Sandy Buffett
The recent special session of the state Legislature was challenging for everyone, and the outcome will affect all New Mexicans. The budget crisis we face is severe, and advocacy organizations — including environmental groups — are working hard to be constructive partners in finding solutions.
However, those solutions should not endanger public and environmental health. The core functions of environmental agencies are meant to protect precious water and the air that our children breathe. These functions must remain intact.
Any efforts to balance the budget by compromising environmental protection will only create long-term problems that are prohibitively expensive, or impossible, to fix. Once an aquifer is contaminated by toxic waste, for example, it can rarely be reclaimed.
This does not mean that savings and efficiencies in agencies can’t be realized. As we look for those savings, though, we must recognize the cutbacks that environmental agencies have already faced. In the current fiscal year, these agencies were already subject to budget cuts of close to 7 percent imposed by the Legislature in the regular session. Moreover, during the 2008 session, the departments of Environment (ED) and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources (EMNRD) were targeted for individual baseline cuts of more than $1 million.
In combination with the drastic 7.6 percent cuts proposed by the Legislature during the special session, these agencies would be forced to absorb budget rollbacks in excess of 15 percent within the past year and a half.
Prior cuts are already coming dangerously close to jeopardizing the core functions of these agencies. Vacancy rates in some divisions – Water Quality, for example – already reach or exceed 25 percent. Budget cuts of the magnitude proposed by the Legislature will certainly affect inspections and enforcement of environmental statutes, including the safe operation of restaurants, public pools, septic tanks, hazardous waste disposal, polluting facilities and oil and gas companies, to name just a few.
According to the EMNRD, this level of cutting will result in a 66 percent reduction in field inspections at oil and gas facilities, placing our groundwater and environment at risk. The threats to New Mexicans of the proposed budget cuts are serious and very, very real.
A 7.6 percent cut is simply too large
The state’s situation is dire, and legislators’ efforts to spare education and other worthy causes are noble. However, a 7.6 percent cut is simply too large. Agencies will be unable to carry out their mandates to protect the environment and public health. There are other ways to patch the budget gap until January, when revenue enhancement options will be considered.
As critically important as both education and health care are, a clean environment ensures that a child has the opportunity to be healthy and well-educated. For example, we know that air pollutants and ozone increase childhood asthma, and children with asthma are more likely to suffer more extreme symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus. A clean environment, our children’s health and the opportunity to learn are all inextricably linked.
Imposing reasonable budget cuts on agencies is both wise and necessary under the circumstances. However, budget cuts to agencies under Governor Richardson should be comparable to the cuts proposed by the Legislature to agencies under the control of other elected officials (such as the attorney general, land commissioner, secretary of state and legislative agencies and services).
It is not fair or realistic for agencies under executive control to suffer cuts disproportionate to those faced by other state officials. Legislators have frequently argued that everyone needs to share the sacrifice; if they believe that, then they should adhere to that maxim in their budget decisions.
Longer-term solutions are needed
It was disappointing that revenue enhancements were not considered during the special session, but we commend the governor’s recent statements about the need for new revenue enhancement options as we approach the January 2010 session. We acknowledge that longer-term solutions are needed for the recurring shortfall, and these can and should be addressed in January, when the Legislature will be looking at both sides of the ledger.
Until then, we must not allow the agencies charged with protecting public health and safety to shoulder the burden of disproportionate cuts that could result in far greater long-term and prohibitive costs to our air, water and children’s health.
Buffett is executive director of Conservation Voters New Mexico.