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Columns

  • Domenici's plan takes guts

    After years of delivering truckloads of federal dollars to New Mexico, Pete Domenici has returned to an old love – deficit reduction. Lately he and former White House budget director Alice Rivlin stepped up to champion the Bipartisan Policy Center’s plan to reduce the deficit.
    Domenici, Rivlin and their fellow travelers have the luxury of proposing measures their former bases might find disturbing. The plan, 60 percent spending cuts and 40 percent tax increases, would reduce the budget deficit by $5.9 trillion over the next nine years.

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  • A poll for modern times

    Months before the 2008 Presidential race began, I read a poll that predicted who would win the election.  At that time, no one had even formally announced their candidacy, and yet the polls raged on.  I think some guy named Paul Reubens was the leading contender. Polling once again besieged us over the months before the 2010 elections and I found myself unplugging the phone in an effort to ward them off.
    Americans are constantly inundated with polls; polls on who will win, polls on who should win, polls on who would leave the country if who wins.  

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  • The definition of civil office is open to interpretation

    What a coincidence. On Nov. 2, New Mexico voters overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would allow a governor to appoint a legislator to civil office.
    On Nov, 24, Gov.-Elect Susana Martinez appointed Rep. Keith Gardner, the House Republican whip, as her chief of staff.
    I wasn’t being sardonic when I called it a coincidence. New Mexico court decisions for years have given a very narrow interpretation to what constitutes a civil office.

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  • Government isn’t all bad

    Sometimes my friends on the right get a little tiresome with the continuing litany that government is bad. That isn’t entirely true. Government does do some good stuff beyond the basic missions of education, health care, public safety and infrastructure.
    Nor is it true that when government does something good, such as cut taxes, all is sweetness and light. Here I’m referring to the current argument from Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation that the Richardson tax cuts explain New Mexico’s climb in state per capita income ranks the past few years.

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  • What happens with muni case could impact local charter

    Is the muni petition “illegal?”  There are those opposed to the petition who certainly would like it to be. George Chandler certainly thinks it is. I disagree.

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  • Fun on tap for sure

    A hearty thanks to Gov.-Elect Susana Martinez for assuring that my job will remain easy and fun.
    For 16 years, with Gary Johnson and Bill Richardson as governors, this job has been a joy.
    I woke up every morning knowing they would give me something to write about that day.
    Former Gov. Bruce King’s motto was “Let’s keep it between the fence posts.” Not much to write about there.

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  • Taking another look at the TSA

    These days, those thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees are conducting invasive searches, making 3-year-olds scream while they are patted down for weapons, frisking nuns, looking at naked images of your body, and forcing you to throw away perfectly good liquids. And yet our airports are still far from secure.

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  • A tough task indeed

    There is no doubt that Governor-elect Susana Martinez faces a difficult
    task. Not only does she have to put together an administration to operate (and hopefully improve) New Mexico’s sprawling government, she now faces a $450 million deficit that must be dealt with in the next legislative
    session.
    Making the situation even more difficult is the fact that Martinez, during the campaign, seemingly
    removed 60 percent of New Mexico’s budget from belt-tightening. Of course, that was based on

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  • American Relief and Recovery Act may have new meaning

    You can’t accuse anybody of exploiting
    the world-famous church in Las Trampas
    for gain.
    In front of the church is a dirt parking
    area, and across the way is a small, funky
    shop, with “La Tienda” painted by hand
    over the doorway, where you can find
    modestly priced pottery, odd-looking
    wood sculptures that are a Pueblo version
    of kachina figures, and cold drinks
    that you can serve yourself from an old
    refrigerator.
    Some folks walk in and ask the shop owner if there is a

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  • A tough task indeed

    There is no doubt that Governor-elect Susana Martinez faces a difficult task. Not only does she have to put together an administration to operate (and hopefully improve) New Mexico’s sprawling government, she now faces a $450 million deficit that must be dealt with in the next legislative session.

    Click here to read more...