Racing Money, Political Hires (NM Richardson corruption)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | October 27, 2010 | Thomas J. Cole

[CedarDave]

The Richardson administration, apparently tired of all those pesky questions about the governor's political appointees, recently refused to release an up-to-date list of the employees, their salaries and titles. It had provided such lists on numerous occasions over Gov. Bill Richardson's nearly eight years in office.

I asked the administration last month for a list of the appointees to state jobs. Instead, the Department of Finance and Administration gave me an "organizational list" for all of the nearly 24,000 state workers, including career employees. Buried in those 1,500 pages is the information on the appointees, formally known as exempt employees.

The DFA hasn't yet given a reason for not providing an up-to-date list containing only exempt employees as it had done in the past when asked.

The growth in the number and salaries of political appointees has been an issue for much of Richardson's time in office. Both candidates to succeed him, Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and Republican District Attorney Susana Martinez, have said they would cut the number of exempt employees.

Richardson substantially grew the number of political appointees, which peaked at about 470. More than 100 exempt employees made in excess of $100,000 at one point, with one appointee taking down north of $300k.

The administration's refusal to release up-to-date lists on political appointees will make it more difficult — but not impossible — to continue to track the transfers of exempt employees into career, or classified, jobs to help shield them from dismissal under the next administration.

[CedarDave]

The administration's refusal to release up-to-date lists on political appointees will make it more difficult — but not impossible — to continue to track the transfers of exempt employees into career, or classified, jobs to help shield them from dismissal under the next administration.

The rats scurry into the darkness in an attempt to avoid the oncoming light which, with the oncoming Martinez administration, is likely to be much brighter than any Denish searchlight.

(The racing portion of the story not excerpted here has to do with campaign contributions from the racing industry to the former racing commission chairman now running for a seat in the NM House of Representatives.)

[CedarDave]

NM list PING!

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[CedarDave]

Lets assume, for example, that the average salary of the 470 political employees was $80,000 (which with benefits is actually quite a bit higher). Simple math has the total at $37.6 million dollars. So I expect the actual total paid by NM taxpayers to Richardson’s cronies was over $40 million!!