New Mexico’s “austerity” past and future

As has been widely reported, including on this podcast, New Mexico faces a serious budget challenge due in part to falling oil prices, but also due to the ongoing virus and Gov. Lujan Grisham’s response to it which has virtually shut down New Mexico’s economy (she is hardly alone in taking such drastic steps).

Anyway, with fat budgets in the past two years and growth above 20% over that time period, the usual suspects from NM Voices for Children are making an oblique push for tax increases through tweets like the one below.  What is more troubling is that the Chair of the House Tax Committee Javier Martinez appears to share the Voices view of things.

Also troubling is that when it comes to the left’s education and health care priorities of the past decade (really they’re referring to the Martinez Administration) there was hardly “austerity.” Below the tweet you can see how early childhood spending rose during the Martinez Administration.

As this article (linked directly to the Voices website) Martinez also embraced Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare and despite a generous federal match given by the feds was still forced to come up with extra money from the State budget.

Ultimately, Voices is NOT interested in truthfully discussing the alleged “austerity” of the past. They simply want to continue the big-spending ways of the very recent past. If that means Rep. Javier Martinez will have to push some major tax hikes, so be it.