Day 55, Monday, March 13, 2023

We’ve entered the final week of the 60-Day session which ends on Saturday at noon. Most egregious to the Republicans in the chamber is the $10 million capital outlay for an abortion clinic in Dona Anna County, a facility no one sought but the pro-choice Governor wants.  The various budgets with the abortion clinic included have passed both House and the Senate in the amount of $9.57 billion.

Also under consideration is HB 547 which would give individual taxpayers a $500 rebate and joint filers $1,000.

Another contentious outlay is the $60,000 pay raises for each of the Governor’s cabinet officials.  The legislation does not include the current Governor because the constitution disallows the Governor giving herself a raise.  The bill’s sponsor suggested postponing the Governor’s raise for two years at which time the current Governor will be out of office.

The raises for top government officials are at about a 54% increase while raises for regularly employed government workers will be at 5 or 6%.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *