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Saving taxpayer dollars by cutting costs
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Today I announced a plan to save taxpayers an estimated $450 million over the next five years.
During these challenging times, while New Mexicans are being forced to tighten their belts and do more with less, I believe government should do the same. I have said time and again that I do not support tax increases on hardworking middle-class families and we should not seek to balance the budget on their backs.
Therefore, as governor, I would propose the following cost-saving measures to reduce the size of government and save taxpayers money. Please note that these ideas are just the beginning of a concerted effort to make government more efficient and cost effective.
Reducing the size of government
First, in the area of reducing the size of government:
• I would cut 100 political appointees – bringing the number down to pre-2003 authorized levels. Savings would be $8.8 million a year.
• I would offer classified state employees a voluntary, one-time buyout on their contracts to reduce the state workforce. Savings would be anywhere between $24 million and $33 million a year.
Efficiency
Second, in the area of consolidating departments and finding efficiencies, including better use of technology in government:
• I would consolidate inspectors general throughout government into one, independent Office of Government Accountability, which would investigate and root out waste, inefficiency and fraud and abuse in government.
• I would seek to consolidate a number of departments across state government – Tourism, Cultural Affairs, State Parks and Economic Development – into a new Department of Commerce, as an example.
• I will reduce the state’s car fleet by 10 percent and adopt a zip care model to reduce wear-and-tear, using state cars for commuting and encourage ride-sharing.
• I will review boards and commissions with a goal of sun-setting or consolidating 100 in the next four years.
• I will increase the use of the state’s Web conferencing ability to reduce travel time and expenses such as fuel and per-diem. This is estimated to save about $3.5 million a year.
• Give state employees who do not smoke and who control their weight, cholesterol and blood pressure a break in prices on what they pay for health insurance. Just like rewarding good drivers with lower car insurance premiums makes sense, so does rewarding employees who keep themselves healthy.
More than 50 corporations across the country, including Lovelace Health System in New Mexico, are using this model to provide employees incentives to stay well and stabilize health costs. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 75 percent of health-care dollars are spent treating conditions that are lifestyle related and largely preventable. Wellness efforts have been proven to reduce annual medical costs significantly and make our workforce more productive.
By implementing an incentive-based wellness system similar to the model being used by the private sector, it has been estimated that New Mexico could save $58 million over the next five years and still maintain the same level of benefits for employees.
More responsive and accountable
Finally, I will seek to make government more responsive to the public and accountable to the taxpayers. This means:
• A thorough review of all the tax credits our state offers to make sure tax credits are actually being used to create jobs.
• Worker’s comp reform to make sure rates are fair to employers and fraud and abuse are more aggressively investigated.
•A new commitment to customer service in government – expanding the hours some agencies are open and a customer-care refresher training for everyone in government.
• And an expansion of the Sunshine Portal to include a “See-Click-Fix” function to allow regular citizens to get online and alert us of problems in their areas.
Just a few of the ideas
These are just a few of the ideas to save money by reforming government. Throughout the campaign, I will seek to highlight these and other ideas – including comprehensive capital outlay reform – to ensure state dollars are spent wisely.
I’m going to be a different kind of governor and bring about a new way of doing business. That means cost-saving reforms to save the taxpayers an estimated $450 million, instead of millions in new taxes on middle-class New Mexicans.
Denish is New Mexico’s lieutenant governor and the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor. You can learn more about her plan by clicking here.
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politicalguy, have you ever tried to tell Bill Richardson what to do? He is not know for his abilities to take counseling and suggestions.
Some questions for Diane about these interesting ideas – at what time in the last 7 1/2 years did you present them to Richardson, and why didn’t he listen? If you didn’t present them, why not? Why wait until an election year? And if you did, what does that say about your influence as Lt. Governor?
These statements and proposals of hers seem barely credible, coming from someone who has seen the corruption and waste and fraud up close and did nothing for nearly 8 years.
Bravo — an actual idea to cut spending. Seems pretty thoughtful to me. Definitely worth debate and discussion. Wow. Do you believe you’d get that from a candidate?
Very different than what we’re getting from the GOP crop of candidates — Yammer sue yammer whine sob complain bumble complain — and with a dose of attacks and no real ideas.
Excellent ideas. I also like her positions in Op/Eds about the environment groups and the shift she wants to make to more common sense regulations. She is no Big Bill, and I think will run the state much differently and thus much better.
Now that the heat is on, Denish is trying to take a page from the Republicans. It is a little late to close the barn door, since the horse has escaped from the barn already. We have seen eight years of rampant spending by the present administration in the Roundhouse, and now she is touting less government. Where was she for the last eight years, when she could have done some of the lobbying for less government?
If she wanted less government, she should have started trying to reduce it long ago. The Republicans Caucus asked for many cost cutting measure in the regular session, but they weren’t listened to, as ‘Transparency’ stated, plus she is trying to mimic Janice Arnold-Jones. How sad to not be able to think out of the box. We can thank our lucky stars that we will be rid of her and Richardson in a few more months.
I am worried about UNM being a political dumping ground for washed up cabinet members of Richardsons Admin and the future admin. Sure she will cut the exempt positions, but that does not mean that she will not make “recommendations” for UNM. I know of 16 x-richardson staff members who now make 100k plus at UNM. Did they get the jobs because they were the most qualified, probably not. They got it because Uncle Bill was leaning on UNM to hire them.
Another thing, I dont agree with raising taxes on the middle class, but i do agree with corporations and the rich picking up their share of the bill. And for the record, 100k is not middle class in NM, that is on the verge of wealth in this state.
Looks like Big Bill is going to line-item veto the food tax.
Wait! Did I miss Diane’s conversion to the Republican Party?
For those who don’t know, the House Republican Caucus proposed 43 cost cutting measures before the regular session this year that were summarily ignored by the Speaker and his cronies.
Of course, Diane’s version of cost cutting measures is pretty pathetically weak, picking out the weakest of measures to run with. I’d especially like to see the spreadsheet that shows how buying out employees ‘contracts’ is going to save a single red cent… the unfunded liability of their pensions alone has the state underwater today and that is something no Dem wants to talk out loud about ever!
Look. She publicly avoided commenting on the legislative session or the special session where she could have showed some sort of real leadership on limiting the size of government and fostering transparency which are traditionally republican principles… but she didn’t.
Her New Way Forward (first mentioned by Republican Janice Arnold-Jones) is really about disavowing her long standing leadership in the Democrat Party of NM… the party that has been in control of everything for seventy years… the party that is responsible for how broken and downright backward we are as a state.
No one is going to let her get away with that including many Dems who have learned to hate their system as much as the Rs who have been disenfranchised by theirs.
Keep pluggin’ Diane. You don’t have much time left to burn through that war chest of yours… and you’ll never be able to overcome your past connection to a failed state. That math is simple enough for everyone to understand.
You know what’s odd – all the Republican candidates do is complain about spending, but who comes out with the big proposal to cut spending? Denish. These Republicans are out of their league. Even on “Republican issues,” she beats them to the punch. I need to read this again, but there really is some good stuff in here. Nice to see a candidate with some substance.