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Senator John Arthur Smith Breaks Down New Mexico's 2016 Budget Deficit

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"A far more serious problem than 2009." That’s how Democratic Senator John Arthur Smith who chairs the New Mexico Senate Finance Committee described New Mexico’s budget deficit to KSFR’s Mary Lou Cooper.

Since 2014 oil and natural gas prices in New Mexico have dropped precipitously.  While consumers welcome the prices at the pump, the impact on the New Mexico budget which typically receives up to 25% of general fund revenue from oil and gas has been devastating.

Mary Lou Cooper reports on consumer issues for KSFR as well as on politics and elder affairs. She has worked for the U.S. Congress as well as for the Nevada and Tennessee legislatures, and remains a political junkie. She worked many years for an association of Western state legislatures and was a contributor to “Capitol Ideas,” a national magazine about state government. In 2016 Cooper received a public service award from the New Mexico Broadcasting Association for her KSFR story on Internet romance scams. She has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and from the National Federation of Press Women. She grew up in Oak Ridge, TN and received her BA from Emory University in Atlanta and her MA from the University of Texas Austin. She also holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.