New Mexico's special session ended Thursday with a budget agreement being sent to the Governor, but no new crime legislation.
House Republican majority leader Nate Gentry says he negotiated a compromise with Senate leaders to cut higher education funding by 5 percent. House Republicans initially advocated for more cuts to higher education to ease budget pressures on public schools.
The 36-32 vote in the House advanced a key budget solvency provision as lawmakers confront a nearly $600 million general fund spending deficit.
Current operating budgets were also cut at most agencies, including departments overseeing public health programs, taxation and revenue, economic development, state museums and historic sites, along with the state attorney general's office.
The legislature adjourned without considering a measure to reinstate the death penalty and other criminal justice initiatives backed by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Democrat-led Senate adjourned Thursday without taking up stricter sentencing provisions approved by the House or Representatives.
New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Martinez and allies in Legislature have pushed for stricter criminal sentencing as a response to the recent killing of two police officers and the August sexual assault, killing and mutilation of 10-year-old Victoria Martens in Albuquerque.
Many Democrats said it was inappropriate to consider the weighty issue of capital punishment during an abbreviated special session.
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