Excessive spending only tip of the iceberg
In a previous column, I discussed how New Mexico’s state government has been on an historic spending spree during the tenure of Gov. Lujan Grisham.
Since taking office in January 2019, the governor and her progressive Democrat allies in the State Legislature have grown the state operating budget from $6.3 billion to more than $9.5 billion — a 51 percent increase.
However, this excessive spending of taxpayers’ dollars is only the “tip of the iceberg” of a much larger budget fiasco New Mexico has been experiencing since 2019.
The real tragedy is while our state’s oil and natural gas industry has been generating billions of dollars in new revenues for the state treasury, much of this new spending has had little or no effect on improving the quality of services constituents have come to expect government to provide.
In addition, all of this new spending has failed to improve the standard of living, and has not helped to create a more prosperous future for most New Mexican families.
For example, state government spending for K-12 public education has risen by 53 percent over the past five years, but our public schools, according to Forbes magazine, are currently ranked 51st in the nation.
Being ranked as the worst in nation is unacceptable, however, what is even more intolerable is public education spending has increased from $2.7 billion in 2019 to $4.1 billion for the current year, yet we are still last in public education.
How many times did we hear in the past the reason why New Mexico’s schools were so bad was due to a lack of money? It’s now clear those claims were false as the facts show after dramatically expanding public school funding, our kids and grandkids are still receiving the worst education in the country.
Another example, the Annie E. Casey Foundation recently issued its highly respected 2023 Kids Count Report and New Mexico ranked 50th in the nation in child well-being.
This result was not really surprising since New Mexico ranked 49th in 2021 and 50th in 2022.
However, the results of this report were discouraging because state spending for early childhood education and care programs has grown from $312.3 million in 2019 to more than $781 million in the current year – a 150 percent increase over the period.
Similar dismal results are evident in the state’s economic well-being, as we rank 47th and in health care where we are ranked 39th.
In both cases, the state budget has increased funding for public assistance and Medicaid through the Department of Human Services by 52 percent since the Lujan Grisham took office.
Despite spending this huge amount of money, we never seem to make any headway in reducing our historically high poverty rate. For the third year in a row, New Mexico posted the third-highest poverty rate among all 50 states according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The question every New Mexican needs to ask is, why after spending billions of dollars on programs advocated by both Lujan Grisham and progressive Democrats is our state still last or near the bottom in every important ranking?
Part of the answer is we need to end the practice of allocating new revenues to politically connected groups and individuals whose sole purpose it is to help get progressive politicians elected.
We also need a state Legislature filled with conservative members who are willing to try a different approach where policy makers require accountability and enforce performance standards as a means of reestablishing budget discipline.
It’s the responsibility of government officials, especially those who manage our 31 executive branch departments, to ensure taxpayers’ dollars are used as effectively as possible.
If these cabinet secretaries and deputy cabinet secretaries do not produce positive results with the billions of dollars appropriated to them by the state Legislature, then these officials must be replaced and new people hired.
It’s time for every New Mexico taxpayer to join my Republican colleagues and me in demanding that state government start putting people’s needs first.
Randall Pettigrew, R-Lovington, represents District 61 in the N.M. House.
