Gov's administration disputes report on unspent funds

SANTA FE — Amid a dispute with lawmakers over high crime rates, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration is contesting the findings of a legislative report about unspent public safety appropriations.

After a legislative report found about 56% of the roughly $424 million appropriated over the past five years for public safety initiatives had been spent, a state budget agency conducted its own review.

Its analysis concluded about 72% of such one-time funding has been spent or is in the process of being spent.

Wayne Propst, the secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration, said some of the unspent appropriations are multi-year funding and not intended to be spent all at once.

"The governor's directive to me is crystal clear: This money needs to get out the door to communities," Propst said in a Friday interview. "The narrative that we're not spending this money is not borne out in fact."

He also described the legislative report as missing the full picture, describing it as "like trying to sell someone half of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting."

But a Legislative Finance Committee spokeswoman defended the accuracy of the data, saying differences in criteria and when data was pulled from a state accounting system account for the differences between the two reports.

The dispute over dollars comes after lawmakers rebuffed much of Lujan Grisham's proposed crime-related agenda during a single-day special session called last month.

The Democratic governor responded by saying lawmakers should be "embarrassed" at their inability to approve common-sense legislation.

But lawmakers, especially fellow Democrats, have pushed back by questioning whether the governor's bills would have actually reduced crime rates.

During this week's committee hearings, some legislators also expressed frustration that existing laws aren't being enforced and about the unspent public safety funds, which includes money to help recruit and retain law enforcement officers.

"We're not happy when we see things like that," Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, told the Journal after the meeting of the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.

In large part, the discrepancy between the dueling reports appears to be due to differences between which appropriations were considered to be public safety initiatives.

The legislative report, for example, included funding issued to the Children, Youth and Families Department for the creation of a new child welfare computer system.

That funding was not included in the Lujan Grisham administration analysis.

But the analysis conducted by the Department of Finance and Administration did include funding for new police vehicles that was included in lawmakers' annual package of public works projects.

It also included spending on pay raises for some state employees.

A Lujan Grisham spokesman said Friday that money alone won't reduce the state's high violent crime rates, saying it's imperative public safety laws be updated and improved.

But the governor's spokesman Michael Coleman also said the legislative report belied the administration's efforts to effectively spend state dollars.

"New Mexicans must be fully informed if we're going to reach consensus on the best way to combat crime and prevent people from living on the streets," Coleman said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Propst also said the Lujan Grisham administration has already allocated funding for the budget year that started in July that's targeted at recruiting new corrections officers and firefighters around New Mexico.