The inkling of good news is prompted by an increase in gross receipts taxes being collected. That's a leading indicator of economic activity. It may not be signaling the next roaring bull market, but maybe we've finally stopped going down?

This, of course, is a welcome development for Gov.-elect Susana Martinez, although in a backhanded sort of way. When she won election Nov. 2, the budget shortfall was projected to be $262 million. When it jumped to $452 some in her camp cried "Conspiracy!"

Of course, as much as we love a to run with the Illuminati, it isn't. It is because of differing forecasters over Medicaid and other costs. Another big reason for the all-over-the-map estimates has been due to the continued reliance on revenue forecasts that don't materialize. That's also known as pain avoidance.

Each year, the rosier predictions have allowed lawmakers to continue to kick the can down the road, reducing the amount they trim only see deficits balloon when they go back in session. Even now, Santa Fe is forecasting a 4 percent growth in state revenues for the next budget year. Again, the Walgreen's in the City Different must stock loads of those rose-colored eye wear.

If the $410 million shortfall sticks in the coming months, it looks as though Santa Fe will finally have run out of road to kick the can down. Deep cuts will have to be made. That's fine in some quarters where the budget debacle is seen as a golden opportunity to streamline and do a long overdue reorganization of the state bureaucracy.

But what if the good news on tax receipts were to turn real good and the budget shortfall shrunk dramatically? Would momentum for reform falter? The kindergarten class of your choice could easily answer that question--Yes.

Our readers over at the University of New Mexico are always eagle-eyed. Lissa Knudsen, president of the grad students, comes with her reaction to this suggestion made here:

Susana, you can trim $2 million off that $452 million projected shortfall. That's the amount the University of New Mexico Athletic Department is getting from the state General Fund. If we can't cut that out with a dull-edged butter knife, we can't cut anything.

Now Lissa:

Now let's move it down to Las Cruces for a little comeback to that from Barbara Couture, the new NMSU president:

...Universities transfer an average of $10.2 million to athletics programs. NMSU, in fiscal 2011, transferred $4.1 million, well below the average. The fact is the vast majority of athletics programs like ours require some support from instruction and general budgets. If we look at that budget transfer in light of our overall university budget, our total athletics budget as reported to the state is $16 million, just 2 percent of our total university budget (all sources, all campuses) of $682 million. The $4.1 million transfer is less than 1 percent of that total. Yet the athletics program supports 425 student athletes whose graduation rates are 20 percent better than our overall student population...

UNCERTAINTY AT THE TOP
Schmidly
Meantime, the situation with UNM President David Schmidly remains dicey. He has been out on medical leave since mid-August and there is no firm idea on when or if he will return. UNM Acting President Paul Roth says Schmidly's medical and other leave won't be used up until February.

Schmidly is being treated for an abdominal tumor. It has not been reported whether the tumor is cancerous or not.

Hopefully, Schmidly will recover. But the university hierarchy remains in need of major change. That includes the presidency, the athletic department director, the football coach and a stable of highly-paid and some would say mostly unnecessary vice-presidents. (UNM announced Thursday that football coach Locksley will return next year, avoiding the axe that has been poised over his neck).

Governor-elect Martinez will get to appoint a couple of new UNM regents when she takes over next month, but the majority will be holdovers from the Richardson administration.

Big Bill intervened in university affairs more than any other Governor we've seen, especially when it came to getting jobs for his backers. Martinez should not follow that path, but the authority of the new Governor may be needed to reverse the politicization of UNM that, combined with budget cuts, has sent morale into the basement.

PIO PLUM

That plum public info officer job for Bernalillo County went to Tia Bland, the current PIO for the state corrections department but who needed to get out of there before the axe fell with the arrival of a new Guv administration. From one of our downtown Alligators we get the official word and comment:

Joe, Thought you'd like to know that Tia Bland got the Bernalillo County PIO job, despite a lame duck Governor trying to get County Manager Thaddeus Lucero to hire his buddy. She was hired Wednesday.

