Funding Early Childhood Education; NM Finance Authority; Santa Fe & High-Capacity Ammo

This week on New Mexico in Focus, State Senator John Arthur Smith and Allen Sanchez of St. Joseph Community Health square off over funding for early childhood education. Sanchez has long championed a proposal to draw more money from New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund and target it to early childhood education programs. Once again, the measure stalled in the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Smith. The pair discuss the need for early childhood education and the best way to fund it.

The Line opinion panel convenes to discuss Rick May’s tenure in the administration of Governor Susana Martinez. May, who once occupied the top budget post in the Martinez administration, was fired from his job as CEO of the New Mexico Finance Authority last year after a fraudulent audit surfaced. Now, May is pushing back against what he feels was a plan to gut the agency in favor of commercial lenders.

The group also looks at the allegations of self-censorship by an East Coast PBS affiliate in its treatment of a documentary critical of conservative billionaire and former WNET board member David Koch. The Line explores the implications of Santa Fe’s attempt to limit high-capacity ammunition magazines for guns in the city. And the group goes on the clock with some of the week’s other notable headlines.

Host: Gene Grant

Correspondent: Megan Kamerick

Guests:
State Senator John Arthur Smith, D-Deming
Allen Sanchez, President & CEO, St. Joseph Community Health

The Producer of NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS is Matt Grubs. Associate Producer is Kathy Wimmer. Funding for this program was provided in part by the McCune Foundation. Subscribe to the New Mexico in Focus Podcast on iTunes.

Episode 648 for air May 31, 2013