Nothing the Taxpayers Pay For Is Free

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There is a very good reason why you don’t hand a wino a fifty-dollar bill—that much alcohol all at once could kill him.

You can see a similar phenomenon whenever the state of New Mexico has a budget surplus: the trolls in state government immediately begin tripping over each other in a desperate race to improve the state by spending the money on harebrained ideas. 

Admittedly, the state doesn’t have a surplus that often, since this is a poor state whose revenues are closely tied to oil and gas income from state-owned lands.  As the price of oil bounces up and down due to factors far, far out of the control of this state, our economy follows closely.  Just a few years ago, when oil revenues were down, the state responded with draconian cuts to education.

A few years later, there was a large surplus and then-Governor Richardson went on a spending spree that that was the envy of drunken sailors the world over.  (To be fair, my friend, Jay Lloyd, the former Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, has reminded me on several occasions that there is a huge difference between a drunken sailor and the government—when a drunken sailor runs out of money, he stops spending.)

During his two terms as governor, Richardson built us a Spaceport that will never launch anything into space and a tourist train that runs a constant deficit and will never link half the towns promised.  He also turned over state funds to an investment company that invested heavily in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, leaving the state retirement fund deeply in debt. 

After Richardson, the state went on an austerity program, restraining costs, slowly rebuilding its cash reserves.  Now, the state once again has a surplus, the income from oil and gas royalties are high, and we have a brand-new governor.  While the state retirement funds are still deeply in the red….it is obviously time for the state to throw fiduciary caution to the wind and SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!  As any parasitic bureaucrat can attest, we are just one more government program away from paradise.

So, this governor has proposed that all 29 state universities and colleges should be tuition-free for all students.  Ka-Ching!

I have nothing against getting a college education—hell, now that I’ve retired from teaching at Enema U, I’ve gone back as a student in the quest for another degree.  (I’m hoping to collect the whole set.)

The cost of the free education measure is high, but the governor says that we can afford to pay the expenses out of the surplus currently coming from our oil and gas industry.  Ignoring that the petroleum revenue is too volatile to base such far-reaching plans and ignoring that the governor’s own political party wants to shut down the petroleum industry in the next decade, if the state has that much readily available funds…why is the governor also attempting to raise taxes?  (And why don’t we fully fund the state retirement system?  As a recipient, I really don’t want to be paid in desert sand.)

I’ve seen how the university wastes money.  When I was a student at Enema U, we had a university president.  By the time I was teaching there, we had a president and a provost.  When I retired, we had a chancellor and a president, and a provost—all paid very, very well.  And there were enough deans, associate deans, and executive vice presidents to run a small country.  If the present rate of administrative growth continues, it won’t be long before there will be no space left for students.

Anyone could look at the budget for Enema U and shave millions of dollars off the budget without either the faculty or the student body even noticing the changes.  I doubt that either group even knows there is currently a Dean of Student Articulation, much less what the person does.  And I bet you a dollar that even that dean doesn’t know what his assistant dean accomplishes.

If university spending is out of control now, what will it be like when the state guarantees to pick up all costs?  What incentive will the university have to control costs?

I’m all for the state helping students to get an education, but I’m not sure this is the way to do it.  I have seen no effort by the state to curb the constantly rising cost of tuition.  Instead, for most of the last two decades, the university regents—political appointees by the governor—have voted annually to raise tuition by the maximum allowed under state law. 

Nor have I seen any effort by the state to help students find local employment after graduation.  Right now, the most expensive export from New Mexico is not our green chile, our pecans, or even computer chips from Intel.  Our most expensive export are the students the state has educated, who are forced to immediately leave the state after graduation in search of jobs. 

Why should the taxpayers of New Mexico fund the education of graduates who establish careers in Arizona and Texas? 

I have a modest suggestion for the governor:  Start small:  First, roll back the last couple of tuition increases while simultaneously increasing the state budget for education.  Increase the endowment for state universities so that the proceeds can lower future costs.  Fund more scholarships in the fields that New Mexico needs.  Make a real effort at each educational institution to lower existing costs.  Don’t start programs that future state revenues—when they inevitably decline—cannot support.

And most important, don’t raise taxes until there are enough jobs for the students who are already graduating.