{"id":8274,"date":"2009-10-21T23:39:02","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T05:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=8274"},"modified":"2009-10-22T00:07:41","modified_gmt":"2009-10-22T06:07:41","slug":"johnson-calls-for-cuts-expects-tax-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/johnson-calls-for-cuts-expects-tax-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson calls for budget cuts, expects tax hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former

Former Gov. Gary Johnson (Photo by Robotclaw666\/flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

When former Gov. Gary Johnson<\/a> left office in 2003, the state’s budget was about $4 billion. In the last seven years it has grown by 50 percent, while the state’s population has grown 6 percent.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net’s Peter St. Cyr checked in with the former governor, who is traveling out of state this week, to get his take on the current budget crisis in Santa Fe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some people have criticized Gov. Bill Richardson’s leadership in dealing with the current budget. If faced with a similar situation while you were governor, what would you have done differently?
\n<\/strong>
\nJohnson:<\/em><\/strong> If I had been a benevolent dictator, instead of governor, I would have cut back government even further, and no one would have noticed the loss in goods or services. With that said, I would argue that you haven\u2019t noticed an increase in government goods and services with spending increases.<\/p>\n

When I was the governor we didn\u2019t have shortfalls like we have now. I\u2019ll admit we didn\u2019t have an economic downturn like we do today, but I would have, in a logical way, reduced government even further.<\/p>\n

You left the budget with a surplus and the state with cash reserves.\u00a0 It’s likely they’ll be tapped out to fix the shortfall.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/strong><\/em> Yes. They\u2019re going to deal with spending all the reserves. The law requires reserves be established, but they are reserves for this reason, so I believe they can be drawn down in emergency situations.<\/p>\n

Voices on both sides of the aisle say there need to be structural changes in the way government works in Santa Fe. From what you see today what needs to be done now, during the special session, and then later moving forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/em><\/strong> Really what you have got to do is have across-the-board reductions. So much has been added to government in the last seven years. They built in a lot of recurring expenses on non-recurring revenue, and now they\u2019ll have to cut back on their largess.<\/p>\n

This is a meal prepared by legislators and the governor for the past seven years — now they\u2019ve got to eat it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to be able to get away with it by breaking open all the piggy banks and using up all the reserves. They\u2019ll understate current liabilities going forward, i.e. lower Medicaid costs. It\u2019s really just smoke and mirrors. If they don\u2019t fix it now the problem will just be exasperated out to the next legislative session in January.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re betting on the economy turnaround rather than deal with this. This situation that we have right now needs to get manageable. Is it manageable tomorrow? Probably not, but they can\u2019t wait for the economy to improve.<\/p>\n

Specifically what would you be looking to cut?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/em><\/strong> Let\u2019s start with the jet. Why did we buy a jet? It\u2019s a very small sliver, but very indicative of the spending in Santa Fe. We spent more than we had to spend. When I was governor I rode in the state helicopter six times. It cost $500 an hour, so I had a cell phone and managed to make calls. Today, there\u2019s a brand new helicopter and it costs $1,500 and hour to operate it.<\/p>\n

Will you make any predictions on the budget fix?<\/strong>
\n
\nJohnson:<\/em><\/strong> It\u2019s going to take hard work. But, I\u2019m suggesting they\u2019re not going to face up to it now. They have to have the resolve to do it. The reality is we\u2019re all going to have to make do with less. In January, I think we\u2019re going to be looking at “guard-your-wallets” time. I expect we’ll be looking at a lot of tax increases.<\/p>\n

Do you think there will be political fall out in next year’s election?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/em><\/strong> I hope the fallout is that nobody gets re-elected. We need to fill it (government) up with new people who will actually be reality-based and address the very real problems that currently exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This is a meal prepared by legislators and the governor for the past seven years — now they\u2019ve got to eat it,” former Gov. Gary Johnson says about the budget shortfall in an interview with NMPolitics.net. “… I hope the fallout is that nobody gets re-elected.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[118,107],"class_list":["post-8274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}