Campaign Blog

As we get all around New Mexico and visit with people, we hear a lot about state government that doesn't work very well.  From building permits to driver's licenses ... from low high school graduation rates to remedial college classes ... we're not getting our money's worth.

The NM House of Representatives, for the first time I can find, is passing a budget to the Senate that's not in balance.  The proposed budget is roughly 310 million dollars in the red, and the House is hoping they can pass enough tax increases or the Senate will make the necessary cuts to have a balanced budget in two weeks.  I think it's wishful thinking on their part ... it will be interesting to see how many special sessions we'll have this year in the attempt to balance the books.

Budgets can be challenging.  Finding ways to make state government less expensive and more efficient takes a lot of patience, civility, insight and experience.  Those of us that own businesses, make payrolls and pay taxes understand how important it is for our customers, employees and stockholders to talk to each other and work together to be successful.

There have been some very interesting proposals out there to make New Mexico better.  The next Governor and Lt. Governor will have a lot of work to do, re-organizing and re-energizing state government ... making sure we do the job we need to do, without raising taxes or burdening our grandkids with unbearable debt.