Posted on 10/25/2010 8:43:17 AM PDT by CedarDave
Moise summed up the scandal this way: There was too much power in too few hands with too little oversight. That describes New Mexico government at just about every level.
We could catch, arrest and fire all the bad guys responsible for the state's depressingly varied financial scandals. It probably wouldn't matter much. The way our state is organized almost invites corruption.
The governor is empowered by law to appoint members to hundreds of boards and commissions, some of them centers of considerable power. All of the state-licensed professions, for example, are regulated by their own boards. Accountants, cosmetologists, dentists and osteopaths all have to report to a board. Some appointments require legislative approval; many do not. Each is an opportunity to reward the politically faithful, make a friend happy and, when a professional is appointed to a licensing board, grant a few lucky people power over their own professions and their peers.
Our system of state government has concentrated an enormous amount of regulatory and financial power into very few hands. Even honest people of good will ... have to struggle to maintain their integrity when the systems they operate within make ethical slips so easy. ...
If ever there was a time to completely rethink how we organize and run state government, this era of economic collapse and budgetary chaos is the time. We could start by eliminating dozens of boards and by establishing systems that regularly oversee the work of the powerful boards that remain. We could consider financing structures that don't rely entirely on Santa Fe to spread the wealth around.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Moise is Steve Moise, the new chief investment officer for the State Investment Council. The SIC is is responsible for investing $14 billion in New Mexico's permanent funds, and is the second largest state fund after Alaska and the 30th largest in the world. It has been embroiled in Pay-to-Play scandals involving the corrupt Richardson administration and his appointed political cronies. Moise has now taken over and power has shifted from Richardson appointees to those appointed by the state legislature (which in itself leads to problems).
A good read for NM citizens on how political power is accumulated and used in the state.
NM list PING!
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BTTT
my cousin in NM shot a man in a fit of jealous rage... (he felt the man had a thing for his wife)... his lawyer told him he could pay off a certain judge and do no time... so he did... and he did NO time...
Crap, that’s a scary thing to hear.
***my cousin in NM shot a man in a fit of jealous rage... and he did NO time...***
And to think, in 1940, one of my kin got TEN YEARS for leaving the scene of an accident (which wasn’t even his fault)! He got out early so he could take a government paid trip to Europe in 1944.
Slowly, votes were found for Al Gore until he took the state.
NM has always been tarnished in my mind since.
Were it up to me I’d pass an anti-vote-fraud law allowing Citizens to follow the ballot box [armed of course], watch the counters, and the certifiers... oh, and they would be given free reign to shoot anyone “finding” a box of ballots OR incorrectly certifying the vote.
Bloodthirsty? Perhaps.
It’s !!!TRADITION!!!
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