed $117,336 for improvements at the museum.
Also last year, the governor set off controversy by axing nearly $1.4 million to furnish the new Santa Fe County Courthouse. In her budget actions Friday, she vetoed $45,000 for touchscreen computers at the new courthouse but left intact $85,000 for information technology wiring for the $60 million building.
The governor also vetoed: appropriations of $10,000 each for “marquees” at Santa Fe’s Capshaw Middle School and the Academy at Larragoite; $100,000 for improvements at the Poeh Center at Pojoaque Pubelo; $185,000 for solar panels at the state Capitol; $50,000 for a “math and science artwalk” in Los Alamos; $250,000 for an “evidence collection vehicle” and police cars for the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office; $65,000 for “theater and convention equipment” in Santa Fe County; and $64,500 for improvements to Siringo Road to accommodate the Santa Fe Community College’s new Higher Education Center.
Some of the many appropriations Martinez left intact include: $3.5 million for a new State Police office in Española; $850,000 in track and locomotive improvements for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway; $1.8 million for repairs to the deteriorating Bradner Dam in San Miguel County; $500,000 for a fitness center at the Institute of American Indian Arts; $216,000 for a trauma treatment center in Santa Fe; $680,000 for a new indoor arena on the Santa Fe County rodeo grounds; $135,000 for improvements including a cafe counter at the Santa Fe Farmers Market; $8 million for improvements to the New Mexico School for the Deaf; $50,000 for Santa Fe’s El Museo Cultural; and $225,000 for new baseball fields in the Pojoaque Valley.