That "buddy" of Big Bill is his communications honcho Gilbert Gallegos who will now have to continue his search for safe harbor as time runs out for Governor Bill.

JAVIER CHALLENGE

The Dems now join the R's in having a contested battle for the state chair job. Incumbent Javier Gonzales told me a couple of weeks ago he will seek re-election to the job. The challenger is longtime Santa Fe political gadfly Letitia Montoya. She says she wants to hold accountable Dems who supported R's in the recent election, a reference to Dem county clerks supporting R Dianna Duran for Secretary of state. The Dem chair election is in the spring.

Gonzales of Santa Fe is favored to keep the chairmanship, but after a tough Dem year there is room for debate--and criticism--on how the party performed and its direction going forward.

HOTLINE HEATHER

Here is the latest on the "will she or won't she?" speculation surrounding a possible 2012 US Senate run against Dem US Senator Jeff Bingaman by former ABQ GOP Congresswoman Heather Wilson. It comes from the DC Hotline:

I just have to focus on helping the governor and can't focus on that right now," she said, referring to her job chairing Gov.-elect Susana Martinez's transition team. Wilson added that "the speculation is flattering."

Does that mean Heather likes the Alligators who keep mentioning her? Well, whatever. For sure she is keeping the door wide open for a Senate bid.

As for Jeff, he says he will announce his intentions about a sixth term around March. His aides are preparing for a run. We guess he gets in after the 60 day legislative session wraps up in mid-March.

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As is tradition, nothing much has been heard from losing Guv candidate Diane Denish. But some friends of the lieutenant governor think she would be a fine addition to the Obama administration when she finishes here term Dec. 31. Of course, those same friends were hoping Obama would have gotten Big Bill out of here and made Di Guv and give her a leg up in the Guv's race.

THE SUSANA CIRCLE

A reader in California writes of what he has seen so far of Governor-elect Martinez's inner circle and of which we blogged on Wednesday:

If the national Republicans want to expand their tentacles into the growing Hispanic population, they would be well-advised to encourage Martinez to bring in at least a few token Hispanics into her inner circle. Look what happened in CA; mega-bucks Meg Whitman was taken out by her former Hispanic maid for being disrespectful...

There is no quota system for Hispanic appointments, but Martinez is looking light in that category. There are a lot more posts to fill, however. What surprises us is how few women have been put in key positions. We thought there would be more based on Martinez's record as Dona Ana County district attorney.

Ans then there was this pithy take on the matter from former ABQ mayor and leading New Mexico liberal Jim Baca:

Uhh...all these powerful people in the new administration are white guys from the oil patch!

THE NEWS RACE

Checking in on the 10 p.m. weekday news race in the ABQ TV market we find KRQE still dominating but KOAT in the vicinity. KOB continues to suffer mightily, dragged down by weak prime time NBC programming.

In the November ratings sweeps it was KRQE pulling a 9.6 rating, KOAT an 8.2 and KOB a 4.9.

BACK TO THE MAIL

Reader Mike Lamb has thoughts on that Bloomberg article we posted Friday and that described how states are starting to cut down on incentives to attract Hollywood filmmakers. It's a hot issue here as well, with proposals floating that would trim the tax incentives we use to lure Tinseltown:

The Bloomberg article avoided any mention of New Mexico's incentive program, even though the film industry and mainstream media have identified it as being the most successful and professionally structured in the country...In any case, since NMreimburses 25 percent of a production company's expenses for its in-state purchases of goods and services, the 118 productions that were paid $181 million over the last three years spent at least $724 million here--which by conservative estimates had an overall financial impact of at least $2 billion.

With money like this at stake there’s a fierce competition for it between states because of the potential size of the return on a relatively small inducement. Take that inducement away (which is what capping the incentives will do) and N.M. will lose it's ability to compete for this business, which will put an end to the tax revenues and other economic benefits we've been getting from it.

The debate rages over whether these tax breaks for the movie industry result in enough jobs and economic activity to justify them. Perhaps there needs to be a limit to how much we put out, but Rep. Dennis Kintigh and other ardent foes of the tax credits need to understand that when New Mexico is featured in a movie the impact goes on for decades as the film is shown again and again.

