Schools hit in
governor's budget

SANTA FE (KRQE) - New Mexico school kids will have to pay part of the cost to fix the state's money problems, Gov. Bill Richardson said in unveiling his budget plans for the coming legislative session.

Although while Richardson said education will have to be cut, leaders of the Legislature have already said they will try to avoid that. When the Legislature convenes at noon on Jan. 20, lawmakers will be dealing with a shortfall in revenue in both the current fiscal year and in the 2010 fiscal year which begins July 1.

At a news conference Monday Richardson said particular cuts in education are temporary, but they are the kind of cuts parents may not want to hear.

Richardson said he wants to cut $150 million from the state's public school budget over the next two years

"Because education makes up 2/3 of our state budget, we simply can't balance the budget without reducing funding to public schools," he said.

Richardson said the state can save $14 million by trimming one school day from the calendar. And it can save another $30 million and perhaps more by allowing what is being called a modest increase in class sizes.

"The education reductions that we propose have come from the education community," Richardson said. "We don't think it will affect teaching and curriculum."

Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia later told KRQE News 13 the plan would allow kindergarten and elementary classes to grow by two students each and high schools classes by three students.

Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, vice chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, said isn't sure legislators will allow a class size increase.

"Our goal in education is to try to minimize the impact in both fiscal years, '09 and fiscal year 2010," Varela told News 13. "The reason is, as you're aware, New Mexico has been underfunding education by approximately $300 million."

Richardson said most of the money-saving measures in education would be temporary lasting one or two years until the economy improves. He also said he opposes any tax increase.

The state constitution requires the Legislature to produce a balanced budget.