UNM's funding from the Legislature could take a hit in 2009.
The Roundhouse gives UNM about $360 million each legislative session, said Marc Saavedra, UNM's director of government affairs.
Saavedra said UNM has received 10 to 20 percent of the money in the Legislature's special projects bill in recent years but that this year, Santa Fe has less money to give away, which could mean less funding for UNM.
The Legislature's projected revenue for the 2009 fiscal year is about $5.8 billion, which is nearly $200 million short of the state's annual average, according to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
Nicole Gillespie, senior political analyst for the department, said the Legislature needs to compensate for a deficit in its budget.
"We need to make up $185.8 million this year before the end of the fiscal year in order to get back to where we intended to be," she said.
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Gov. Bill Richardson has said he will make up for the shortfall without raising taxes, cutting services to New Mexicans or using reserve funding, Gillespie said.
"The governor has outlined a plan to essentially call for a reduction in spending, and by reducing our expenditures, we are going to make up a revenue shortfall without increasing taxes," she said.
Richardson issued a news release on Oct. 17 calling for reduced spending in executive agencies.
Saavedra said spending on special projects has also decreased in recent years.
Last year, state representatives received about $85,000 to fund special projects, while senators got close to $150,000, he said.
"That's not a whole lot of money when you have to divide it up amongst the constituencies and a number of projects," Saavedra said. "And this year they might be looking at having zero."
Republican Sen. Joseph Carraro said the Legislature is facing financial deficits now because of its spending habits in previous years and its failure to foresee the economic downturn.
"State government has spent above its means, because they didn't know we were in a recession," Carraro said. "The Legislature and the Governor's Office were spending money that we really had in reserves."
Saavedra said the funding for capital outlay projects, for constructing new buildings, is around $120 million, but these funds will be used by institutions all over the state, he said.
"That's ... public schools, higher education, the executive branch - that's really not a whole lot of money to work with either," he said.
Saavedra said Richardson does not want to decrease funding for higher education, public education and health services.
However, UNM is doing its part to cut spending by identifying which University projects no longer need funding, Saavedra said.
"This is something we have already been doing through the assessment (President David) Schmidly asked us to do in our office," he said.
Carraro said the state's universities will be affected because they're not a funding priority for the Legislature.
"Higher education isn't one of the big two (issues), which is health care and public education. Those are the ones that compete for monies," Carraro said.
Saavedra said UNM projects running over budget might see a cut in funding if the Legislature reduces the money it gives to the University.
"We don't want to scare anybody, but at times like this, everybody has got to expect cuts," he said.
Saavedra said the Legislature might also take money from the state reserves, which total about $600 million dollars.
"The choice of this next Legislature may be one of two choices: either to cut spending, which means cutting certain programs, or to raise taxes," Carraro said.
