Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb. 20, 2014

Page 1

Santa Fe High loses momentum against Bernalillo Sports, B-1

Locally owned and independent

Thursday, February 20, 2014

www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢

Ukraine strikes truce

Government leaders say a deal to end violence has been reached with main opposition leaders. Page a-3

Wanted: Educators

Thrills in Silverton

School district aims to fill teacher vacancies through fellows program. Page a-6

Valley in southwestern Colorado offers natural terrain, steep slopes. Page B-5

Scottish center seeks to raise buyer interest by lowering sale price, closing to the public

2014 LEGISLATURE

Budget battle ends with ‘compromise’ House passes deal 58-8; plan that includes raises heading to governor By Patrick Malone The New Mexican

The New Mexico House of Representatives held its nose, swallowed hard and overwhelmingly passed a

trade-off budget Wednesday, sidestepping the threat of a special session with less than 24 hours to spare. Included in the spending plan are raises of at least 3 percent for state employees, including teachers. Setting aside partisan differences over education priorities that divided the House on a 34-34 vote two weeks ago and doomed its first

attempt to pass a budget, the House voted 58-8 to adopt the $6.2 billion spending package for the fiscal year that begins July 1. “That’s what I call a compromise,” said Rep. Sandra Jeff, D-Crownpoint, whose defection to join Republicans in voting against the first budget bill stalled its progress.

Please see BudgeT, Page A-5

Wage hike dies in House

Foundation calls decision to shut doors to art events ‘a serious blow’

Total amount in spending package passed by the 2014 Legislature for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

$2.74B

Total amount allocated to public schools — an increase of $176 million. Early childhood education will get an additional $28 million.

Total amount allocated to Medicaid and behavioral health services.

The New Mexican

After a year on the market, the asking price for Santa Fe’s Scottish Rite Masonic Center is coming down — from $8.4 million to $6.9 million. Meanwhile, the foundation that operates the massive pink, Moorish Revival-style building at the corner of Paseo de Peralta and Bishops Lodge Road is closing the facility to the public June 30, a real estate broker said Wednesday. The more than 100-year-old building, whose facilities include a theater, has been a popular downtown venue for arts and cultural events. ARTsmart, a nonprofit that supports arts education in the schools, is holding its Fashion Feast there Friday night. And on March 22, it’s the site of the Bollywood Club Invasion Dance Party.

$842m

Total amount allocated to higher education — an increase of $46 million.

$440m Total amount allocated to public safety services.

Please see CenTer, Page A-5 Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 13, a constitutional amendment that would have increased the minimum wage statewide, works on the House floor on Wednesday. The amendment failed in the House and will not be on the November ballot. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

Measure fails to get on November ballot; defeat stings Dems By Milan Simonich

Pasapick

$6.19B

$907m

By Anne Constable

The Scottish Rite Masonic Center at the corner of Paseo de Peralta and Bishops Lodge Road, currently on the market, will not be open to outside groups after June 30. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

BudgeT By The numBerS

The New Mexican

A

proposed constitutional amendment to raise New Mexico’s minimum wage failed Wednesday in the House of Representatives and therefore will not be on the November ballot. It was a stinging defeat for Democrats in the Legislature, who lost

their signature issue after a contentious three-hour debate filled with allegations that they were pandering for political gain. The proposal received 33 “yes” votes and 29 in opposition in the House, but that was not enough to put it on the November ballot. At least 36 of the 70 House members must support a constitutional amendment to send it to the state’s voters. The measure had previously cleared the state Senate on a largely party-line vote. Had the measure also received House approval, voters would have decided whether to raise the state-

wide minimum wage from $7.50 to approximately $8.30 an hour. In addition, the amendment would have provided for yearly raises in the minimum wage of up to 4 percent, based on the national Consumer Price Index. House Democrats generally supported the proposal. Only one of their members, Rep. Dona Irwin of Deming, opposed it. “I didn’t think it needed to be in the constitution,” Irwin said afterward. Rep. Sandra Jeff, D-Crownpoint, and five Republicans skipped the vote.

Please see Wage, Page A-5

3%

Raise for state employees, including teachers. Judges and state police will get 8 percent raises; district attorneys will get 7.4 percent raises; public defenders will get 7.7 percent raises.

InSIde u Navajo casino deal rejected. u House passes funding bill for indigent patient care. Page a-4

www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Wayard Shamans: The Prehistory of an Idea

Today Partly sunny, breezy, cooler. High 44, low 21. Page B-6

Obituaries Bill Blackwell, Santa Fe, Feb. 18 Beverly Kay Kincaid, Las Vegas, Nev., Feb. 11 Telesfor Joseph Lujan, Feb. 15 Melba Brito Padilla, 79, Santa Fe, Feb. 11 Page a-10

Index

The School for Advanced Research presents a lecture by Silvia Tomášková on humanity’s earliest expressions of art, religion, and creativity through shamanism, 6:30 p.m., New Mexico History Museum Auditorium, 113 Lincoln Ave., $10, 954-7245. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo

Toxic waste threatens Navajo village in N.M. Uranium pollution is so bad that it is unsafe for people to live in Church Rock, officials say. Page a-7

Calendar a-2

Classifieds B-7

Comics a-12

BLM spending little on horse fertility control Coalition leader fears agency moving to back slaughterhouses By Scott Sonner

The Associated Press

RENO, Nev. — The government spent less than 1 percent of its wild horse management budget on contraception programs and more than 60 percent on horse holding facilities last fiscal year, despite a pledge to step up use of fertility control as an alternative to controversial roundups of overpopulated mustang herds on U.S. rangelands, agency records show. Wild horse advocates say the fiscal year 2013 budget numbers show

Lotteries a-2

Opinions a-11

Police notes a-10

Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Carlos A. López, clopez@sfnewmexican.com

the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has reneged on a commitment to fertility control as the best way moving forward to keep herd numbers in check when necessary in 10 Western states where they roam, including New Mexico. Instead, the leader of the largest national coalition of mustang advocates says she fears the administration is moving to align itself with a growing number of ranching interests urging an end to the ban on slaughter of horses at overflowing holding pens, where costs are skyrocketing. “The only explanation at this point is that the BLM is creating a crisis where slaughter of America’s wild horses is the only solution,”

Please see hOrSe, Page A-5

Sports B-1

Time Out a-8

Horses stand behind a fence at the Bureau of Land Management’s Palomino Valley holding facility in June 2013. The government spent less than 1 percent of its wild horse management budget on contraception programs and more than 60 percent on holding facilities last year. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Scoop a-9

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010

Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 51 Publication No. 596-440


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