{"id":44641,"date":"2021-09-21T14:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T20:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/legislators-sue-to-rein-in-governor-on-pandemic-relief\/"},"modified":"2021-09-21T20:44:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T20:44:00","slug":"legislators-sue-to-rein-in-governor-on-pandemic-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/legislators-sue-to-rein-in-governor-on-pandemic-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislators sue to rein in governor on pandemic relief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=9f41daa4-0f74-5393-b282-6860e3887347&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1339\" alt=\"Several executive agencies overseen by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file )\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Several executive agencies overseen by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file )<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Morgan Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SANTA FE \u2013 Legislators asked the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday to limit Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u2019s authority over more than $1 billion in federal relief.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit from the Republican Party\u2019s top-ranked senator and a Democratic colleague accuses Lujan Grisham of overstepping her constitutional authority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one is above the law and no one person should ever have the power to decide, unilaterally, how much people are taxed or how public money is spent,\u201d Democratic State Sen. Jacob Candelaria of Albuquerque said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, also was brought by Senate Republican minority floor leader Gregory Baca of Belen, says that the governor has taken over the Legislature\u2019s authority by appropriating more than $600 million in federal money provided under relief legislation signed by President Joe Biden in March.<\/p>\n<p>It says another $1 billion is at stake and that the governor has pressured most lawmakers into ceding to her authority.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The court must now act to rebalance the scales of power and protect the Legislature\u2019s important yet fragile power over the purse strings of state government,&#8221; the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n<p>Lujan Grisham has tapped the disputed relief money to replenish the state unemployment insurance trust and underwrite millions of dollars in sweepstakes prizes for people who got vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>The governor\u2019s office has said appropriation of federal money falls to the executive branch of state government and that Lujan Grisham welcomes collaboration with legislators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several executive agencies overseen by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file )Morgan Lee SANTA FE \u2013 Legislators asked the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday to limit Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u2019s authority over more than $1 billion in federal relief. The lawsuit from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44641"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}