Finding The Right Priorities (continued)
Perhaps we can call it a conversation piece since so many people have asked me why I do not just throw it away. Doing without the latest and greatest of all things. Many years ago in New Mexico, in what I might be tempted to call the “old days,” there was not all that much technology to buy. Typewriters would last at least a decade or two without further budget support other than ribbons and an occasional cleaning. Today there is a quiet vicious battle shaping up in New Mexico government about workers who “need” smartphones to be able to do their jobs. They need big fancy offices, new cars, and smartphones, and they must attend conferences in famous resort areas. Before anyone gets in a thither, I do use a smartphone and would lose about 99 percent of my effectiveness if I found myself back on the old manual typewriter. But if I was in the shape that New Mexico is in I might pull in my horns a bit and could do without the latest and greatest of all things. Bet I could do without a jet for sure.
There is most of five and a half billion dollars for the New Mexico budget, but according to some people, there is no way to spend less than, um, er, let’s see, everything we have and at least billion more. There is no amount of money that these people cannot spend. And the mantra is: We deserve this tax money and more. The issue is not if New Mexico has the money for all that is wanted; it is, where does New Mexico have its priority? Despite the doom and gloom from Santa Fe, I see that New Mexico is still watering the grass and paving parking lots. I will know that there are true budget problems when parking lots revert to dirt in Santa Fe and the lawns are not watered.
