Partying Like it's 1999

Budget shortfalls are everywhere. Unless you've been out of the country or in a coma for the past year, you know that every level of government is scrambling to find a way conserve resources as tax revenue dwindles. Sometimes our elected officials talk about reducing spending - meanwhile others are talking about increasing taxes.

Bills that would cut spending all over the state government map and eliminate some political hires were among proposals continuing to stream in as lawmakers remained divided over how to solve the state's worst budget crunch since the 1980s.

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

Some Democratic members, so far overruled by senior leaders, are pushing consideration of tax increases or repeal of tax cuts as ways to raise revenue and avoid cuts to education and health care programs. Educator unions strongly back the tax hike moves, wanting to avert any reductions in school spending.

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

The fact is we find ourselves in a crisis. It's a crisis created by uncontrolled spending during a time of relative plenty. Like the Roaring 20's, there were abundant indications that the largess of economic prosperity would not last forever. But like their early 20th century counterparts, they partied like it was 1999 (Sorry, couldn't help the Prince reference) and spent as if there would always be plentiful sources of tax revenue - there wasn't and there isn't.

Most governmental agencies have been forced to recognize the fact that it's imperative that they get a handle on their spending. Apparently, the Bernalillo County Commission didn't get the memo. A little over a week ago at their October 13th meeting, the Bernalillo County Commission was presented with a plan to freeze hiring.

In an effort to proactively deal with declining revenues while avoiding more drastic measures such as layoffs, mandatory furloughs or reduced work hours for its employees, Bernalillo County is proposing a strategic freeze on hiring non public safety related personnel.

Along with a freeze in hiring of new employees, Bernalillo County will focus on reducing nonessential expenditures and careful monitoring of expenditures. Finance Division staff will carefully monitor economic trends and notify the County Manager when revenues appear to be stabilizing and the hiring freeze may be re-evaluated.

-BernCo.gov

The resolution was defeated 3-2 with Commissioners Armijo, De La Cruz, and Hart-Stebbins voting to party like it's 1999 - while Commissioners Wiener and Brasher voted to institute the hiring freeze.

Not to make this a partisan issue but just guess which party the 3 nay votes belonged to. If you said Democrat, you'd be spot on.

It's not like Republicans haven't been guilty of spending like a collective group of drunken sailors - they have. But in case you haven't been paying attention, Democrats on the national level have spent more in the first six months of this year than all of the preceding U.S. governments combined. In fact, Democrats on the national level have made their Republican predecessors
look like Congressional Scrooges when it comes to spending.

New Mexico has been under single party rule for over 70 years. They've dominated almost every elected body, every state department at almost every level for almost all of those 70 plus years. The Bernalillo County Commission is no exception.

When presented with a resolution to freeze spending at a time where tax revenues are on the decline, what do the Democrats on the commission do? They vote to continue to hire non-public safety personnel as if there were no tax revenue problems.

Yeah... It's delusional and totally ignored by the local press. Every level of government should be working to find ways to reduce its spending. The County Commission - at least 3 of the 5 members - clearly haven't figured it out and clearly don't get it. They're partying like it's 1999 and can print money in the basement. Unfortunately, we're the ones who will have to clean up their mess and pay the tab.

Eye Poll: Benton Blowout

In what can only be termed a blowout, City Council Commissar Isaac Benton scored a decisive victory over County Commissioner Alan Armijo. In our unscientific poll Councilor Isaac Benton received 65% of Eye readers support while Alan Armijo ran 30 points behind with 35% (view it here).

What we originally believed to be a close contest looks to be leaning heavily toward the incumbent councilor. Of course these numbers are unscientific, but no campaign likes to be 30 points behind in any poll. When you add these numbers to the fact that the Armijo campaign has been next to silent since qualifying for the ballot, the October election very well could be a Benton blowout.

This week we take a look at what had been a sleepy little race that looked to be a rerun of the 2005 district 7 council race. That is until one of the candidates - David Green - failed to file his Declaration of Candidacy last Tuesday. That failure changed the entire dynamic of a race that our Eyes told us was leaning toward incumbent Sally Mayer. Will the incumbent solidify her position? Will challenger Cook make in-roads with Green voters? Will the Green campaign wage a successful write-in challenge? All questions to be answered in this week's Eye Poll! Don't forget to vote!

Armijo Eschews Public Financing?

If you've been reading the Eye for a while you know that we have shall we say... a few issues with the Albuquerque Closed and Un-Ethical Elections ordinance. Passed by the voters five years ago, the ordinance puts the costs of an election not on voluntary contributors but on (you guessed it) the taxpayers.

The spin was that making taxpayers pay for elections somehow took money out of the election while making it easier for average "Joes" to participate in city elections. Of course, the scheme had the opposite effect. This year a field of seven potential mayoral candidates was paired down to just three simply because the other four potential candidates couldn't field the army of volunteers required to collect the necessary signatures and $5 donations. Two of those candidates were sitting City Councilors whose name ID alone should make them viable mayoral candidates under any other system.

Our Eyes have it that a former City Councilor who'd like to have his old job back is seriously considering forgoing taxpayer largess and running a clean campaign based on voluntary contributions. It's an option that isn't available to mayoral candidates due to restrictions on the size of contributions and where those contributions come from. But in a council race, it's still possible to raise the same amount of money through conventional voluntary means and the Eyes have it that Commissioner Alan Armijo intends to do just that in his District 3 race against Comrade, uh... Councilor Isaac Benton.

Of course $30,000 or so won't put a dent in the tab that taxpayers will foot for the upcoming election, but we applaud Armijo for standing on principle and challenging the politically correct crowd who are both duping the public and been duped by the likes of activist Eli Lee. This crazy public financing system protects incumbents and makes the only viable challengers people like Lee who can bring manpower and his non-profits to bear against his rivals.