On the heels of last week’s disclosure from Gov. Bill Richardson’s budget secretaries that their revenue estimates were off by $32.5 million for the fiscal year just ended and $159.3 million for fiscal year 2011, lawmakers are going to have to come up with ways to raise additional funds to balance the state budget.

We’re talking to legislators on both sides of the aisle, asking them for specific plans that can help close the gap.

State Sen. John Arthur Smith (D-Hidalgo, Luna, Sierra), Vice Chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, has an idea: Streamline environmental regulations to encourage copper mining. He says it will quickly create jobs while helping to raise sales, receipts, personal and corporate tax revenue:

But environmentalists say that one does not lead to the other. Here’s Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center:

In the coming weeks we’ll post other specific plans that lawmakers have to raise revenues in these tight budgetary times.