Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net
Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
In blog posting, Richardson blasts the media for not examining whether other elected officials have already pinched pennies like he says he has
Gov. Bill Richardson sounds a lot like a man who’s getting ready to line-item veto certain provisions in a bill the Legislature approved last week that makes deep cuts to state government.
In a new posting on its blog, the governor’s office complains that agencies under his control have already pinched pennies but, in spite of that, are being pushed to make deeper cuts now than others.
The governor’s office also complains that you wouldn’t understand that from the way the media has portrayed the situation.
“For more than a year, the executive agencies under the control of the Governor have been cutting expenses, operating under a hiring freeze and turning down salary increases,” the new blog posting states.
“Governor Richardson, in October 2008, urged others in state government – the Legislature, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and the judiciary – to make similar cuts. The Governor has no control over spending in those agencies,” the posting states. “Did those agencies make any budget cuts? Did they freeze hiring and forgo salary increases? Nobody would know from the media coverage of the budget during the past year. There has been little or no scrutiny of those budgets.”
The bill approved by the Legislature on Friday to make cuts to state government would implement 7.6 percent cuts for most agencies under Richardson’s control – on top of the 6.4 percent cuts to this year’s budget implemented last session. By contrast, the Legislature and offices of other elected officials would face smaller cuts under the budget fix approved by the Legislature, Richardson’s office points out.
Richardson has already said he’s concerned about the “excessive” cuts to state agencies under his control. He has yet to take action on any of the bills approved by lawmakers last week.
In the new blog posting, Richardson calls the Legislature’s move to cut his political appointees’ salaries and benefits “obviously for political reasons not related to overall budget savings.”
“Governor Richardson’s first action a year ago was to cut exempt salaries by 2 percent, while he fought against cutting salaries for other employees. No other elected official, including legislators, have cut salaries for any of the exempt employees under their control,” the blog posting states. “In fact, the Legislature handed out pay raises – one as high as 17 percent – for 33 exempt employees since October 2008. The Legislature also hired or rehired 126 employees during that time period, although that includes session hires.”
“As of September 2009, the Legislature had all 164 positions filled with no vacancies. The Governor’s Office, alone, has a 25-percent vacancy rate,” the posting states. “Legislative leaders may have good reasons for hiring new employees and boosting the salaries of others. But apparently nobody in the news media has bothered to find out.”