We're not Michigan or New Jersey. We are a state with a real tourist industry. We need a continuing investment in the mystique of the Land of Enchantment. So Rep. Kintigh, keep everyone honest and work hard for a compromise, but don't cast aside our state's special role in America's imagination or the public servants that came before you who placed it there.

GET A ROOM

We feel the same way about congressmen sleeping in their Capitol Hill offices as we do about those couples necking next to you in the movie theatre---get a room, already. We've chided our own congressman, Democrat Martin Heinrich, for keeping his pajamas in his office even as he takes home $174,000 a year and wife Julie is also well-compensated in a local government gig, but he has plenty of company and is getting more all the time. Take a look:

Of the 94 incoming members of the House of Representatives, 90% are Republicans, nearly 40% have law degrees and about 35% have never before held elective office. Oh, and at least 15% plan to bed down in their congressional offices. It's the ultimate I'm-not-a-professional-politician statement, reminiscent of the 1994 midterm elections, when a GOP House takeover led to a surge in House sleepovers.

What do you dream about when you sleep on your congressional couch? Probably about Sealy Posturepedic mattresses.

A couple of state public info officers email in to let us know that not all PIO's are "exempt" employees. Some are "classified" meaning they have job protection. Exempts can be dismissed at any time. We brought up the topic in Wednesday's blog about the Bernalillo County PIO vacancy. We don't know yet how much that PIO gig pays, but we hear it is handsome. Maybe the email today will give us a certain number.

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First, Martinez is described around the Capitol as an empty vessel waiting to be filled. She has little knowledge of the workings of state government. Her policy acumen is limited and is centered on the judiciary since she is a 14 year Dona Ana County district attorney.

This means at least for her first year or so in office, the people around her are going to be powerful, maybe in some cases very powerful.

We start with the obvious. Roswell State Rep. Keith Gardner, tapped to be Martinez's chief of staff, will be the keeper of the gate. He will have major league power because he will determine who gets face time with the new governor.

But who is close to Gardner? Hold on to your chile ristras, kids. It's none other than GOP State Senator "Lightning" Rod Adair who also hails from Roswell. Rod, a political demographer, was instrumental in getting Keith to the state House when he helped him oust Earlene Roberts in a GOP primary in 2004.

Adair is known for his volatile temperament but he also possesses a keen political mind and is no slouch when it comes to knowing the operations of state government. He managed the successful campaign of GOP Secretary of State candidate Dianna Duran. Ever since, there has been speculation that he could be in line to become director of the state bureau of elections under Duran. His close relationship with Gardner makes him a key power player for 2011.

When Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour calls Susana, she will answer right away. In his role as chairman of the Republican Governor's Association Barbour directed $1.3 million in campaign cash to Susana. That amounts to 19 percent of all of her donations which totaled $6.9 million. Immediately after her election, the RGA singled her out for inclusion on their "leadership team."

National R's are obsessed with broadening their party's base by reaching out to the fast growing Hispanic population. Susana is being groomed by them as an example and also to possibly position her for national GOP politics.

Barbour will be one of the few out-of-state politicos to be able to insert himself at will into the politics and practices of Martinez. She won't mind because it's all about making her look and perform well. Meanwhile, Barbour may find some New Mexicans tapping at his door as they try to get through Susana's portal.

MORE POWER PLAYERS

Put former GOP New Mexico Governor Garrey Carruthers ('87-'90) high on your list--very high--of 2011 political power players. Carruthers knows Martinez well. He shares her hometown of Las Cruces where he is a powerhouse at New Mexico State University. She likes him. He has been named to one of her transition committees. But most important, Martinez will be able to lean on Carruthers who has already been there and done that. His interest will be in making her look good and influencing public policy. Maybe also getting a friend or two some government work. But Carruthers, 71, will have the Guv's ear and confidence because like Barbour he is not seeking personal political advancement.

