Martinez signs state budget into law

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) - Gov. Susana Martinez signed the budget on Friday afternoon but not before first making some deletions from what the Legislature passed last month.

In front of an audience of kindergarteners at Puesta del Sol Elementary School in Rio Rancho, Martinez said the spending plan reflects the state's priorities.

The $5.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins in July passed the Legislature with broad bipartisan support during the session.

It includes about $220 million dollars in so-called new money with most of that going to fund public education, Medicaid and tax breaks.

About $90 million will funnel back into the classroom to pay for reading coaches, after-school programs and college prep courses.

Of that, $8.5 has been earmarked for the state's early reading initiative, $3.5 million for direct assistance to struggling schools that receive a D or F under the state's A-F grading system and $2.8 million to pay for New Mexico 10th graders to take the PSAT exam.

The budget also increased spending for pre-K and K-3 Plus funding.

Most of the education reform funding was supposed to go hand-in-hand with the governor's push to end the practice that holds kids who can't read proficiently back a grade. Martinez said even though the Legislature did not pass the social-promotion bill, education reform will move forward.

"We don't have the time to waste," said Martinez. "We want to make sure we're focused on our kids and make sure those dollars are in the classroom and in the schools so they can move up and really be successful."

Slightly more than $30 million will also go to fund some tax reform bills the Legislature passed including giving breaks to businesses that hire veterans and exempting manufacturers from paying certain taxes on equipment.

The governor line-item vetoed about $2 million from the budget, which her office describes as minor cuts that leaving the budget close to what the Legislature passed. Those include $100,000 for a robotic program at Eastern New Mexico University and $75,000 for McKinley County's Tourism Department.

Martinez said funding for those programs could be found elsewhere.

"Well, higher education received $27 million extra, so we thought the $100,000 for that robotic project could be struck," said Martinez.

The budget also increases take-home pay for state workers including teachers while maintaining the state's reserves at 9 percent of the budget, about $500 million. Reserves are used to pay for emergencies and natural disasters.

Martinez said reserves were previously kept at less than 5 percent.

Martinez has until Wednesday to take action on all of the other bills sitting on her desk.