Story Tools  E-mail Story  Print Friendly Featured Jobs Featured Jobs Feature Your Jobs: call 823-4444 Legislature Legislature May Land on Web; Lawmakers OK Equipment Buy Gambling Foes Urged to Act; Gov. Gets Few Calls Seeking Veto of Bills Legislature OKs $5 Million for Plane Gov. Making List for Next Session; Loans, Wells To Be on '06 Agenda Lawmakers May Take Fitness Lead Voter ID Is Just One Part of Bill Richardson's Tax Cuts OK'd Tax Cuts, Pre-K Package Approved; Gov. Says No Special Session Public Works Bill OK'd; $471 Million Plan Largest on Record Summary of Major Legislation That Passed, Failed in the 60-Day Legislative Session More Legislature

          Front Page  news  xgr

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Senate Resurrects Override of Financial Data Bill Veto

By Dan Boyd / Journal Capitol Bureau

       SANTA FE — The New Mexico Senate set the stage Tuesday for a possible override attempt on a pocket veto by Gov. Bill Richardson, as an ongoing disagreement between different branches of government over confidential state contract information flared once again.
    Lawmakers unanimously passed a bill during last year's legislative session that would have given the Legislative Finance Committee the authority to request and obtain classified financial data from state agencies.
    However, Richardson vetoed the legislation (SB531) by not acting on it within 20 days after the session, the state's constitutional deadline.
    Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, moved on Tuesday to resurrect the bill by requesting that it be brought back before the Senate.
    He said the motion was the first stage in a possible override vote, which would need the approval of two-thirds of the members of both the House and the Senate to be successful.
    "This has nothing to do with branch rivalry or personal politics," Keller said. "This is needed to fix our budget."
    A $5.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is making its way through the House. Without knowing the details on Medicaid provider contracts worth about $2 billion, for example, Keller said legislators are budgeting in the dark.
    "Those could be wonderful for the state, or they could be terrible. We just don't know," he said of the contracts.
    Executive agencies do not currently have to provide information to the LFC that is deemed confidential.
    The state's Department of Finance and Administration voiced concern last year that Keller's bill could violate executive privilege and raise a separation of powers issue.
    However, Attorney General Gary King urged Richardson to sign the bill, saying in a letter that the measure would "facilitate" the flow of information between agencies.

We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately.