You know government is too big when….

The Rio Grande Foundation offices are near the new Bernalillo County headquarters building. This is the building which was formerly filled with PNM staffers and was purchased by the County. Cost of the building quickly went up by 50% to nearly $50 million.

The big letters on top were added this week. The building is attractive, but when one of the largest buildings in your biggest city’s downtown is occupied by government it really says a lot about the size and scope of government.

Here are a few skylines of comparable-sized cities (Albuquerque has 560,000):

Milwaukee 590,000:

Tucson 548,000: