May 21, 1999

HOUSE EXECUTIVE MESSAGE NO. 4

The Honorable Raymond G. Sanchez and

Members of the House of Representatives

Executive-Legislative Building

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87503

Honorable Speaker and Members of the House:

I have this day VETOED and am returning HOUSE BILL 11, WITH CERTIFICATE AND CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION, enacted by the Forty-Fourth Legislature, First Special Session, 1999.

This legislation would have created a public school funding mechanism for certain three and four year old children and kindergarten students. The device employed in this bill to distribute funds to the various school districts was obviously contrived to meet a pre-determined funding level regardless of the actual costs that would materialize when the program matures. This legislation would have established a costly public school entitlement that would ultimately be far greater than the appropriation contained in the bill. It strikes me as curious that we would cause our children to suffer for two additional years in a system which is failing rather than enact true reform measures which would lead to the better education of our children.

Sincerely,

Gary E. Johnson

Governor