NM Citizen Poll: Cut Spending

Rio Grande Foundation - Recently, the Rio Grande Foundation published a policy paper outlining more than $280 million in specific spending cuts designed to help Governor Martinez and legislators close New Mexico’s budget deficit. Then, throughout December, we gave average New Mexicans a chance to weigh in on which cuts they supported and how strongly they wanted to see the cuts made. Survey respondents were asked to rank their preferred cuts on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the strongest desire to see an item cut).

More than 2,000 people took the opportunity to weigh in and the results are as follows: Saving $20 million annually by cutting the state work force by 2,000 was the most strongly supported with a rating average of 8.08; Saving $60 million annually by repealing SB 33 which increased the costs of public works projects around New Mexico followed close behind with an average rating of 7.91; Saving $6.4 million by diverting probationers and parolees who are revoked for technical violations of their supervision, not new offenses, from prison, scored 7.79; Diverting drug possession offenders from prison at a savings of $13 million garnered a score of 7.73;

Saving $30 million by capping the cost of New Mexico’s 25% reimbursement for films made in the state scored 7.34; Shutting down the Rail Runner at a savings of $20 million annually scored 6.44; and

The only budget cut items that scored below 5 were shutting down half of New Mexico’s branch campuses with a score of 4.81 and raising tuition to the national average which scored 4.71.

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NM Citizen Poll: Cut Spending