Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lawmakers React to Special Session Delay

The consensus reaction is "DELAY IT MORE!"

My story in the paper about Gov. Bill Richardson's decision to delay the special until Monday is HERE.

Basically everyone I talked to thinks the special should wait until after the revenue projections come in, which is in April.

Santa Fe Sen. Peter Wirth told me he was happy that the governor recognized that it would be a waste to have a special session without a budget agreement in hand. "It's critical we have a road map," Wirth said.

But Wirth said unless there looks like there's a budget agreement between the House and Senate, it could be a waste to attempt to hold a special session next week too. "There's no reason to bring us in if there's gridlock," Wirth said. "The constituents I represent think it's wasteful if we're sitting there spending taxpayer dollars on a special session if there's no plan."

There's one lawmaker I talked with who I felt bad for. House Republican Leader Tom Taylor told me he found out about the change in plans only after "I drove over here from Farmington last night in a blizzard."

Oh man ...