The rapid growth in government bodies in New Mexico

I’m not talking about obesity, although perhaps Michelle Obama should deploy her food police in government instead of against our kids…but I digress.

No, I’m referring to the dramatic increase in the number of government entities, particularly in New Mexico during the mid-1990s according to a new report from the Washington Post (see chart below)

In general, government should not be multi-layered. It is expensive as it requires multiple people at each layer, creates conflicts (most notably between the City and County, and adds bureaucracy and taxes (applied by each entity) one on top of each other. Locally-speaking, we have Bernalillo County, City of Albuquerque, APS, AMAFCA, Rio Metro, and MRGCD to name just the ones off the top of my head that do business locally.

I’m not sure what happened in the mid-1990s to cause the explosion in New Mexico government bodies and I’d be interested in anyone who knows, but there’s no doubt that paring them back is necessary.