California is often and rightfully seen as a “progressive” State and model for wannabe “progressive” political leaders like Michelle Lujan Grisham. Remember her pledge to mandate a massive increase in vehicle miles per gallon? And of course there was the Energy Transition Act to shut down coal as an electricity source in New Mexico.
These are just some of the policies that New Mexico (and other states) have taken cues on from California. Now, the liberal Gov. of California Gavin Newsom has introduced a plan to cut pay for ALL government workers in California by 10%.
So far Gov. Lujan Grisham has simply refused to seriously discuss the economy as an issue here in New Mexico despite the economic shutdown AND the drop in oil prices which are expected to have profound impacts on the State economy.
You can’t buy votes with a 10% pay cut.
I am not aware of a single public sector worker in NM who has been laid off since the arrival of the Wuhan virus. Out of curiosity, I went to the state sunshine portal to see if there has been any significant reduction in the # of state employees in recent months. Ha, ha. On 8/12/2019, the state had 27,395 full time employees. As of 4/2/2020, it still had 27,395 full time employees. So much for fiscal belt tightening by the state. https://ssp2.sunshineportalnm.com/#employees
State employees get a double bonus getting paid to stay home plus receiving money from the federal government that was meant to help those that were laid off or lost their income. Small business owners are suffering from being shut down losing money every day. The Governor and Albuquerque Mayor just are concerned with making sure that the illegals and homeless are taken care of but nobody cares about the small business owner being hammered to death. Shame on all you liberals.