At his State of the City address last week, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez made the point that New Mexico is no longer immune to larger, national economic forces.

With oil and gas prices tanking and dragging the state’s general fund budget down with them, the same dynamic seems to be taking place among local governments across the state as well.

This past weekend, I sat down with municipal leaders from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and Corrales for KNME’s New Mexico In Focus to get a better sense of how the national economic downturn has impacted local government’s bottom lines.

The short answer: The impact is leading to cutbacks and hiring freezes and other belt-tightening measures. Watch the interview (above) to get a more detailed picture from the four local governments mentioned.

And watch the roundtable discussion (below) to see what KNME’s regular crew of analysts make of the local government impacts.