House Republicans say there is no deal for a special session, despite reports to the contrary, leaving millions of dollars of capital outlay projects in limbo.
Senate Democrats agreed to what they called a compromise deal late Thursday night. Speaker of the House Don Tripp issued a statement saying that there was no deal on Friday morning.
“It is stunning that the Senate Democrats would publicly trumpet ‘mission accomplished’ on a capital outlay deal by agreeing to their own proposal when no one else even knows the details of the proposal,” Tripp said in the statement. “It’s unfortunate that the Senate Democrats would rather govern by press releases than engage in good faith negotiations with the House and the Executive. We’ve been engaged from the beginning in efforts to compromise, but agreements must be agreed to by all parties.”
“The House continues to be interested in discussing ways to reach a compromise with the Senate which requires negotiations in good faith by all parties,” Tripp continued.
Majority Leader Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, sent a mocking tweet.
BREAKING NEWS: Senate Democrats announce that they have capital outlay deal with themselves.
— Nate Gentry (@NateGentryNM) May 8, 2015
An email and call to a spokesman for the governor in the prospective deal were not answered on Friday morning.
Senate Democrats announced they approved of a compromise deal.
“The package was developed as a result of discussions with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and after listening to the needs of local communities, businesses, and tribal groups,” the statement read.
It is the latest in a long line of accusations and acrimony between the two chambers.
Gov. Susana Martinez said that she would call a special session if a deal was struck to fund capital outlay after it died in the 11th hour of the legislative session. The legislation passed the Senate without an opposing vote, but Democrats objected to a large amount of changes made by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The House passed the legislation on a party-line 36-32 vote with less than 20 minutes left in the session. The legislation failed to be heard in the Senate.
