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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Staff Cuts in NM House Reduce Costs for Special Session
Note: The trusty reporters at NMI are liveblogging from today's Special Session. You can also listen to audio proceedings in the House and watch or listen to proceedings in the Senate at the New Mexico Legislature website. And KUNM is offering audio feeds from both chambers.
We received a press release from the New Mexico House just as today's Special Session of the New Mexico Legislature was finally being called to order in the House chamber about 3:00 PM today after some delay. The Session was called by the Governor to resolve the state's approximate $660 million budget deficit The statement touts an effort by the House to reduce expenses by cutting back 13 staff positions and, in many cases, assigning double duty to employees to increase efficiency.
“We’re trying to understand the situation and get through this economic crisis as quickly and as frugally as possible, while preserving essential services for our citizens,” Rep. Ken Martinez (D-Cibola, McKinley, San Juan) said in the release.
“Collectively we’ve made every effort to reduce expenditures in the Feed Bill for this special session as compared to the last special session,” Speaker Ben Lujan (D-Santa Fe) said.
Last year’s special session called for just over $113,000 to pay House legislative staff. The Feed Bill for this special session has been trimmed by about $11,000 bringing costs to around $102,000.
“We’re doing what we can to keep costs down. Hopefully this special session will be short so that we can get in, get our job done and get home. The truth is that what’s spent here is insignificant compared to the problem we face with the budget deficit,” Rep. Tom Taylor (R-San Juan) said.
“We are considering it our responsibility to operate under budget this special session in comparison to the last special session,” Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela (D-Santa Fe County), Chair of Printing and Supplies, said.
October 17, 2009 at 03:21 PM in Media, NM Legislature Special Session 2009, Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Cutting staff, putting more of a workload on the remaining staff, now that's "trickle-down economics." Isn't there a saying about something that always runs downhill?
Posted by: Ellen Wedum | Oct 18, 2009 12:02:53 AM
I think Ellen's comment is way off base. I'm glad the legislators are reducing their budgets. My only disappointment is that it reaaly is not that much money. I am sure there are more cuts that could be made.
Posted by: mark | Oct 18, 2009 9:21:38 AM
It also puts more workload on the legislators. It's a token cut but symbolic of trying to save money. I wish they'd meet over the computer or by phone conference to conduct some of this business.
Posted by: Old Dem | Oct 18, 2009 10:52:59 AM
In response to Mark, I worked as a secretary during the 2007 regular session. Since these are temporary sessions, there are no health benefits, no sick days, and the pay is not great. Plus no designated parking, so you have to get there an hour ahead of time to find a place to park.
On the House side, each secretary has to handle the mail and phone calls for two reps, plus organizing all their legislative paperwork. I wonder what "more" was dumped on the secretaries for this session.
Posted by: Ellen Wedum | Oct 19, 2009 6:23:28 AM
Ellen do you get that the workload is less at a special session? There are only a handful of bills considered, not the many hundreds introduced at regular sessions. Everyone has to sacrifice when we are in a situation like this.
Posted by: LM | Oct 19, 2009 8:41:34 AM
