FOUR HILLS VILLAGE LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
State Senator Sue Wilson Beffort - January 2009
First I want to thank all of you for the tremendous support I received from Four Hills in my re-election to the State Senate . It has been a major honor to represent District 19! As many of you recall, I was a resident for over 20 years and my parents, Dr. Art and Grace Fischer, lived there for nearly 40 . It is truly a beautiful neighborhood and a great place to raise a family !
I thought that the upcoming Session was going to be challenging, trying to do what is right for New Mexico in balancing a budget with a $454 million defict. Now, with the turmoil of Governor Richardson's problems, we will have to proceed with a significantly more complex set of circumstances. To begin with, the Senate will first elect their new Pro Tempore. The make up of the Senate has changed as a result of the elections; however, the dynamics could be even more complex by Richardson's presence , along with Denish's prospects still in the loop! These are definitely new charted territories !!!
Yet, New Mexicans expect us to carry out the peoples' business and most of us will need to be strictly focused on making the right decisions on how we trim our budget to what we now are hearing will be over $650 MILLION. In fact, it may be a silver lining that New Mexico is facing this challenge, as the budget has grown nearly 50% in the last 6 years!. It is important to have some time to carefully study this enormous growth, the solvency status of the various retirement funds, our Permanent Funds (the interest of which supply monies for education), and a chance to determine the out year financial projections, This is made even more daunting by not knowing what federal cuts we might experience, because of the national recession, and new programs expected by our new President.
As a senior member of the Finance Committee, I am committed to not raising taxes on our ever important businesses, whom we want to flourish and maintain good jobs for our people. Cutting education or healthcare for the poor is a dismal prospect! It seems that government should be able to adequately function with some selective "belt tightening." Feel free to email me with your suggestions at sue.beffort@nmlegis.gov.
Sue Wilson Beffort