Harvey Yates may be leaving the chairmanship of the NM Republican Party, but he was instrumental in advancing Martinez to the governorship. He will be gone, but not forgotten and a full-fledged 2011 political power player. His main concern will be protecting the oil and gas industry. No one will have better access to Martinez to make that case than Yates.

Heather Wilson has stepped on some toes in the Martinez camp during this transition which she was chosen to head up. But the former ABQ congresswoman is populating state government with her operatives and they will be running the government. Through them, Wilson will easily be placed on the 2011 political power list.

You don't hear much about Martinez's husband, Chuck Franco, but he will be a 2011 political power player. The quiet and unassuming soon to retire undersheriff of Dona Ana County is a constant and supportive presence for Martinez. One can easily speculate that his role will be in helping Martinez who she can and can not trust. If Chuck says you don't pass the smell test, your chances of getting through to the new Guv will be about as good as finding a donut shop not filled with cops.

We'll have a new Governor who will be using training wheels during her first year but make no mistake about it, Susana Martinez will be the ultimate political power player of 2011. The state Constitution and the people of New Mexico have made sure of that.

OLD HAND

Gordon Eden, a longtime fixture in various high-level government posts and a Republican of moderate reputation, takes over the Department of Public Safety under Susana. He just finished a nine year stint as US Marshall for NM and was motor vehicle secretary under GOP Guv Gary Johnson.

The appointment should put an end to the speculation about ABQ Public Safety Director Darren White joining the Martinez administration. The former sheriff had been mentioned as a possible chief of staff for Susana as well as secretary for the public safety department--a job he held under Governor Johnson.

Eden's appointment may alleviate concerns among Hispanics that DPS would take a hard turn to the right when it came to immigration issues.

IN THE OPEN

So much for playing it dark. Gov-elect Martinez and Congressman-elect Steve Pearce, ABQ Mayor Berry and other top R's have written a letter to state GOP central Committee members endorsing former Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman as the next GOP party chair. Attorney Nina Martinez, the state GOP first vice-chair, is the other candidate for chair. The letter says Newman would be effective in raising funds for the 2010 cycle.

We came with the story Tuesday that Newman had the backing of the Martinez camp, but it was not out in the open. We wondered why the Governor-elect could not have cleared the field for her favorite candidate. This letter effectively ends the Nina Martinez candidacy which was backed by Susana Martinez Republican Gvv primary rivals Allen Weh and Doug Turner. It would not be surprising to see Nina throw in the towel and give it to Monty by acclamation at Saturday's ABQ convention. And that's what Governors do.

GOING FOR GILBERT?

Could Big Bill communications honcho Gilbert Gallegos, a former ABQ Tribune reporter, find work as the Bernalillo County public information officer when the clock runs out on Bill come December 31. One of our downtown ABQ Alligators says it is indeed a possibility and gives us the inside story:

The opening for a Public Information Director for Bernalillo County comes after the recent removal of Liz Hamm from that position, and her placement in a “new” job as PIO for County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Insiders know that Hamm’s removal was fallout from the summer’s continuing bad news stories in the local media. Liz was encouraging taking the high road, yet the County Manager and Commissioners wanted to curtail the flow of information to the media and public. This position, which is at-will, is really all about supporting the Commissioners and Manager.

Insiders also note that Governor Richardson has personally spoken to County Manager Thaddeus Lucero about hiring the Gov’s communications director Gilbert Gallegos for the County position. Gallegos did get a recent interview, as did other current state PR flacks Tia Bland and Dan Ware.

Here is the job posting.This is the home of New Mexico politics.

Former Hobbs mayor, realtor and 2008 southern congressional contender Monty Newman has emerged as the late front-runner over Bernalillo County attorney and state GOP First Vice-Chair Nina Martinez. That's because the political arm of Governor-elect Susana Martinez is swinging its support to Newman. No other major contenders are expected.

Not everyone thinks the new Republican Governor should have the right to name the new GOP chair. Allen Weh and Doug Turner, both who were conquered by Susana Martinez for the GOP Guv nomination, are backing Nina Martinez, hoping not to have the party doors completely closed to them. Turner, in particular, still seeks a path to future political power.

