Fixing the Mess at Workforce Solutions

Celina Bussey

Capitol Report New Mexico - “It’s a new day” at Workforce Solutions, secretary Celina Bussey says. That’s good — because there have been plenty of bad ones at a department with a reputation for being one of the most troubled in all of New Mexico government. “Workforce Solutions has been, to say the least, working at far less than peak efficiency for years,” said state Sen. John Arthur Smith (D-Deming), who’s been observing the department closely as chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, adding, “It’s been a mess.” State auditor Hector Balderas says his office has conducted annual audits of Workforce Solutions and “we have repeat findings, anywhere from one to years old, of negligent conduct.” The most glaring example of trouble at the department came last month when the US Department of Labor released a national study showing New Mexico ranked third in the US in the rate of overpayments in state unemployment benefits – some $104.7 million that should have not gone out. To make matters worse, the state had the fourth-worst record for unemployment fraud in the country. Into the breach has stepped Bussey, a 33-year-old cabinet member who used to work at Workforce Solutions (back when it called the state Department of Labor) from 1999-2006 and has been told in so many words by new Gov. Susana Martinez to get the department’s house in order. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Fixing the Mess at Workforce Solutions