URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/366974opinion06-29-05.htm

Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Journal Overplays Governor's Jet Purchase
By Bill Hume
Governor's Office
    I write in reference to the Page One story of June 26, "GOP Targets Plane Purchase; Missouri Gave Up Jet, Citing Flight Expenses."
    I work for Gov. Bill Richardson, so what follows should be considered in that context. I also worked for the Albuquerque Journal for 36 years, so I have a more than passing understanding of the development of news stories.
    I was intrigued when I saw the promotional ad late in the week in the Journal, promising new revelations about Republican attacks on the jet airplane purchase.
    The Journal first broke this jet plane story June 7— with a double investigative reporter byline on Page One. The feeding frenzy was on. Other than the fact that this investigative scoop was the reporting of a public purchase that was public record, this was in my judgment a clean shot. The fact of an airplane purchase was a hot topic, coming as it did on the heels of the administration's aborted attempt to purchase a new aircraft the previous year.
    Then you came back with the story of the children from the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Handicapped losing their access to state aircraft for home visits on weekends. We (the administration) fixed that by making clear that there would be no change in service to the School for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. What is not clear to me from your coverage is whether the school's request for a fixed-schedule contract was the real cause of the exchanges between the school and state transportation officials, not the reduction of the state fleet and the acquisition of the jet.
    If you ever considered whether state-paid air taxi service home on weekend for students of this facility was appropriate as a stand-alone expense, I never saw it.
    (I heard a regent for the school on talk radio assure the listeners that their tax money wasn't paying for this perquisite, it was paid for out of the school's permanent fund revenue stream. The talk show host didn't inquire as to whether the school receives any general fund support on top of its permanent fund revenues. To my knowledge, every permanent fund beneficiary in the state requires general fund support on top of its permanent fund allocation.)
    I don't question the great familial support and reinforcement that such trips provide. But, everything is zero-sum in state expenditures. Education funds spent on student air travel are funds not available for academic programs. (Yes, funds committed to jet aircraft purchases are money not spent on some other capital expenditure— but the aircraft purchase capital expenditure has no crossover effect on general fund expenditures for everything from state police gasoline purchases to education expenditures on classroom operating expenses.)
    When I read a follow story to a continuing news event, I look to see what is new in the story. It is here that I find the greatest fault with your Sunday story.
    The new material was the research on other states' experience with jet aircraft of the type proposed to be acquired by New Mexico. What you found there had some interesting twists.
    But, you chose to lead with the statement that New Mexico Republicans are "turning up the heat" on Richardson over the jet. It's true, the state GOP scored some telling body blows with the radio ads they fielded in early June behind your original exposé of a public record state procurement transaction. But, that was old news.
    Offered as "new" information in your Sunday story was the fact of Rep. Greg Payne, R-Albuquerque, asking for an attorney general's opinion on the propriety of augmenting the $5 million from capital outlay with the proceeds of the sale of a surplus aircraft.
    But even that was old news, having been reported as an inside-page story the week before you "broke" it on Sunday Page One. The only genuinely new information, about other states' experience with jet aircraft didn't make Page One.
    If Payne is the policy-setter and point man for "New Mexico Republicans" generally, that promotion escaped my attention. (I could add that the two banks of your headline suggested to the casual reader that the GOP targeting the New Mexico plane purchase had some connection to the State of Missouri's experience— patently untrue. But, I understand too well the difficulties and pitfalls of headline writing.)
    If I were personally to guess the reason for the heavy-handed treatment and play of stories in this aircraft purchase affair, I would ascribe it to newsroom bounce-back against all the really good ink Gov. Richardson has gotten in the Journal since his inauguration.
    It's the old "we have to give big play to the negatives, when there's been a lot of positives" school of impartiality.
    But I have to tell you: From where I am, it plays exactly like a calculated news management program to get the Journal back in line with its bedrock Republican leanings after an extended flirtation with a governor unlike any in recent state history in terms of tackling problems and getting things done.
    You tarnish your standing and diminish your credibility in the community when you lend credence to such perceptions.
    Former editorial page editor Bill Hume is senior policy adviser to Gov. Bill Richardson.