Governor vows to pull the pork

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - State lawmakers budgeted for more than $100 million worth of capital improvement projects in the legislative session that ended days ago, but now the ball is in the governor's court.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez says she's focused on capital improvement projects that spur job creation and vital infrastructure, not gym equipment or botanical gardens.

Every year the state legislature funds capital outlay projects which are bonded out over ten years. This year the Governor says she's looking at even the smallest projects very carefully.

"A lot of it can have pork in it. Just earmarked dollars for little tiny projects," said Governor Martinez.

She is already planning to line-item veto the following projects:

•  $205,000 for a West Las Vegas school district weight room
•  $201,000 for a botanical garden in a part of Santa Fe
•  $80,000 for mariachi equipment and a center in Roswell
•  $50,000 for carpets at a charter school in Albuquerque
•  $50,000 for signs in Albuquerque's International District
•  $25,000 for garden improvements at an Albuquerque library
•  $5,000 for a sign in front of the Lincoln-Jackson Center in Clovis

Governor Martinez said the funding for the gym equipment in West Las Vegas could have been used to fix the area's leaking Peterson Dam instead. She made that request to the legislature, but it was denied.

"At one point they (Las Vegas) had 30 some odd days of water left if they didn't conserve it with paper plates and not using the dishwasher," she explained. "That sort of thing, that's just not right."

Governor Martinez agreed some of the items she calls 'pork' are worth funding, but she believes the money should instead come from local governments.

As part of the capital outlay bill, the Governor must sort through nearly $140 million in projects. She said she plans to veto about five million dollars worth of those projects.

She has until March 7, to sort through the capital outlay bill along with the 77 other bills that made it to her desk during the legislative session.