Also, there are still some hurt feelings over the primary. Martinez has yet to heal those wounds. If she had, she might have been able to get Nina out early and Monty in unopposed. On the other hand, why are Weh and company not lining up when Susana received 90 percent of the GOP vote?

Newman's supporters claim he's the "true conservative" in the race and with the apparent backing of the state's #1 R, he is going to be formidable. Backers of Nina Martinez, a former assistant counsel to ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, assert that she has paid much more in the way of party dues than Monty and it is her turn at helm.

Fund-raising is a key duty of a party chair and in that department Newman brings an edge because of his business background.

Gov-elect Martinez is slated to speak to the delegates, but will go dark on the chair race. However, her chief political consultant for her Guv campaign, Jay McCleskey, can be expected to help whip the 331 GOP Central Committee delegates who will decide the contest. McCleskey's Lincoln Strategy Group consulted not only Martinez this past cycle but other prominent R candidates.

Susana Martinez had a blow-the-doors-off win at the party's pre-primary convention earlier this year. Many of those delegates will vote on state chair Saturday, giving Newman a decided advantage.

If you're looking for an ideological clash there is hard to glean one from this race. Newman is more conservative than Nina, but only nominally so. He does have deep tie to conservative Christians. But the race is about the new Guv-to-be and her political arm consolidating power. To the victor go the spoils and all that...

HARVEY'S TERM

Outgoing GOP Chairman Harvey Yates of the wealthy SE NM oil family leaves with a shine to his name. He took over in early '09 from Allen Weh who left to seek the GOP Guv nod after presiding over the GOP debacle of 2008. It is true that the times turned favorably for Yates, but he took advantage of it. He leaves with a Republican about to take over the Guv's office and with 33 R's in the state House. That's the most in modern history.

Yates lives in the ABQ home originally occupied by one of the state's most successful Democratic politicians--the late Senator Dennis Chavez. The gods do have funny ways of amusing themselves, don't they?

MAKE IT $450 MILLION

Susana, you can trim $2 million off that $452 million projected shortfall. That's the amount the University of New Mexico Athletic Department is getting from the state General Fund. If we can't cut that out with a dull-edged butter knife, we can't cut anything.

Do you sense that UNM Athletic Director Paul Krebs and UNM President David Schmidly are on their last legs? It has been one disappointment after another at our Harvard at the Rio Grande and one assumes the new Guv administration has had enough. Their suggestions for change are going to be welcomed with open arms--and relief.

How about $95,000 for managing a little city of 16,000 where the median income is $25,000. From down south and Sunland Park, NM:

Sunland Park has hired a former New Mexico Border Authority director as the new manager of the southern New Mexico community. Andrew Moralez of Anthony, N.M., succeeds Jaime Aguilera, who resigned in late September...

As Gershwin wrote, "Nice work if you can get it..."

STAYING HERE

But $95K a year wouldn't even pay a month's salary for the lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America---a job Big Bill is again rumored to be in the running for. We picked up on that Monday from the national press, but the Guv's office again says Bill is not in the running. From his office:

Just wanted you to know that the Governor is still not interested in it or any other Washington lobbyist job. He plans on staying in Santa Fe...

If Bill does stay in Santa Fe for any length of time after January 1, he would be the only recent Governor we can recall doing so. Hey, maybe he could set up a permanent lunch table at the Rio Chama where he could comment on all of Governor Martinez's action and prepare to run against her in 2014.

Now you'd love that, wouldn't you?

Bill's predecessor, Republican Gary Johnson, still nurtures comeback plans--but on a grand scale. He continues to try to drum up support for a 2012 bid for the GOP presidential nod. Johnson has always enjoyed tilting at windmills. He now lives in Taos.

FROM THE MAIL

Reader Charles Lehman writes about our Monday economy blog:

Excellent thoughts on the economy of the future in your blog--concentrating on education and stop demonizing government which is a major part of the economy and why we are not in even worse shape. A great opportunity for this state is in renewable energy. We are ideally situated by natural, research and manufacturing resources to be the national leader with the proper planning.

