The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by cjc4454/flickr.com)

Luján tells school officials in Santa Fe to prepare for budget cuts of 3-3.5 percent, says state and public education employees could get a 2.5-percent pay cut

House Speaker Ben Luján and Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings may have their disagreements, but one thing they do agree on is that the budget shortfall lawmakers will be working to address later this month is approaching an eye-popping $700 million.

Jennings first dropped that number as a possibility eight days ago in a guest column published on this site and elsewhere. On Thursday, the speaker confirmed that the shortfall is approaching that much during a meeting with local education officials in Santa Fe.

Luján said at the meeting that lawmakers “are anticipating a $675 million shortfall in the budget,” The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting.

The last formal estimate placed the current fiscal-year budget shortfall at $433 million, but lawmakers and others have said for weeks that the situation was worsening.

Ben Luján

Education officials are worried about a recent letter from Jennings and Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, that told them cuts to education could be as high as 10 percent. Because of that, school officials in Santa Fe and elsewhere were preparing to make drastic cuts, including shutting down athletics programs in middle and high schools.

Luján responded to the Jennings/Smith letter last week by calling it premature because the Legislature has “not yet reached a consensus as to how we will overcome the revenue shortfalls.”

Almost a week later, At Thursday’s meeting, the speaker told the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education “to prepare to reduce its budget 3 percent to 3 1/2 percent, adding that all state employees, including teachers, could have salaries cut by 2 1/2 percent to help balance the state budget,” The New Mexican reported.

The governor has, thus far, insisted that the budget can be balanced without cutting education, but if even his close ally the speaker is acknowledging that some cuts to education are likely, Richardson may lose that battle.

There are lots of groups, including unions, opposing cuts to education, and many are marching on the Roundhouse today to voice that opposition. However, as The New Mexican is reporting today in a separate article, some lawmakers say that’s simply not realistic since education accounts for about half of the state’s spending.

Lawmakers, according to The Associated Press, are proposing three plans for dealing with the situation. The first, which Luján talked about Thursday, “calls for 3.5 percent across-the-board budget cuts and 2.5 percent salary cuts for government workers and educators,” according to the AP.

A second, the AP reported, “excludes public schools and Medicaid from cuts, but the rest of government would face budget reductions of 16 percent.”

The third “proposes cuts of 4.7 percent for agencies, schools and higher education,” the AP reported.