The most important duty of the State Legislature during each 30 and 60-day legislative session is the adoption of a responsible state budget. The budget determines, among other things, how taxes paid by New Mexicans are utilized: to educate our children, fund medical and needed social programs; to determine how our institutions of higher learning are operated; to identify what is needed to build and repair our highways and roads.
In the state budgeting process one thing remains certain: New Mexico is continuing to increase spending at alarming rates.
The New Mexico House of Representatives recently approved a budget for the upcoming fiscal year which provides for spending more than $9.4 billion in “recurring state dollars” – a 12 percent increase from the current fiscal year and a 49 percent increase over the past five years. The budget now must be approved by the Senate, starting with the Senate Finance Committee.
Whatever the final numbers turn out to be, some spending trends are worth noting.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office budget has grown 81.8 percent over the last five years. The Secretary of State’s office expenditures have increased 87.1 percent over the same time frame, and our Higher Education Department’s budget has increased 143.5 percent. That figure alone would indicate that “free college tuition” isn’t really free.
As almost anyone can determine, the State Legislature has no problem spending money and increasing those expenditures year after year at rates everyday citizens can barely comprehend. What can we do about these massive increases in state spending? Not much.
Sadly, while the adoption of a state budget is constitutionally essential, most legislators have little impact, if any, on how these dollars are spent. There are 19 new legislators this year in the House, which accounts for 24 percent of the House who have never seen a state budget.
Further, the House Appropriations Committee consists of only 18 members which leaves out direct budget consideration input from the remaining 51 other members. That means 73 percent of the House members are essentially left out of the process and only see budget details the day before they vote on the budget. By the way, budgeting at the national level in Washington is not much different.
In New Mexico, the time to evaluate the proposed budget is an even more frustrating issue. Most House members have only three hours of debate to ask questions.
We have virtually no time to discuss vital concerns such as why New Mexico is last in the nation in public education when spending for K-12 public education has increased by 54 percent since fiscal year 2019.
We also want to know the answers to questions such as why, after spending millions of dollars to fight crime, is violent crime across the state at record levels?
My position and that of many of my colleagues is to ask the Democrat majorities in both the New Mexico House and Senate, as well the governor, if they believe the answer to every challenge facing the state is to throw money at the problem and refuse to demand accountability from state agencies for their lack of results.
Another budget issue the Legislature seems unwilling to address is the reality that New Mexico’s oil and natural gas industry currently provides more than 40 percent of state revenues, yet the industry’s inherent volatility increases the chances future revenues could decline significantly and rapidly.
Instead, progressive legislators who dominate the budget process insist that increasing the state budget by nearly 50 percent since the governor took office is prudent and risk adverse.
Even more puzzling is that these same progressives are hell bent on destroying the oil and natural gas industry with their numerous “climate change” mandates, although oil and natural gas revenues have financed a huge portion of this spending splurge.
It’s time to restore fiscal sanity to our state budget process.
How can this occur?
The Legislature needs to expand the number of legislators who have input on budget decisions and require greater accountability and transparency on how state agencies spend our taxes.
Maybe more importantly, the Legislature needs to adopt “zero-based” budgeting in which every dollar of spending is scrutinized every year, rather than merely reviewing requests for spending increases.
Without meaningful reforms in how our state budget is formulated we will continue to experience the roller-coaster ride of huge spending increases when oil and natural gas prices are high, followed by major budget cuts when energy prices plummet.
Those cycles result in financial instability for the state.
These reforms are needed now. The current spending trajectory is clearly unsustainable.
Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, has served in the state house since 2015.