Swickard: Budget special session possibilities

© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez will call a special legislative session because of lower oil and gas revenues than projected. If there are budget cuts, will some government workers get fired? Or will there be a tax increase a month before the November election? Both solutions may cost votes for legislators in close races.
            Cutting the budget usually means someone loses their government job because much of the state’s budget is used to hire people. Often the way those people in charge respond to budget cuts is to fire the most crucially important people first because the citizen outcry may protect their budget.
            Organizations often target doctors, EMTs, fire and police along with in-classroom educators. That always gets lots of citizen outcry and media attention.
            Years ago in Albuquerque there was a budget crunch in the police department so they fired the street policemen in the worse section of town. Did they touch administrative people? No, because the citizens of Albuquerque wouldn’t care if those employees were fired.
            The citizens of Albuquerque capitulated and added more tax revenue to the budget rather than lose critical police protection. Some politicians claim that everyone employed by the State of New Mexico is essential to the state. They proclaim loudly to the media that taking any money away from existing programs will result in catastrophic damage to our state.
            The talking point: there are no workers on the state’s payroll who are not completely essential. Further, we citizens will be told we must consider that state employees are just like us with bills to pay and kids to raise so being fired is featured in the media reports letting us citizens know that firing state workers will destroy lives.
            Another option being discussed is to increase taxes. That way no one is fired. But in the middle of an election voters can express displeasure quickly. Increasing taxes is unlikely this time.
            One thing not being discussed much is that they can raid the New Mexico Permanent Funds. Some people call them “Rainy day funds.” The quick way is to confiscate needed financial resources from the New Mexico Tobacco or other small funds.
            The two funds with plenty of money are the New Mexico Land-Grant Fund created in 1912 and the 1973 created New Mexico Severance Tax Fund. It is dangerous to take money from these funds because these two funds are set to provide about one seventh of the entire New Mexico budget next year.
            It is not easy to raid these funds because legislators in the past realized the glimmering pot of money would be quite attractive to politicians who only thought short-term. States like California had vast financial resources which were taken in a short-term political frenzy years ago. Now California is close to bankruptcy.
            New Mexico’s budget increased more than fifty percent under former Governor Bill Richardson from 2003 to 2010. It went from about four billion dollars to almost seven billion dollars a year.
            The long-term solution is to increase the economy and the budget will be corrected as long as New Mexico doesn’t elect another free spender like Richardson. There is never enough money for free spenders.
            New Mexico revenues are down because the oil and gas industry is cyclically at a low point. It is a cycle but the government increase is linear. There are always difficulties when the energy resources go down.
            Roy Blunt wrote, “The shortest path to more American jobs is more American energy and more jobs that relate to American energy.” That is what New Mexico needs however the problem for New Mexico politicians is that the environmental lobby has lots of power and does not want New Mexico to increase energy jobs.
            So the source of money from the energy sector may not be politically available to some legislators. There are no other easily increased revenue sources. Raising taxes usually results in people and businesses leaving the state thereby actually lowering collected revenues.
            New Mexico’s government is still far larger than just a few years ago with the same number of citizens. Ultimately New Mexico’s state government is about creating jobs and political power. Tough decisions cannot be avoided at this time.

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Importing terror and dividing America, a sorry legacy

© 2016 Jim Spence - Last weekend it was a Muslim from Afghanistan who was captured after terrorizing the New York/New Jersey area with bombs. This weekend it was a Turkish Muslim, a “legal resident” who murdered five people in the Seattle area.
Thanks to the Obama policy, which Hillary Clinton endorses, America is importing tens of thousands more Muslim immigrants. IT IS CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND THAT these “refugees” come from places that don’t just encourage American hatred; they teach it to their children like we teach our American kids grammar.
It is the most astonishing thing to see Democrats demand that we agree to allow more people with the same backgrounds as all the other domestic terrorists who have butchered innocents here over the last year (Orlando, San Bernadino, etc.) to be allowed to come to America from countries that indoctrinate all citizens to hate America. With a straight face both Hillary Clinton and Mr. Obama repeatedly tell us there is no correlation between radical Islamic attacks on American innocents and the years of hatred indoctrination these so-called “refugees” receive before they come here.
There is much more to what Democrats represent in terms of public policy, than stupid ideas regarding the types of immigrants we need. When we are not reading about radical Muslim terrorists butchering innocent Americans, we can watch surprisingly violent portion of the black community torch property, steal, and beat up white people. It is no coincidence that in American inner city black communities, as a matter of routine, young children are taught continuously that will get screwed by a "racist American system.” 
It is an amazing thing to observe. American blacks have accomplished incredible things in America. The number of wealthy black celebrities and black business people continues to grow exponentially. Unlike Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, and many other hyphenated Americans, an African American has been elected president of the United States. And this black American has been elected president not once, but twice. Still, in late 2016, while the national anthem is played at sporting events, young black American millionaires and gifted full ride scholarship athletes at universities, kneel or raise their fists with disrespect, as if somehow they just can’t catch a break.
When asked about the incredible disconnect Mr. Obama engages in the most disingenuous form of double talk. He condemns inner city rioting per say, but allows as to how it is understandable. Mr. Obama is certainly compassionate. Unfortunately he reserves his compassion for Muslims from countries that indoctrinate people to hate America. According to Obama these people should not suffer from a “rush to judgment.” Sadly Mr. Obama gives greater consideration to those who are trained to hate America, the Muslims refugees he forces on the American population, than he does to police officers who are trained to protect America. In engaging in the most cynical form of duplicity imaginable, Mr. Obama does great harm to the black population in America. 
The effects of Obama's lack of leadership are far reaching, Sadly, we still have a remarkable percentage of black Americans, who seem far too content with the horrendous black-on-black crime rates in inner cities. These crime rates are much worse than they were eight years ago. And yet this same population segment is conditioned to assume that anytime any black has a violent encounter with law enforcement, that person, no matter how long his or her criminal record might be, is presumed to be the victim of racism. An amazing percentage of black Americans believe police officers, whether black or white, are anti-black. And all of this raging paranoia grows as our black president serves out the final four months of his eight year presidency. There is no logic in this whatsoever, only the ongoing indoctrination of a segment of the population that has been continuously conditioned to see itself as victims for political purposes.
David Clarke
One of my favorite Americans is Sherriff David Clarke of Milwaukee. Unlike Obama, Clarke is a great American. He understands that the Black Lives Matter movement is both criminal and Democrat. He also understands that Mr. Obama has not only not lifted a finger to continue the march towards a color blind society, Mr. Obama has stomped on the breaks and stoked the fires of racial paranoia instead.

In the end, the Obama legacy is a sad one. Mr. Obama continues to cram tens of thousands of people, who have been trained to hate America, inside our borders. And Mr. Obama openly encourages black America to believe that they will be perpetual victims in a society where curiously, millions of black Americans are thriving, prospering, and improving their lives every single day. 
Mr. Obama is the most cynical and sinister man to ever occupy the White House. And Mrs. Clinton figures to give us more of the same. She is working hard to make sure America is always divided and never unites, just as both of the Obamas have for eight years. What a pity that America has had to endure this cultural atrocity.

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