Thanks, Charles. We've had trouble attracting and keeping solar energy manufacturing facilities, but the Richardson administration has laid the groundwork for getting solar and wind power generated in the state onto the power grid and into our homes. That could be a big deal.

WE DIDN'T SAY IT

We received a lot of email about that "mission statement" from a conservative Senior Alligator that we posted Monday. In it he called for the new administration to "tame the teachers' unions" and "make government work for voters from the private sector who pay the bills and not the leeches who suck from the government teat."

Even though we clearly identified as it coming from a Senior Gator and used italics to denote it as a quote, some folks still thought the fiery missive was our personal opinion. It wasn't, but we'll let reader and teacher John Thayer vent over it:

On your mission statement for the new governor, you suggested "putting learning back into public education." Can you give us teachers some kind of a break? I have a masters degree in math and teach at one of the most widely ridiculed schools in ABQ. I have great successes with these kids. We work from bell to bell and most of them love math after they have been in my room.

I choose to be at a low performing school even though I get other job offers and I'm mot the only one! If you only knew how it felt to work this hard at something you love while constantly being laughed at and scapegoated by the media and politicians who have never set foot in a public school except for photo ops. I love your blog, by the way, keep up the good work...

Thanks, Charles--for that note and for the hard work you and our teachers perform.

THE BEST

We can now put up that cool logo from ABQ The Magazine now that the edition where its readers name us as the best blog in these here parts has hit the newsstands. Thanks much to those readers and to the staffers at the mag--photog Liz Lopez and the new editor--Dan Mayfield-- for the photo and write-up they gave us. Earlier this year the readers of the alternative weekly the Alibi also awarded us best blogger honors of 2010.

What's especially gratifying is that the recognition comes from the readers of two publications that appeal to entirely different audiences and age groups.
That'll keep us on our toes...

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For example, when Republican RJ Berry was elected ABQ mayor in '09, he trimmed back the salaries of his department directors, getting many of them below $100,000 year. He also claimed significant savings in reorganizing the mayor's office.

Can't Martinez do the same? What about reducing the number of employees in the Guv's office which has swelled under Big Bill? What about trimming the salaries up there? Bill's chief of staff is now making north of $140,000 a year.

Gardner and Moore are on the state retirement system so the higher their salaries, the higher their eventual retirement checks. This and every other potential vulnerability in the new administration will be pointed out if cuts are proposed that would throw people out of work or cut services.

BIG BILL'S FUTURE

With headlines again screaming of that federal probe into pay-to-play allegations at the State Investment Council, it has been Big Bill's legal future that has been figuring into the most recent water-cooler conversations. But the Guv gets a reprieve from the speculation about his legal problems as the national press reports his name is back in the mix for that $1.2 million a year job as the DC lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America. His name has surfaced repeatedly as this plum job has been vacant since May.

$1.2 million a year? That ought to be enough to pay for legal fees back in New Mexico.

A MISSION

How about this for a cogent mission statement for the new administration, coming from a Senior Alligator of a conservative bent:

I think blockbuster performance from state government is reorganizing higher education, taming the teachers' unions, putting learning into public education, downsizing government, reducing the intrusion of government, and taming the government employee unions. Nothing liberals find sexy. Just nuts and bolts work to make government work for voters from the private sector who pay the bills and not for the leeches who suck from the government teat...

Well, we don't see the economic structure of the state quite that way which leads us to....

BLOGGING OUR ECONOMY

They call these "15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America."

It really is the story of our time, isn't it? How so much wealth became concentrated at the top of the American pyramid as the middle class languishes.

For New Mexico, there are some solutions right in front of us--adjust personal income tax rates upward on the most wealthy taxpayers; create new well-paying middle class jobs by encouraging development of the Spaceport and opening a dental school at UNM; work to maximize the large federal presence in the state which has provided the most reliable and secure jobs for the past seventy years and has spun off millions in contracts and hundreds of small businesses; shrinking or eliminate dubious tax credits that cost our treasury needed tax dollars; escalate marketing of our state's agricultural products in the global economy; be mindful of the importance of oil and gas even as we pursue renewable energy.

