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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Running Track Appropriation Vetoed by Gov.

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    The best laid plans for track and field are sometimes line-item vetoed.
    An effort to build an outdoor track at Roosevelt Middle School was vetoed by Gov. Bill Richardson. The governor crossed out an appropriation from the state Legislature's capital outlay bill for the track, along with $7 million for other projects around the state. Some state lawmakers have accused the governor of making the cuts in retaliation for a lack of support for his health-care agenda.
    The veto was state Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort's largest capital outlay appropriation in the recent legislative session, $450,000.
    In fact, of the $7 million struck from the $348 million capital outlay bill, Beffort's was among the largest amounts any senator had quashed.
    Richardson vetoed money for projects sought by 40 of the Senate's 42 members while sparing all projects sought by the 70 lawmakers in the House, according to an analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee.
    Some of those vetoes may have been because a health-care bill favored by Richardson never made it through the Senate to be heard, some senators have said.
    That isn't so, according to a news release from the Governor's Office.
    "Most of the governor's vetoes represent examples of projects that lack proper planning, are outside of established funding processes, or are not ready to proceed," said the release dated March 5.
    Beffort's vetoed $450,000 appropriation was to fully fund the Roosevelt Middle School project.
    What it means is the construction of a 200-meter outdoor running track at the school will have to wait.
    The total cost for the track is around $500,000, and a few other senators also contributed funding, but Beffort's was the lion's share.
    "I'm really disappointed," Roosevelt Principal LeeRoy Martinez said. "(Beffort) took her initiative and really tried to do what was right and she came up with the majority of the money."
    Martinez pointed out that the track could have been used, not only by students, but also by people in the area before and after school.
    "(The track) would have been something special for our community," he said. "But it only takes one little mark of the pen and 'Bang!' it's gone. And that was one man ... I'm just absolutely disappointed in our governor for doing this."
    Whatever the fate of the project at Roosevelt, Beffort defended her voting record and her opposition to the health care proposal, as presented.
    "I don't know if that means I have a badge of courage pasted on me or how that scores me, but there were major, major, major problems with the health care bill," Beffort said.
    She called the bill sloppy and said there were also problems with the estimated costs, some of the discrepancies to the tune of $1 billion.
    Beffort was a part of the Senate Finance Committee, which had its own analysis done.
    "The bill just did not make sense and the figures did not add up," she said.
    Beyond that, Beffort has philosophical differences with the bill. She said she would like to see an initiative that allowed people to stay with their providers, if a person wanted to, but lowered premiums.
    "Let's figure out who these people are and not just lump everybody into the same pot," she said. "People like their insurance."
    She said there are also good programs she doesn't want to upset, giving the example of the program run by the First Choice Community Health provider in Edgewood, Mountain & Valley Regional Health Center.
    The center's fees for health care are on a sliding scale based on family income and number of household members to make the care more affordable for everyone. Also, most insurance is accepted.
    Beffort added that her reasons for opposing the bill were intellectual, not personal.
    "We take a very cautious approach when we have big ticket projects," she said. "Raising taxes is not something we want to strap the state with in a year or two."