Who hid the deficit?

What did I tell you? My column written for Oct. 4, announced a $450 million budget deficit. At the time, the Legislature was predicting a $260 million deficit.
No, I wasn’t part of Gov. Bill Richardson’s “hide the ball” conspiracy that Gov.-Elect Susana Martinez alleges.
My not-so-secret information came from watching the ebb and flow of  deficit projections during the past two years.
Even one year ago, Martinez was still chasing drug cartels and her advisers were still back in Washington, D.C. So how were they to know?
Each year, the Legislature’s economists have made a deficit projection in September. In early November, the governor’s economists make their own projection, which has been higher.
Later in November, finance people from the governor’s and Legislature’s staffs have analyzed each other’s fiscal assumptions and reached agreement on a mutually acceptable figure.
That figure typically has been a little higher than either had previously projected.
Some Republican legislative leaders currently are tossing around a $500 million figure. In case you didn’t save a copy of my Oct. 4 column, that was my final guess.

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