December 11, 2008  

As the 2009 session of the Legislature approaches, the budget situation continues to decay.  These are the times when businesses usually find all kinds of ways to save money and continue to provide goods and services.  It is something they do with precision until they get very large.  At that point they begin to act like government.  Government thinks that every little thing it does is absolutely necessary and there is just no way to do it for less.  It is the service motive (Government) verses the profit motive (Business).  They are two different animals.  In the case of GM I heard today that they sold around 9.5 million vehicles last year and lost 17 billion while Toyota sold 9.5 million vehicles and made a few billion.  GM is acting like government:  too big to fail, too important to fail, some kind of entitlement to exist and not even come close to competing.  

Herein lies the problem for them and very much the same problem good old New Mexico faces.  We have grown leaps and bounds; we don't compete with other states very well and we are very dependent on energy taxes to feed our Jabba the Hut appetite. The thought of a diet is simply out of the question for those in command.  You show me any business or any government that is 100% efficient and I would eat Jabba the Hut.  Do you think government is 95% efficient or even 90%?  I know darn well it isn't.   

This is the time that we start to figure out where we aren't efficient, where we provide services we don't need to, where we just plain waste money, where we have too many rules that cost us money to enforce, where we hire when we don't need to and a plethora of other niches of frivolous expense. That is what business does and exactly what most are doing right now. 

Every dollar New Mexico spends to preserve its current standard of living will double the red column in the coming year.  With a shortfall this size no area of government will go unaffected.  So keep you eye on the merry-go-Round House and see how we do.

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