Clock ticks on Gov's budget cut decisions

a big decision looms tonight about what's next for the state's massive budget shortfall. state la...  More »

a big decision looms tonight about what's next for the state's massive budget shortfall. state lawmakers are waiting and watching anxiously as governor richardson has one day left to approve their budget cuts - or minute thumbnail 06:00 pm wipe them out with his veto pen. stuart dyson is here with what lawmakers are worried about. call it a billion dollars - if you add up the last budget year - the current budget year - and the next budget year. that's the size of the hole the recession has blown in the state's checking account - that's what everybody's worried about. the legislature plugged most of the hole in last month's special session - approving spending cuts of more than seven percent for most state agencies - with much smaller percentage cuts for public schools - higher education - and medicaid. since then the governor has complained loudly about the cuts - painting dire pictures of prisons closing - state parks shutting down - welfare medical services dwindling away - lawmakers expect him to say no to some of their spending cuts - to cut the cuts. " without making these cuts state government is on the brink of closing - plain and simple - it is that severe of a budget crisis - we can't delay it - if we minute thumbnail 06:01 pm delay it it's just like paying our mortgage with our credit card." " we have a constitution in the state of new mexico that says we live within the budget every year - if he does that - for every cut he makes obviously it unbalances that budget." lawmakers in both parties say anything that gets vetoed will be back on the table when they come back for their regular session in january - the governor has said tax increases are inevitable. with an unemployment rate of nearly eight percent - new mexico has lost more than 40 thousand jobs in the last year - almost all of them in the private sector - there have been no layoffs of state employees - back to you. governor richardson has made two sizeable cost-saving moves since the special session. he ordered a freeze for all capital outlay projects. the freeze is meant to help identify 150-million dollars in money which hasn't been spent. the governor also a signed a bill from the special session which raids the state's scholarship minute thumbnail 06:02 pm endowment fund. the move pulls 68-million dollars from the fund -- leaving 16-million dollars behind for higher education scholarships  « Less