After 18 hours of final budget committee hearings and floor debates all day and night Saturday and into early morning Sunday, the Senate passed its version of House Bill 2.  Here's the most amazing part:  Your voices were heard, and while we anticipate agency cuts of about 1.5%, the Senate ended up passing a bill that added no new cuts to state and university employees.

That's not to say we haven't been hit.  Public employees all took a 1.5% hit with last year's PERA/ERA swap that continues this year.  Most state employees are furloughed for a total of 5 days, adding another 2% cut.  But just a week ago, we were looking at a Senate proposal for an additional 2.64% pay cut, and in the middle of the night the Senate just passed a budget that doesn't add to our cuts.

YOU deserve all the credit for this.  The hard-working, under-staffed, recently-cut public employees of New Mexico have stood up and asked for a balanced approach to solving our budget crisis--all so they can keep delivering the critical, necessary services that all of our citizens want, need, and deserve.

But this is no time to let up.  Even though both the House and Senate passed budgets that didn't add to cuts to public employees, there are still agency cuts that could hurt us.  We still have future budget problems to contend with, especially as federal stimulus money winds down.  

Later today, the House and Senate will appoint their budget conference committee, and they'll need to hear from hundreds--thousands--of us, with the same message that's gotten us where we are right now:  We've already had too many cuts, we need to raise revenue as part of a balanced solution to this crisis, and NO MORE CUTS!

Great job everyone, and we'll see you in a few hours at the rally at the Roundhouse!  --Carter