Thursday, January 21, 2010

Naivete

Sometimes I wonder about the naiveté of of aspiring political candidates.  This morning the Journal had an article asking the republican candidates for Governor how they would fix the budget.  They all said they would cut back on the number of appointees in state government.  Okay, that adds up to $3 million max.  Now comes the hard part.  None of them had a concrete proposal for how they would deal with it, as far as I could see.  They also blame the Governor for all of these problems and once again conveniently forget that the legislature is just as responsible for the spending free for all.

The bad news at Albuquerque City Hall just gets worse.  Finance Guru Lou Hoffman, who was brought in by Mayor Berry, says the short fall for this year from Mayor Marty's and the councils actions will be $20 million.  And next year $55 million.  This is worse than I had thought.  Mayor Berry and CAO Dave Campbell will have to extract some real concessions out of the special interests that rule city hall.  That means the police and fire unions especially.  Will they help?  Or am I being naive?

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