Tim Jennings
Governor Richardson has been in the news a lot in recent weeks on a variety of issues that I have found to be both entertaining and disturbing. First came the revelation that the governor had developed a concern for the plight of New Mexico wildlife, traveling to Alamogordo to address the plight of 80 or so research chimpanzees owned by the federal government and his efforts to keep them in a permanent sanctuary so they could live out their days without being subjected to further research activities.
Then the governor announced that he was designating almost $3 million of his dwindling federal stimulus money to purchase land for a wild horse sanctuary. The sanctuary would accommodate 25-30 wild mustangs that are under the care of the Federal Bureau of Land Management at a cost of approximately $96,000 per horse. While concerns for these animals may be well intended and worthwhile, other recent events lead me to believe that the governor’s priorities are misplaced.
Secondly came the announcement from the administration that the state was facing a massive shortfall in federal Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Funding (TANF) and Developmentally Disabled (DD) funds. In the current fiscal year the state is expected to be short $82 million in Medicaid funding, $28 million in TANF funds and $9 million in funding for the developmentally disabled, a loss of over $120 million in federal funds.
The loss of these funds has made it necessary for the administration to undertake drastic cost-cutting measures in these programs that provide assistance to our most vulnerable citizens. Substantial cuts will be made to things such as reimbursements to hospitals and doctors, cash assistance to needy families, DD services and child care, to name a few. While these cuts are unavoidable in these dire economic situations, they will be very painful nonetheless.
The governor did, however, just announce that he will provide $2 million in stimulus funding to offset some of the lost child care funding. While the $2 million is less than what he is spending on wild horses, it will greatly help our child care providers.
Lastly came the announcement from the governor that he would not allow state employees the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Legislature’s bipartisan Government Restructuring Task Force. This task force, headed by Senator Eichenberg, Senator John Arthur Smith, Representative Lundstrom and Representative Varela, has been hard at work over the last five months trying to address how New Mexico state government should be structured as efficiently as possible in these times of declining state revenues.
By not allowing input from the rank and file state employees that are the very people that actually educate our children, fix our roads, protect the public, and provide the care to our most needy citizens, the governor has denied the Task Force valuable and much needed information.
Budget problems will continue
I do not understand why the governor would be opposed to state employees’ participation in the process. In this fiscal climate, you would think that a cost effective government would be everyone’s priority.
This is especially true given the fiscal problems that New Mexico continues to face. Three years ago myself, Senator John Arthur Smith and others warned that a fiscal crisis was looming and that measures must be taken to prepare for hard times. At that time many, including the governor, stated that we were just alarmists.
But we never envisioned that our budget problems would be as bad as they are. The administration, only last month, was required to reduce state spending by 3.2 percent across all of state government because revenue projections for this year were revised downward. These cuts come on top of a very austere budget adopted in January.
Further reductions may be necessary before the end of the year if our state revenues continue to fall. I fear that we will be faced with an additional 2 percent ($100 million) reduction when the December revenue estimates are released.
The outlook for next fiscal year is, unfortunately, no better. It is my estimation that we will again be faced with a $350 to $400 million budget shortfall in January. In the history of the state we have never faced fiscal problems of this magnitude. Since both gubernatorial candidates have pledged not to raise taxes, the Legislature will be challenged to reduce spending possibly as much as $400 million.
I want to assure you that I and the New Mexico State Senate will do everything possible to apply these budget cuts fairly and in a manner that best protect and serves the citizens of New Mexico. I only hope that the next governor, no matter who she is, is as Senator John Arthur Smith recently stated, “more concerned about child care than the wildlife.”
Jennings, a Roswell Democrat, is the president pro tem of the New Mexico Senate.