What New Mexico doesn't need to do is erode through neglect the fundamental pillars of the state economy. The bromide that "government doesn't create jobs" flies in the face of the entire state's history and has no connection with reality. The latest numbers show that 25% of New Mexico's work force is now employed by government. When you add in the contractors and indirect government jobs, you can pretty much conclude that about half the state's employees toil for government.

That's not an inherent evil. It is who we are. To build a modern day economy, generations of state and national political leaders--both Republican and Democrat--worked to establish New Mexico as the premier host for the nation's national security programs and a myriad of military installations. It worked brilliantly as our isolated geography, tiny population and other challenges were simply too Herculean to attract private capital.

THERE ARE LIMITS

Those who yearn so desperately to have us compete with Silicon Valley or the Massachusetts Miracle seem unable to comprehend our limitations and blame taxes, regulations and other bogeymen as the reasons for our private sector under performance. Yet in the past decade we have provided millions in tax incentives and put out an unregulated red carpet to literally dozens of private enterprises, most of which have failed to take hold.

Which takes us back to Governor-elect Martinez and the opportunity for a fresh start. If there is any lesson from the lost decade of trying to lure business, it's that we have failed to invest adequately in our human capital. We lack the educated and entrepreneurial work force that is needed to compete in private enterprise. And we now know it.

This is why we think Martinez's campaign pledge not to cut funding for public education resonated so loudly. The continued and depressing lag in performance by Hispanic and Native American students--who comprise the majority of the state's public school students--is the primary barricade to developing a more robust private sector. You can cut taxes to the bone and eliminate the entire regulatory code, but if you don't have people who can do the work, the work can't be done. It's that simple.

DOWN WITH DIVERSITY

The new Governor does not need a diversified agenda. We had that the past eight years. Besides, we no longer have the money for one. Martinez's best bet--perhaps her only bet to deliver fundamental economic change--is to finally put the state on the path to public school success among the population groups that perennially under perform.

That's going to cost money. You would be cutting your nose off to spite your face if you started slashing pre-kindergarten and child nutrition and health programs. And what of the parents and the value system that does not put a premium on education? How do we get at that? If you are Governor, maybe you act like a wartime president, immersing most of your time and energy in this singular effort whose outcome is central to the way we look ten years from now.

OKAY, SO NOW WHAT?

If, as we argue, that New Mexico won't attract the next Apple or Cisco until we get our education house in order, the immediate economic future means protecting and enhancing what we have. The last thing we want to do is turn up our noses and sneer at the thousands of "government jobs" that are providing a badly needed anchor in this Great Recession.

Apart from high oil and natural gas prices, the previous bull market that took the state's jobless rate down to record low levels was an illusion. It was a real estate bubble that added thousands of construction and retail jobs--now mostly all gone and that are not coming back.

Our leaders need to hold Washington's feet to fire to honor the commitments it has made to this state as the nation's national security colony. Our military bases and national labs need a strong defense against the budget cutters. And we should protect and enhance the private sector we have.

Our agricultural economy needs support as it competes in the global marketplace; the health care industry has been a presence here since the days of TB. It continues to grow and provide jobs. The oil, gas and mining industries are integral, providing hundreds of millions annually in royalties. The ongoing argument over the "pit rule" detracts from the cordial relationship the state has had with oil and gas. It is time to move on.

The moral repulsion that is fashionable in some quarters toward what has been built here is perplexing. We're not talking about the morality debate over nuclear weapons research here, but the repulsion expressed over any type of government employment.

Sure, a more thriving private sector with better paying jobs is the end game. But local Silicon Valley seekers keep putting the proverbial cart (taxes, regulation etc.) before the horse. First, we must wholeheartedly embrace the advancement of the youth who will ride the horse--only then the cart will get moving. Let's get on with it already.

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