Big Bill’s Latest Boondoggle Goes Bust (the NM Supercomputer)

Bill Richardson’s tenure as Governor of New Mexico was a little like that of a house guest who urinates and defecates in hidden places around your house only to leave a horrible smell and mess once for you to clean up once he leaves. We’ve discussed the Spaceport and Rail Runner repeatedly over the years, but the supercomputer purchased with $20 million of your tax dollars by the Richardson Administration is, as KRQE’s investigative reporter Larry Barker notes in a recent story, a “gigaflop.” Kudos, BTW, to Barker for continuing to expose this waste (here is his 2011 story on the supercomputer).

According to Barker, this computer “can now be found hidden away among junked chairs, discarded desks and obsolete filing cabinets.”

Darryl Ackley, New Mexico’s Chief Information Officer and Information Technology Cabinet Secretary, says the supercomputer is not worth much anymore.

“Zero dollars,” Ackley said. “There may be some residual value for the metals and the equipment, but as far as its value on the books, its zero dollars.”

It is amazing that New Mexicans at the time went along with so much spending that (we knew back in 2007) was clearly destined to be wasted. We are still footing the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars of waste foisted upon the taxpayers of this state by Richardson. Check out Barker’s story below: