NM Education chiefs absent at budget hearing - Robert Nott, New Mexican

Without enough revenue coming in to pay the bills, the Legislature may have no choice but to cut funds to colleges and universities by up to 5 percent and public schools by as much as 7 percent, Smith said. Martinez has proposed a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that doesn’t reduce classroom spending. She has called for spending cuts to other agencies, consolidation of some agencies, modernization and simplification of the tax code and elimination of some subsidies for counties. With Skandera and Damron as no-shows, Senate Finance Committee members were left to ask David Abbey, director of the Legislative Finance Committee, and Rachel Gudgel, director of the Legislative Education Study Committee, what cuts of 5 to 7 percent would mean to public education. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/education-chiefs-fail-to-appear-at-budget-hearing/article_1ebf31e2-c9c4-5deb-8325-ea595f9cb77f.html