Brooks says state budget can't be balanced on cuts alone

Reacting to Governor Bill Richardson's proposal to cut state education funding by 1.5 percent, Albuquerque Public Schools' Superintendent Winston Brooks said the state's largest school district might be able to handle those level of cuts and keep the spending reduction from impacting classrooms directly.

But Brooks warns 'the state's budget can’t be balanced by cutting waste alone.'

“I’ve worked in APS now for almost two years and I just don't find the waste that most people think exists there. In fact, our general administration budget is less than 1%. You can't cut that and balance any budget,” Brooks said.

The superintendent said lawmakers will ‘definitely’ have to look at revenue enhancements, but said APS might be able to handle cuts up to 3 percent.

“We have a plan to try to keep our cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. If it's any more than 3% we're in a heap of trouble,” Brooks said. If it’s more, Brooks said, “The legislature is going to have to change some legislation to allow us to use some of our SB-9 and HB-33 for operational expenses. That's a lion's share of it. The rest of it is taking stimulus money that we had planned to use for our special education and Title 1 kids and use it for our operational budget.”

Brooks said lawmakers who claim raising taxes will hurt the re-election should take a close look at the new poll by Research and Polling, Inc. for for New Mexico Education Partners which shows 81 percent of New Mexico voters don't support education cuts.

“They all say they can't raise taxes because it will hurt their election, if that be the case then I would think they would pay some attention to this poll that says if they do cut education their election is in jeopardy,” said Brooks.

Meanwhile, in a prepared statement proposing his 1.5 percent education cuts, Richardson said he made it "very clear to legislators that any cuts to education must be minimal and not affect our classrooms, kids and teachers.”

The governor credited the minimal cuts to his administration's efforts over the last seven years to keep cash reserves at 10 percent or higher.

Putting more money in the classroom

On Saturday, Rio Grande Foundation's Paul Gessing said he'd like to see more money in the classroom and less money on bureaucrats.

“New Mexico, contrary to popular belief, spends a lot of money on education. We have the eighth highest per capita spending on education in the country. There’s plenty of administrators and other highly paid folks we can look at getting rid of,” Gessing said. “We have proven that bureaucracies actually harm education results. The top five states in the country as far as results spend about 65% of their money in the classroom on education, whereas the bottom five of which surprise, surprise New Mexico is a part, along with those perennial all-stars like Louisiana and Mississippi, that we also find ourselves in the midst of, we spend 59.5% in the classroom.

ABQ Tea Rally Lures Thousands of Protestors and Pink Pigs.

It was a rowdy crowd that attended today's tax day tea party rally in Albuquerque at the Independence Grill. Beware these protesters were toting signs, flags, horns, and even hanging every pink pig they could find from trees.

UPDATED WITH AUDIO POSTS:

We talked exclusively with NM National Guard General Greg Zanetti, who's lining up to run for governor in New Mexico next year, and with Rio Grande Foundation President Paul Gessing at the event.

Both men say fiscal responsibility will fix the country's problems faster than exorbitant government spending.

We also shot lots of pictures at the Tea Party Rally near Louisiana and Montgomery Blvd. Watch this slide show while you listen to comments from Zanetti and Gessing.



Zanetti Says Government needs to fund projects that create wealth.

Republican Greg Zanetti, who’s in the process of launching his 2010 gubernatorial, spent a few minutes talking to us. Zanetti says, “We have a spending problem that you can’t solve with more spending, a debt problem you don’t solve with more debt, and a borrowing problem you don’t solve with more borrowing.”

Listen to our exclusive interview with Zanetti here.



“If we’re going to be a nation of free men and women then you have to have less government, less regulation, less taxes, less spending and less borrowing,” said Zanetti. “That’s the solution. It’s more freedom.”

We asked Zanetti what he’d do to in New Mexico if he’s elected governor. He told us he’d start right in the governor’s office and blamed Richardson for increasing the personal staff “exponentially.”

“We have reached to far into the lives of New Mexicans. We can cut back across the board,” Zanetti said.

“We have an entitlement philosophy that has permeated the entire state. We are rewarding those people who are not productive. That’s where the waste and abuse comes in. And of course, we’ve got a government that doesn’t trust the people and therefore the people don’t trust the government. That’s a bad cocktail,” said Zanetti.

Zanetti says the country needs to look for programs that which will lead to wealth production and wealth creation. He says he supports infrastructure projects, but says he’d cut venereal disease education and even public arts in tough times. He says the government needs to prioritize it’s spending.

Grassroots effort won't stop at the end of today's tea party.

Rio Grande Foundation President Paul Gessing tells us his group supports individual liberty and limited government. He says taxes and government spending is out of control.

Listen to his comments here.




Gessing says just because there has been an economic turn down it doesn’t mean the country should change to a socialist/leftist ideology. He says both parties have been responsible for the path “we are currently on.”

He believes the people turning out for this rally should have been on the street when the last administration was setting records for its own government spending beginning in 2004 and 2005.

Gessing told me that today’s grassroots effort won’t end the cries for smaller government. He says he working with the Tea Party Rally organizers to have another event on July 4th.

Gessing told us the Federal Government should take a cue from New Mexico’s leaders who tighten their belts when revenue projections fell.

He supports a balanced budget amendment and wants a “super majority,” or 2/3 vote requirement in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House for any tax increase proposal.