Governor's Plan For Jobs = Epic Fail

From ProgressNowNM.

It's Arithmetic: Governor's plan to create four times the jobs with half the budget reveals predictable results

REPORT: Other states took opposite result and added jobs ASAP

As New Mexico struggles to explain its unrelenting job loss problem, the budget for the state’s only agency tasked with recruiting business was slashed in half, a recipe Governor Martinez and her economic development team believed would spur four times the job growth previously achieved, a report by ProgressNow New Mexico Education reveals.

On paper, Martinez set an expected outcome of 2,200 jobs created by the New Mexico Partnership – a non-profit business recruitment agency funded by the Economic Development Department. This was more than four times the number of jobs created by the agency in the previous year and the largest component, in terms of job creation, of her Economic Development Department.

But records show that while promising impressive job growth from the Partnership, she cut the budget for the department by more than 46% - almost half – while expecting it to perform four times greater than the previous year. Predictably, the agency created just 1/3 of the jobs she promised.

By contrast, Nevada and Colorado added investments to their business recruitment programs at the same time– almost doubling the budget in Nevada – and realized growth for the first time in years.

“This report is a cautionary tale for decision makers. It begs us to look closely at promises by this administration when it comes to job creation. We can’t permit them to give the unemployed hope for new jobs coming if there is no real commitment to follow through,” says Pat Davis of Progress Now NM Education.

“This administration has adopted a fatalistic approach to job creation. They claim that government can’t grow jobs and business doesn’t want to move here. Then they slash the funding of any agency looking to prove otherwise. It makes no sense, but it’s our reality.”

Read the full report at ProgressNowNM.org/blog.