Susana Martinez
Gov.-elect Susana Martinez says cuts to “certain bureaucracies,” including education and Medicaid, might be necessary to balance the state’s budget.
“No final decisions have been made, but it certainly is a possibility,” the Martinez transition team told NMPolitics.net this week when asked if education and Medicaid funding might be cut.
That’s an acknowledgement that Martinez is shifting away from one of the central promises of her campaign. She said repeatedly on the campaign trail that she opposed any cuts to education and Medicaid.
Faced with worsening budget deficit numbers, Martinez has recently shifted the language she used away from that campaign promise, talking instead about protecting “classroom spending” and “basic health care for those most in need.”
But this week’s statement to NMPolitics.net is Martinez’s first public acknowledgement that she is moving away from her campaign promise.
Martinez’s team recently asked state agencies to identify ways to cut 10 percent from their budgets. A statement about that given to reporters this week mentioned protecting “classroom spending” and “basic health care.”
“Given the fact that the budget deficit nearly doubled after the campaign, she recognizes that it might become necessary to look for savings in certain bureaucracies in order to maintain core functions,” the transition team said in the prepared statement.
Asked by NMPolitics.net whether “certain bureaucracies” might include education and Medicaid, spokesman Danny Diaz said Martinez and her team “are closely reviewing and analyzing all expenditures within the budget to ensure efficiencies are identified, critical programs prioritized and real savings realized.”
Seeking political cover
The Martinez transition team also provided the statement indicating that, while no final decisions have been made, cuts to education and Medicaid are possible. But, in doing so, it sought political cover by pointing to an Albuquerque Journal article in which Senate Finance Chair John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said worsening budget numbers might compel Martinez to revisit her campaign pledge and give her “some flexibility to maneuver.”
Smith has previously told NMPolitics.net that Martinez’s campaign promise wasn’t realistic. He said he believed that, “once you get the campaign people away from her… she’s going to look at it in a different light.”
In addition to opposing education and Medicaid cuts, Martinez said during the campaign that she opposed tax increases and taking money from the permanent funds to deal with the state’s fiscal crisis. That left cuts to the other 40 percent of state government as Martinez’s plan to balance the budget.
The Richardson administration currently estimates a deficit of about $450 million, which, according to The Associated Press, would require cuts of around 20 percent to areas of government other than education and Medicaid if such cuts are the only solution used to balance the budget.
Martinez said during the campaign that she feared the Richardson administration wasn’t being honest and that the fiscal situation was worse than budget estimates indicated. But she made the pledge to balance the budget without cuts to education and Medicaid anyway.
When she started shifting language away from her campaign promise, she said the $450 million estimate was “far worse” than even she expected.