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| FC James Breen |
NM Fire Chief Under Attack
ERB Continues to Shoot Itself in Proverbial "Foot"
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| Jan Goodwin |
Target 7 has uncovered that the ERB terminated a contract last July with Rothschild, a New York-based asset management company, 19 days into the quarter and nine weeks before the contract would expire. The ERB said Rothschild wasn’t making enough money compared to other asset managers. The agency estimated the termination would cost $88,000, but it actually cost $724,000. If the ERB let the contract run out, it would have cost hundreds of thousands less. In an email obtained by Target 7, the ERB’s chief financial officer said, “We got an invoice for over $700,000 when we estimated 88” and we “should have known,”… “had we read our own contract.” Later in message he asked what the board is doing to “ensure we do not make errors of this magnitude in the future.” Goodwin was one of four people who made the recommendation to cut the contract early. “We thought it was a greater risk to keep them on rather than lose more money,” Goodwin said. Goodwin said she believes the fund would have lost $7 million over the remaining nine weeks if the ERB stayed with Rothschild. Up until the point when the ERB severed ties, Rothschild had made the fund millions in profit. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Bok: Illustrating the President's Negotiating Position
Cartoonist Chip Bok illustrates the president's negotiating position. It has not changed since last week. - more of his here
Tom Udall and Social Security
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| Tom Udall |
Bingaman Lumps Social Security in With Everything
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| Jeff Bingaman |
"President Obama is working very hard to make sure the debt ceiling is raised so that Social Security checks are disbursed on time. The president recently said that, without raising the debt ceiling, he could not guarantee that Social Security checks would go out on August 3. Without an agreement in place by August 3 to raise the debt ceiling, the nation's financial obligations would outstrip the nation's incoming revenue, and we would not be able to meet our financial obligations. In August alone, we would face a $134 billion shortfall.
The president would have to choose which financial obligations to pay, deciding between paying the interest on U.S. Treasury bonds or benefits for our seniors, paying troops or providing veterans benefits, disbursing student loans or providing loans to small businesses to make payroll, and many other difficult choices between obligations. Not paying all of our bills could hurt the United States' credit rating, just like what would happen to a person's credit rating if he paid his mortgage but not his car payment. Not paying all of our bills could be equivalent to defaulting on our debts. Picking and choosing which bills to pay is not a realistic option." Go to Bingaman website here: News New Mexico
Rasmussen Poll: Voters More Worried About Higher Taxes Than Spending Cuts
State's schools drop in progress benchmark
From KOB-TV.com - The grades are in for New Mexico schools and only 13percent met Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP. That's down from 23 percent last year. But, some are concerned this year's numbers don't tell the whole story. The reason is, the data from this year, isn't measured the same way as the data has been measured in the past. That means scores released Friday may not be as bad as they seem. No Child Left Behind Law requires that all states meet a 100 percent proficiency by 2014. Education Secretary Hanna Skandera says it comes down to the fact that New Mexico students need to perform better. As far as ranking New Mexico with other states, Skandera said, "Every state has different standards and assessments, so technically speaking, the comparison is apples to oranges today." She believes the letter grading system the state plans to implement in the fall will help with that. Next year the state plans to send a waiver to the U.S. Department of Education to replace AYP with that system. Read more
More Signs of Rebound of NM Economy
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| Susana Martinez |
Oil and Gas Still Paying the Bills in NM
Albany Times Union — New Mexico is seeing record amounts of revenue from drilling leases. The increase comes as improved drilling techniques and the consent of potash miners persuaded the State Land Office this year to open previously off-limits tracts of land in New Mexico's southeastern counties to oil companies. The State Land Office in June recorded unprecedented bid levels at its monthly oil and natural gas lease sale in by auctioning off leases on nearly 8,400 acres, mostly in Eddy and Lea Counties, for $17.2 million. That record lasted only one month.
Last week, the state accepted bids from oil companies totaling $19.5 million for an additional 9,600 acres of drilling rights. All newly available oil leases will are expected to be gobbled up by August. Much of the state's money from the leases is earmarked for a state fund that pays out a prescribed amount of money every year to public schools, universities and other beneficiaries. "It's been a nice shot in the arm for education right when we need it," Public Lands Commissioner Ray Powell told The Albuquerque Journal. Although the boom isn't expected to last, it's the latest sign of an uptick in New Mexico oil production despite ongoing debate over the state's environmental regulations. Oil production in New Mexico during the just-ended fiscal year had increased by more than 4 percent. Every $1 increase in crude oil prices generates $4 million in revenue for state coffers over the course of a year. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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