More highlights:
- $864 million for education
- $190 million “reprogrammed” from the General Fund to the lottery
- No money for county Medicaid relief
- A cap on the gas tax that doesn’t even count as a rounding error ($23 million less revenue from a pool of over $1.4 Bilion)
- No change in the corporate income tax rate (6.9%) or the top personal income tax rate (8.25%)
- A 1/4-cent cut in the sales tax on October 1
- 23 more Learn-and-Earn schools
- $125,000 to promote the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open at PineHurst (no money last year for the PGA)
- Over $20 million more in corporate welfare through universities and the Dept. of Commerce
- $90 million for mental health
- $6 per hour minimum wage (16.5% increase) not paid from the General Fund
I expect a future budget will include funds for wages in private companies. As New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said, “I believe we need higher wages in a high-wage economy.”
