Dear Fellow New Mexicans,
As a candidate I pledged to cut wasteful spending in State government and balance the budget. Immediately upon taking office, I cut salaries for staff and cabinet secretaries by 10 percent and reduced operating costs at the governor’s residence by 55 percent. I am also in the process of reducing the number of political appointees by at least 20 percent.
But, I wanted to take this a step further. That’s why on January 12th, I invited New Mexicans to share with me their ideas to cut waste in State government. To date, I have received over 1,300 emails.
Some New Mexicans used this forum as a sounding board to share with us their positions on a variety of issues. Others submitted ideas on how we can make state government more efficient and less costly.
Certain concerns I was able to address quickly. For example, many New Mexicans questioned whether it was a wise use of taxpayer money to have so many employees driving State-issued vehicles. That’s a fair question.
Other recommendations we received need further evaluation and I am directing my cabinet secretaries to review these ideas to determine their feasibility.
As I stated in yesterday’s news conference, starting today we will begin to post these ideas online for the public to view.
I appreciate your feedback as we continue to implement ways to make government operate more efficiently.
Thank you,
Governor Susana Martinez