Check out the following chart:
The chart is pretty self-explanatory as New Mexico’s per-capita spending was the 6th-highest in the nation during the 2000-2010 decade. This is not surprising since for much of the decade big-spending Gov. Bill Richardson was in office, but it should give license to our current elected leaders to focus on being fiscally-conservative when it comes to state spending.
For a poor state, for some reason, we are good at spending. Given the sad state of public education, both K-12 and university, we are not getting any value.
But this is not always a fair comparision. The state is actually doing a lot of county and municipal functions that are done in other states. Albuquerque , Santa Fe and Las Cruces left out of the equation of course but there are still 99 municipalities and 33 counties that are on the dole. The money is coming from our extractive industries, owned by out-of-styate corporations and why shouldn’t it be spent on current residents? Once it is severred from the land and burnt up into the environment, why shouldn’t living people spend it on their health or education needs?
I don’t disagree with some of your points, but the map measures rates of growth in spending among the various states. I don’t think NM as a state has increased its role relative to local governments that much over the past decade or so.