I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Governor Bill Richardson has made it three in a row — that is three days in a row that he has used his blog to push back at criticism from legislators. This time, it is over his hiring freeze, which legislators say is a freeze in name only.
“The mere suggestion that the Governor’s hiring freeze has been ineffective was good enough for those legislators to rush to the media to say: ‘We told you so,’” the blog read. “Unfortunately, they didn’t bother to verify their facts.”
Richardson countered with his version of the hiring freeze figures, an elaboration on numbers he released earlier this week.
A quick look at some executive agencies shows:
- Office of the Governor – 10 vacancies (25% vacancy rate)
- Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management – 18 vacancies (23.7% vacancy rate)
- Department of Information Technology-41 vacancies (22% vacancy rate)
- Public Education Department-66 vacancies (21% vacancy rate)
- Department of Transportation – 421 vacancies (15.5% vacancy rate)
- Department of Game & Fish – 43 vacancies (14% vacancy rate)
Republican legislators have charged that despite his claims, Richardson has continued to add high-paid positions.
Richardson’s blog post says that “the simple fact is” that “there have been 718 new hires and 2,015 separations – meaning a net reduction of 1,279 employees.”
But Senator Sue Wilson-Beffort, R-Sandia Park, told the Independent Thursday that there has been a “Race to the finish line to get a lot of hiring done.”
“We aren’t talking about cabinet secretaries, which are exempt, or a lot of the other director-type people who are exempt, but we’re just talking about blanket unauthorized hires that are government appointments,” Wilson-Beffort said.
Here’s more:
Peter St. Cyr contributed the video to this report.
