Governor Lujan Grisham handed out stocking stuffers as well as lumps of coal this Christmas season.

The coal came in the form of proposals to eliminate the tax on Social Security benefits for NM retirees and a tax reform plan from House Speaker Egolf that would have cut the gross receipts tax by half a percent. MLG nixed both.

She is sticking to a complicated plan to reform the pension plan for state workers but it's so divisive it could be the coal in her stocking at the Governor's Mansion (although a plan by Senator George Munoz to reform the PERA board is long overdue).

The Social Security plan was meant to attract more retirees to the state, but the high crime rate is much more of a hindrance for retirees than the SS tax.

The Guv says the Egolf tax plan is too complex for the 2020 thirty day session that starts next month and will have to wait until 2021.

There was neither a lump of coal or a tasty orange in the Christmas stockings of advocates of legalizing recreational marijuana. Instead MLG had this warning:

It's a complicated piece of legislation, and I think it's going to be a tough piece of legislation to pass, but I committed to putting it on my call,

Yep, the conservative coalition of GOP senators and a number of Dems is ready to kill legal pot when it comes over from the House, but there's still arm twisting going on so we'll wait for the final act.

As for the perennial proposal to use a small portion of the state's enormous $19 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood education, MLG appears to be backing away and favoring a new plan--an endowment that would be financed with $300 million of the nearly $800 million in "new money" lawmakers are expected to have when they craft a budget.

$300 million, if she could get it and she probably can't, would perhaps generate $20 million a year, a meager amount considering the unmet need is hundreds of millions annually. But the Senate coalition pushed MLG back from the table this year and unless the House leadership can pull something off and get the Senate to reverse, the constitutional amendment for early childhood will die again.

MORE STUFFERS

In the stocking stuffer category, the Guv is proposing another increase to the public education budget that includes more pay hikes for teachers, and even raises for those well-paid administrators (theirs could encounter populist opposition).

MLG is giving Xmas cheer to law and order advocates, announcing she will support an increase in the number of state police officers. The sticking point is how many of them will be stationed in crime-ridden ABQ where the need is greatest. Rural NM may push back.

Then there's that stocking stuffer of free college tuition, an MLG plan that would cost only about $30 million. That's holiday cheer for high schoolers.

The administration is not yet putting any really big gifts under the tree. There are no legacy projects such as a Rail Runner or Spaceport. Of course, those gave Guv Big Bill headaches, but the massive surpluses of today are creating yearning for more aspirational spending. Suggestions include addiction centers around the state to treat the massive drug epidemic; erecting a new Tingley Coliseum, a true multi-purpose arena that could host concerts, soccer, basketball and other events. Then there's the aforementioned us of the permanent fund for an education investment that would cut across the generations.

But if MLG and company want to save on wrapping paper, the Republican are lined up with one heckuva stocking stuffer--taxpayer rebates from the hefty oil surplus. So far, it's  a silent night in Santa Fe for that Christmas wish.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in and Merry Christmas, New Mexico!

Frank, ol' buddy, take us out of here and into that winter wonderland.

Reporting to you from Albuquerque, NM, I'm Joe Monahan

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019