‘When you have such wild swings at the federal level, states have to be in a position to respond to any number of things, so I am predicting right now that when the federal budget, whatever that is, occurs, we’re going to need a special session by October just to deal with health care and to keep our rural hospitals open,’ Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. Photo by Daniel J. Chacón/The New Mexican

By DANIEL J. CHACÓN
The Santa Fe New Mexican

ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told members of Albuquerque’s business community Wednesday she is all but guaranteed to call a special session later this year to deal with federal funding cuts.

“When you have such wild swings at the federal level, states have to be in a position to respond to any number of things, so I am predicting right now that when the federal budget, whatever that is, occurs, we’re going to need a special session by October just to deal with health care and to keep our rural hospitals open,” she said during a luncheon of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

“That’s a prediction I feel pretty comfortable making, and I think the Legislature is pretty clear about that,” she said.

Her comments come as lawmakers continue to meet in Santa Fe for the 60-day session, which started Jan. 21 and ends March 22.

In an interview after her 36-minute speech at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown, which was followed by a brief question-and-answer period from the audience, Lujan Grisham said she was “trying to lay the groundwork” and provide context to her highly criticized decision to call a special session last summer to deal with public safety.

Lujan Grisham said the special session she called in July, which ended in five hours after warnings from lawmakers that her legislative proposals needed more work, “springboarded where we are now” in the 60-day session, where public safety and behavioral health initiatives were a major focus of the first 30 days.

“I call special sessions when I need them,” she said. “I call them when I think there’s no other option to have movement … and the likelihood that I never call another one doesn’t seem likely, just given what we’re seeing at the national level.”

The governor said proposed cuts to Medicaid alone would warrant action from the state, with about 40% of New Mexicans enrolled in Medicaid.

A budget resolution the U.S. House of Representatives passed along a narrow party-line vote Tuesday calls for a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade.

“If they don’t restore the hiring of some of these [federal] positions, I think it would require us talking about where we want to maybe redirect some of our spending, which I can’t do,” she said. “Even though [President Donald Trump] thinks he can do that by executive order, I don’t believe the president and/or governors can redirect spending that I don’t have the power to redirect without a session.”

Lujan Grisham said New Mexicans should expect “some of this bad budget [at the federal level], if not all of it,” gets through Congress.

“So,” she said, “I’m just preparing.”

Asked what advice she would give lawmakers as the spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year advances, Lujan Grisham said there are some ideas she “normally” doesn’t like, such as tapping into the state’s investment funds, including the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund, to help fund Medicaid on a temporary basis.

“I’ve said, ‘I will look at all of those proposals openly and objectively,’ but I don’t think this is something you piecemeal,” she said.

The governor also announced at the chamber luncheon she is “likely to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with reforms to laws on criminal defendants’ mental competency, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday. She is also expected to sign behavioral health bills that have cleared both chambers of the Legislature.

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the governor deserved credit for pushing the Legislature to address public safety in New Mexico.

“We agree with the governor that more needs to be done,” she said.

Cole also criticized Democrats, albeit indirectly, for proposals targeting the oil and gas industry. In the last 40 years, she said, she’s never seen a Legislature so “hell bent on trying to impose excessive taxation and regulation on the oil and gas industry.”

“Everywhere you turn, there’s another bill that would make it most costly to produce energy in New Mexico,” she said. “That’s not competitive.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce that she is “likely” to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with criminal competency reforms, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday. Photo by Daniel J. Chacón/The New Mexican

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce she is expecting to call a special session later this year to address federal funding cuts. Photo by Daniel J. Chacón/The New Mexican