Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, has been putting it out of her mind at her piano, where she has been working on two difficult pieces of music, namely Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and "Clair de Lune." However, after just a few questions about what happened at the session, she was fired up again.

There are two main reasons Beffort says she feels the session wasn't effective. First, an opinion that has been expressed several times by Republican legislators, is that adding to the budget and increasing taxes during a recession is not the best way to go.

It's like a family dealing with a pay cut or unemployment, she said, then going out and buying a new car.

"I just don't know how that rational was defended, unless they know something about Santa Claus coming that I don't," she said.

The second problem is that the real work still hasn't been done, she said. That's partially because she said she believes it was based on the wrong information.

"I wish I could say, with my head up, that I see that by the end of the fiscal year we're going to be back on our feet," she said.

Beffort contends that putting the Legislature back in session immediately after the regular session was relatively pointless because the state's revenues were still in what she has referred to as "free-fall." That means the budget was likely based on an overly-optimistic projection.

The Legislature may still have to reconvene in May, after formal revenue projections had been gathered, she said. Hard figures showing what she fears is an even a worse situation could have been swayed some of the Democrats to her side, she said. Instead, as the ranking member on Senate Finance, her committee produced a bill that she felt she had to vote against, she said.

"Now we have another four months of bloated government expenditure," she said.

Beffort added that she isn't in favor of cutting government positions — with the exception of some people appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson — but has advocated cuts in pay or benefits to government employees.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy McCoy, R-Sandia Knolls, said she rode the bench for much of the session.

"One day we Republicans just did nothing while the Democrats caucus for five hours," she said.

On the last day of the session she came in at 8 a.m. and did nothing until 5 p.m., when she voted against the budget and then went home.

"It is a shameless, shameless assault on taxpayers," she said. "I'm still stuttering about it."

Another group that are saddled with the bill are municipalities. If the governor signs off on a food tax increase in the next few weeks, not only will there be an average 2 percent tax on groceries, but local municipalities may be losing part of their revenue.

When the tax on food was originally removed in 2005, the state also agreed to reimburse local governments for any loss in revenue. Under the bill adopted last week, the state would stop reimbursing local governments and would reimpose the local portion of the gross receipts tax on food. The problem for many municipalities is that they have been receiving more money from the reimbursements than it would have had the tax been in place all along.

"The end result is that I can see counties and municipalities having to cut services," she said, "having to make up for any shortfall…"

Meanwhile, New Mexico's regulations on the oil and gas industry have driven companies out of the state, she contends.

"It's kind of a perfect storm," she said. "All kinds of things are working together here, and none of them are good."

Although McCoy is not going to run for her seat in the house again, she said if taxpayers are angry, she indicated that they can do something about it in the November elections by electing fiscal conservatives.