New Mexicans get very little for tax bucks

In the world most law-abiding New Mexicans live in, when there is too much month at the end of the money, residents first look to where they can become more efficient and where they can economize.

They do not usually look first to where they can get a fast buck.

But the latter is how government usually works — especially in the Land of Enchantment.

You know the pattern: What fund named Peter can we rob to pay a program named Paul. A new study from WalletHub reveals just how bad a job state government does in delivering a return on investment for the tax dollars it spends.

But the problem isn’t that we don’t tax enough or spend enough.

New Mexico ranks 41st in the nation for using tax dollars to improve its residents’ lives and 44th for the overall quality of services it provides to residents.

Specifically, it ranks in the top five for highest violent crime rate and highest percentage of residents in poverty. It ranks 46th in public school achievement and university education; 27th in health, including life expectancies, infant mortality, hospital beds per 1,000 residents and average health insurance premiums; and dead last, 50th, for its economy, including the unemployment rate, median annual household income, annual job growth, percentage of residents below poverty line and economic mobility.

Yet, New Mexico has the 17th-highest level of state and local taxes per capita, based on those 18 and older, at 10.65 percent, according to the survey.

The study recommends governments “take advantage of technology to make more efficient use of revenues they earn. Many … lag behind the private sector in the use of technology to maximize efficiency and track productivity.” It says “revenues should be earmarked for relevant services,” such as gasoline taxes for road construction. And it says governments “have to attract some officials who have experience in the business world, people who have managed some sort of operation where they were held responsible – accountable – for doing a good job with the resources they had available.”

There are many explanations – ranging from the high-dollar way we set wages for construction jobs to the huge outlay for public employee pensions to the practice that finally ended during Gov. Susana Martinez’s first term of taxing manufacturers for expanding and giving them breaks for hiring workers out of state. These practices have been ingrained here for many years.

So, the next time a government official recommends increasing funding to something – no matter how heartfelt that recommendation or how deserving that something sounds – it is worth recalling that New Mexicans get very little bang for their tax bucks, and asking how the current funding is being used and what, exactly, it is delivering.

If the WalletHub study shows anything to New Mexico, it’s that more isn’t necessarily better when it comes to the government spending tax dollars.

Sometimes, it’s just more.

— Albuquerque Journal