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When I was sworn in as New Mexico’s governor in 2011, I understood that New Mexicans elected me to lead and undertake difficult tasks. By working with Republicans and Democrats in the Roundhouse, we took on the largest structural budget deficit in the state’s history and turned it into a surplus – without raising taxes, cutting classroom spending or slashing health care for those most in need.
Instead, we reined in runaway spending. We prioritized. We didn’t simply cut across the board. And we worked to make government more efficient.
While legislators and I don’t always see eye-to-eye, we recognize our mutual responsibility to find solutions to difficult challenges. We must pay our bills, work to grow the economy and create jobs and strive each day to act as good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
We have seen some encouraging signs in New Mexico’s economy, such as booming business development on our southern border, exploding growth of foreign exports from New Mexico companies, and major companies once again considering making our state their home.
I recently returned from Washington, D.C., where the discussion was dominated by sequestration and the overall dysfunction that has plagued the federal government.
Congress struck a deal with the president at the end of 2012 to avoid the “fiscal cliff” but instead were left with across-the-board cuts beginning this month. This reduction will take effect over the next decade and will total $1.2 trillion in cuts applied to both defense and discretionary spending.
Instead of dealing with Washington’s spending addiction, the plan is to enact broad cuts with little to no flexibility to set priorities. If Congress and President Obama could identify $85 billion in targeted cuts in a 3.6 trillion dollar budget, they would offset the sequester this year. That means cutting less than three cents out of each federal dollar spent by the government.
Most Americans have had to tighten their budget by more than 3 percent in these difficult economic times. Why can’t the federal government do the same?
Unfortunately, these across-the-board defense cuts disproportionately hurt New Mexico. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the federal government spent $28 billion in our state in 2010. That constitutes one third of New Mexico’s gross domestic product. We are a sparsely populated state with two national laboratories, three Air Force bases and White Sands Missile Range. The cuts we face could cost New Mexico 20,000 jobs.
Given what’s at stake, it is very troubling that the president did not meet with congressional leaders until the day the sequestration cuts were to take effect. Imagine if I refused to meet with our legislative leaders in Santa Fe about the budget until the day the session was concluding. It is downright shameful those elected to serve their constituents have failed so miserably.
As New Mexicans, we must put aside partisan differences and fight to protect ourselves from these indiscriminate federal cuts. I met with the National Nuclear Security Administration while in Washington to discuss funding for the critical missions undertaken by our labs, and my staff has met dozens of times with the agency’s leaders since I took office.
Our congressional delegation and I have met on various issues and we’re committed to working together. It’s good for New Mexico that former Republican Rep. Heather Wilson was appointed to the NNSA committee, just as it is beneficial for our state that Democratic Sen. Tom Udall has been appointed to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations where he will have increased influence on our nation’s finances.
New Mexico faces serious challenges. Our reliance on federal spending and the likelihood of further federal budget cuts makes recovering from the national recession more difficult.
We will continue to fight tooth-and-nail to protect our labs and bases. But we have to also recognize that Washington is showing no signs of changing its troubled ways, so we must seize this opportunity here at home, demonstrate leadership and continue to work together toward diversifying our state’s economy in order to insulate us from the gridlock in our nation’s capital.
