by Rodd Cayton
A pair of lobbyists for the City of Albuquerque said the city saw some success in its priorities in the just-concluded legislative session, but that uncertainty in the federal budget and frustration on the part of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham could see the Roundhouse reopened for business twice this year.
Al Park, speaking at Tuesday’s Intergovernmental Legislative Relations Committee meeting, said the city provided lots of input on bills related to criminal competency and public safety.
He said city councilors’ efforts, along with those of Mayor Tim Keller, helped defeat bills “that would have had a pretty significant adverse impact upon the city and city operations.”
Park said the session’s end leads to the bill-signing period, in which Lujan Grisham is reviewing the bills that passed and stakeholders reaching out to the governor’s office to either urge a signature or a veto of each.
Lujan Grisham has 20 days from the end of the legislative session to decide on the fate of bills passed in the final days of the legislative session. The deadline for these bills is April 11.
He said the governor is very frustrated about the lack of progress on public safety legislation, particularly bills related to juvenile crime. Park said he thinks a mass shooting in Las Cruces the night before the regular session ended increased the likelihood of a special session centered on public safety.
Lujan Grisham called legislators into a special session last year. Her stated goal was new public safety legislation, though the session resulted in just one bill passing, allocating money for firefighting, healthcare, courts and cross-border fentanyl trafficking.
Park said state officials are concerned about federal funding for a number of officials, including Medicaid.
“If it’s going to be cut, or if the federal government is going to withhold payments, that will result in a pretty significant impact on our state budget,” he said.
Park said the state’s reserves — projected by the Department of Finance and Administration to be $3.3 billion — provided a cushion, but a significant decrease in federal payments would require the Legislature to come back and rebalance the budget.
Park’s fellow lobbyist, Joe Thompson said there was at first talk of Lujan Grisham calling legislators back to Santa Fe over the short term. He said that has cooled off but he thinks a special session is inevitable and is likely to happen in a couple of months.
Thompson said the governor’s office may consider additional capital funding as an inducement to legislators to convene. That could be more money for Albuquerque projects.
Park said it’s unlikely that there will be one special session that covers everything of importance.
“I think the governor knows … special sessions are usually successful when they are narrowly tailored,” he said. “It’s difficult to (address) public safety and a pretty significant budgetary issue at the same time.”