surplus in funds awaiting the lawmakers and the Governor's decisions on how or whether to spend it. I thought it was timely that the front page of the Albuquerque Journal today had an unsurprising story that the Public School's roofs in Albuquerque are all leaking after the winter storm and record snow. Hmmm, maybe these two things are saying something to us. I know, it is simplifying things again, but maybe most of that $700 million surplus could be used for one time capital improvements at our schools. How about new science and computer labs at every middle school, and good roofs to cover them?Well, I know that everyone has an opinion on how to spend that money, but the one thing that should not happen is to put the surplus into the category of recurring revenues. This is a windfall. We will most likely find that out next year if oil prices continue to stabilize.
This brings us another thought. This morning a great editorial in the New York Times really made it clear the Senator Jeff Bingaman is a chief player now in the future of energy policy in the United States. That may be one of the most important roles for any leader in the country and it should be influenced by all of us with letters and calls to the Senator's office in Washington.
2 comments:
Here's an idea for spending the money. Use it for tax cuts or one time credits. While there are some improvements which should be made, like fixing leaking roofs and repairing snow-damaged streets, buying new computer labs is a solution only for spending money. We should spend money only for things we need, not for the sake of spending money.
I was at the last Board of Education meeting and, believe me, the schools definitely need some repair money thrown their way. The descriptions of the working/learning/educating environments which employees, kids, and educators are dealing with are appalling.
If it's a coincidence; it's a darn good one!
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