The New Mexico Wildlife Federation is calling on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to block a proposed transfer of money from the state Game Protection Fund to subsidize operations at the State Parks Division.
Federation President John Crenshaw and Executive Director Jesse Deubel wrote to the governor this week urging her to use her line-item veto authority to strike down a $500,000 transfer from the fund that state lawmakers inserted into the pending general appropriations bill. The governor hasn’t acted yet on the bill.
“If allowed to stand, this raid on the Game Protection Fund may well end up costing New Mexico up to $19 million a year in lost federal funding,” Crenshaw and Deubel wrote to the governor.
The NMWF officials forwarded to the governor a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warning that taking money from the Game Protection Fund for the State Parks Division would endanger federal funding received by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
In the letter last month, Cliff Schleusner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that federal fish and wildlife restoration act funds must go exclusively for the administration of the state game department and that the funds must remain under the department’s control.
The proposed $500,000 transfer, Schleusner warned, would be impermissible. Proceeding with the transfer nonetheless could make New Mexico ineligible to receive money from the federal programs, representing a possible loss of $19 million a year, he said.
Crenshaw and Deubel testified to legislative committees in the session that ended recently warning lawmakers that the proposed transfer was illegal.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation was instrumental in creating the game protection fund decades ago. The fund receives money from hunting and fishing license sales and also receives federal matching funds on the condition that the money must be used for conservation.
