Letter To The Editor: Gov. Martinez is doing a great job
The Albuquerque Journal
By: Journal Staff
PUBLISHED: Tuesday, April 1, 2014

http://www.abqjournal.com/377204/opinion/talk-of-the-town-122.html

A RECENT Albuquerque Journal editorial unreasonably criticized Gov. Susana Martinez for allowing state employees to serve in more than one agency.

What the editorial failed to mention, however, is how much our state’s fiscal health has improved under Martinez. In her first few months in office, Martinez closed the largest structural deficit in state history. I clearly remember the headlines. Her opponents said she could never overcome the deficit without making deep cuts to education and Medicaid. They even said she would have to raise taxes.

But she proved her critics wrong. She sold the state luxury jet, cut salaries for cabinet secretaries and eliminated the chef in the governor’s residence.

By eliminating the fraud, waste and abuse that became the hallmark of the last administration, Martinez balanced the budget shortfall without raising taxes or making cuts to the programs New Mexicans rely on.

I think Martinez deserves credit, not criticism, for getting more out of government workers. I remember the days under Gov. Bill Richardson when some government workers got paid and didn’t even work. Now, under the Martinez administration, some in the media want to complain that state employees are working too hard? Seems like manufactured criticism to me.

It’s the newspaper’s job to closely scrutinize our public officials. But let’s not forget that Governor Martinez brought fiscal sanity back to Santa Fe, and getting a few state workers to pitch in deserves recognition, not disparagement.

TODD JOHNSON

Albuquerque