So said Gov. Lujan Grisham in releasing her proposed record-setting state budget of $9.4 billion Tuesday--up 12 percent from the current one or a full $1 billion. (Full budget plan here.)
A Guv appointment to the new three member Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has crashed and burned. Former GOP state Rep. Brian Moore reveals he does not have a college degree, a requirement to be on the panel that is the chief regulator of PNM and other services. From the Fourth Floor:
Gov. Lujan Grisham on Tuesday announced the appointment of James F. Ellison to the Public Regulation Commission. Brian Moore, who was previously appointed to the commission, submitted a letter of resignation stating that he did not meet the educational qualifications for the appointment. Individuals submitted to the governor for consideration applied through and were vetted by the PRC Nominating Committee, a process independent of the governor’s office and established by the 2022 constitutional amendment reforming the commission. Ellison has nearly three decades of experience in electric utility operations and power markets, currently serving as the principal grid analyst at Sandia National Laboratories. . .He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, two master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree from Stanford University.
But there is cause for a reality check on the Guv's increasingly Pollyannish views on what is happening on the ground. There has indeed been progress but not of the "immense" variety. Her latest budget fully funds and expands many programs already in place but does not come with any sweeping innovations to repair the structural rot that she nor any other Governor or legislature has been able to arrest in recent decades. And today that's despite more surplus funds than any time in history.
Most of that rot is centered on behavioral health including violent crime, widespread drug and alcohol abuse, child murders and beatings and stubbornly underperforming public schools.
There is no magic wand but the Governor of the state of Washington proposes a $4 billion bond plan to build housing for the homeless. The Governor of New York is asking for $1 billion for mental health. Those economically advanced states feel the pressure for reform. Here we do not so we continue to take baby steps not adequate to the challenge which continues to grow yearly.
However, we do have that early childhood constitutional amendment kicking in this July--to the credit of MLG and other elected officials--and we are now in the forefront of providing free child care and free college tuition, also major gubernatorial accomplishments.
A DEEPER LOOK
The Governor has not been a cheerleader of taxypayer rebates but she approved some last year and they are back this time and similar. Each taxpayer would get $750 because of the revenue boom from the oil field. Unlike last year they would include higher income taxpayers. There is simply no way to effectively spend the state's gargantuan surpluses and sending some back to citizens (like Alaska) has widespread support.
One of her bigger proposals is $200 million for a Rural Health Care Delivery Fund "that will ease the start-up and operational burden for rural health care services." Much of this would go to modernize the hospital system in rural areas and would have a behavioral health component.
But the Guv's budget devotes a mere $5 million for additional support for alcohol abuse prevention and treatment, even as the state was informed in a series of reports that the booze problem here is the worst in the nation and contributes to all kinds of social decay. With a $3.6 billion surplus can't lawmakers do better? (They propose their budget plan next week.)
And the state is still waiting for the Guv to fixate on CYFD. Nowhere in the lengthy budget memo is the problem of child murder and abuse cases mentioned. Neither is the fentanyl menace that is wreaking havoc. No "immense progress" there. And these are items that have changed the very fabric of this state.
BIG WINNERS
Teachers are again big winners in the Guv's budget. Last year they received eye popping pay raises that finally made their salaries competitive with surrounding states. This time MLG wants $100 million so teachers' health insurance is completely paid for by the state. Lawmakers may want to rein that back as the good fortune of our educators is leaving other state employees in the dust.
All teachers and state workers would get a 4 percent pay hike in the executive budget. One sticky problem is the towering post-pandemic vacancy rates. Some agencies are at over 30 percent.
The MLG budget also proposes over $200 million for "extended in-class learning time" but the state has been unable to spend all the money already appropriated for that purpose so work remains on implementation.
OUR WELFARE STATE
While the proposed budget is an all-time high so is the level of state reserves recommended--over 34 percent to protect against a downturn in the oil fields that the budget hawks continue to assert is coming sooner rather than later.
New Mexico in large part is a welfare state and the Governor's budget fully funds the safety net of Medicaid and the variety of other programs that much of the population relies on in one of the nation's most poverty-stricken states. The problem remains the political will to make a more determined and sweeping effort to eliminate the need for some of that safety net.
EARLY PRC CRASH
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| James Ellison |
Gov. Lujan Grisham on Tuesday announced the appointment of James F. Ellison to the Public Regulation Commission. Brian Moore, who was previously appointed to the commission, submitted a letter of resignation stating that he did not meet the educational qualifications for the appointment. Individuals submitted to the governor for consideration applied through and were vetted by the PRC Nominating Committee, a process independent of the governor’s office and established by the 2022 constitutional amendment reforming the commission. Ellison has nearly three decades of experience in electric utility operations and power markets, currently serving as the principal grid analyst at Sandia National Laboratories. . .He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, two master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree from Stanford University.
How Brian Moore got as far as he did in the appointment process is not encouraging for how the new PRC, already controversial, will perform its complex duties in regulating PNM.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023