Carter Bundy
While there are signs that Washington’s stimulus policies have helped us end our downward slide toward depression, we’re far from out of the woods. Tea party ideological rants about government being evil don’t provide any guidance for how to improve our economy.
The rants often don’t even make sense: “keep the government out of my Medicare” and “don’t fill out the census — the government already has too much information like your Social Security number” are two of my favorites.
Instead, now is the time to have a real debate, and a specific, detailed discussion about how to help the private sector rebound and how to improve the public sector.
Slashing services does what?
One of the biggest cries from the far-right, anti-government folks at the Rio Grande Foundation and their tea party followers is that because the private sector has had a tough time, we should de-fund the public sector.
Several problems with that line of thinking: First, when the private sector activity is shrinking, demand for many public services actually goes up. As a general rule, for example, the worse the private sector economy, the higher the crime rate. Do tea partiers really want fewer police, fewer corrections officers, fewer courts, fewer prosecutors, fewer 911 dispatchers, and more dangerous streets? If so, be honest and say it up front, because that’s what is being asked for.
Another example: Applications for unemployment and Medicaid go up dramatically in a recession. Is the RGF advocating day-long lines for people who are simultaneously trying to get jobs? How does that help employment?
Second, it’s basic economics that when the private sector is in freefall, if the public sector doesn’t step up and at least maintain some economic activity, we’ll spiral into a depression. How many private sector jobs in Albuquerque are saved because the military still has a steady presence in the state? If it were up to most tea partiers and conservative think tanks, we’d slash government across the board, and we’d be kissing even more private sector jobs goodbye as well.
Third, in New Mexico there’s been a major omission from the far right on a central fact in this debate: Government has downsized, and to a greater level than the private sector. Classified state employees are more than 10 percent lower per capita than at the end of Gary Johnson’s administration. Meanwhile, the private sector unemployment rate has gone from about 5 percent to about 9 percent in New Mexico (which is also, of course, a per capita measure) — about 4 percent more unemployed.
In other words, state classified employment has dropped about 250 percent more than private sector employment. In addition to doing more work with less staff, most public employees are taking home less pay than they did last year or two years ago.
The reason you don’t see screaming headlines about the reduction in public sector employment and pay is that most municipalities – and certainly the state – are large enough organizations with sufficient turnover that they can cut workforce through attrition. There is also something of a lag between private downturns and public impact, meaning that public employers often have more time to anticipate and manage budget problems than private employers, and have done so effectively.
Join the real discussion
There’s a very legitimate debate to be had about which programs are vital and which can be trimmed back. There are real discussions about merging departments and making government more efficient, and Diane Denish, for one, has proposed an additional $450 million in state budget cuts.
My union doesn’t agree with all of those cuts, but at least the proposals are by and large detailed, thoughtful ideas about where to save money.
Productive ideas don’t just come from one party. Republican Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones has been supportive of some specific ideas to help citizens track government spending and tax breaks, and generally has taken the approach that while more efficiency is needed, government isn’t always the enemy. She’s also called for an end to abusive corporate giveaways and has shown a consistency in her approach to fiscal responsibility.debate
While Arnold-Jones is not an ideal candidate for public employees, her candor, understanding of the importance of many government programs including public safety and education, and her willingness to work for pragmatic solutions across party lines led AFSCME’s member-run political program to recommend her to our Republican members in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
Arnold-Jones and Denish are each engaged in a productive conversation about how we can make government better, save taxpayers money, and still deliver the services we need.
The Rio Grande Foundation’s Jim Scarantino and Paul Gessing are bright guys. Very bright, and very likable. I believe they’re also genuinely concerned with the well-being of New Mexico.
I respectfully invite them to join the real discussion going on about how to make our government more efficient while leaving the political rhetoric behind. The “government is the problem” stuff makes for good tea party agitation and may be marginally helpful in November. But such rhetoric is neither accurate nor helpful in advancing ideas for how to make both government and the private sector more effective in New Mexico.
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.