{"id":23438,"date":"2010-11-15T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T16:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23438"},"modified":"2010-11-16T16:44:47","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T23:44:47","slug":"the-kafka-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/the-kafka-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kafka budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thomas Molitor<\/p><\/div>\n

The state budget just went Kafkaesque.<\/p>\n

The governor-elect – let\u2019s call her M. – is struggling to gain access to the mysterious financial authorities of a castle known as the capitol, who govern the state budget using unknown and surrealistic accounting methods.<\/p>\n

Last week we learned that New Mexico\u2019s budget deficit may be nearly 75 percent higher than the state\u2019s bureaucratic bean-counters told us. Outgoing Gov. Richardson\u2019s finance secretary, Dannette Burch, says that incoming Gov. Martinez and state lawmakers will face a $450 million revenue shortfall for Fiscal Year 2012, starting next July 1, just to maintain the state\u2019s current level of services.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a nearly 75 percent higher number than the Legislative Finance Committee\u2019s earlier projected shortfall of $260 million.<\/p>\n

Martinez accuses the Richardson administration of hiding budget information and playing \u201cfinancial shell games.\u201d Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos fired back, saying Martinez doesn\u2019t \u201cunderstand the state budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well then, who does, Gilbert?<\/p>\n

The Department of Finance and Administration, State Budget Division, oversees and administers the New Mexico state budget. On its website, it says it \u201cprovides high quality, timely and easy to understand analysis and recommendations for agency budgets, legislation and performance issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easy to understand? Then why the seventy-five percent discrepancy among the experts?<\/p>\n

The current copy of the Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2011 (July 1, 2010 \u2013 June 30, 2011) runs 574 pages. Go ahead and download a\u00a0pdf copy <\/a>of it for your nightstand library – if somnambulism is your thing. (C\u2019mon, I\u2019m sure you are just dying to find out the number of research documents and educational activities provided by the state historian!)<\/p>\n

Gallegos also criticized M. for her campaign promise of balancing the budget without tax increases and without spending cuts to education and Medicaid. Public education and Medicaid make up about 60 percent of the state\u2019s $5.6 billion budget. This does present a rabbit-out-of-the-hat challenge for M. and state legislators once they take office in less than two months.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t such a problem a month ago when our duly-elected candidates were stuffing our mailboxes with campaign literature making promises.<\/p>\n

A simple mathematical formula<\/h3>\n

State spending is determined by a simple mathematical formula: X \u2013 Y = Deficit.<\/p>\n

X<\/em> is what we all want from the government, which is everything in the world. Y<\/em> is how much we are willing to pay for this in taxes, which is nothing.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t bet on revenues making up for the \u201cno-tax-raises\/no-education-no-Medicaid cut\u201d policy – as the projection for the country\u2019s economy as a whole doesn\u2019t appear too rosy for 2011.<\/p>\n

M., at the moment, is sticking firm on education and Medicaid. But she did tell reporters last week that layoffs of state employees remain on the table as an option to balance next year\u2019s budget, even though they aren\u2019t her first option.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see how M. can avoid not making more spending cuts. I took a layman\u2019s glance through the Fiscal Year 2011 budget document, and I can\u2019t help thinking there are plenty places to reduce the current size of government. Starting with agency consolidations and program cuts with names such as:<\/p>\n