Roundhouse Melodrama: It’s about the Political Class, Not the People.

New Mexico’s political class – Soap opera stars, one and all!

Come on folks, after all it’s the “Days of THEIR Lives,” right?

While the Roundhouse melodrama of who is right about the state having enough cash at the end of the fiscal year without bouncing checks seems to be all over the news, there is real life drama playing out all over the state – tragically so.

How can anyone think that skating by with a few bucks left over at the end of June is a good thing.

It is appalling.

And another year where sweeps and cuts serve as the means to run government is likely waiting in the wings.

Last year should have been the last year that leaders faked the financial reports.

It took the state auditor to finally expose the truth, while legislators of both parties and the executive pretended they balanced a budget …it took three tries in less than eleven months – and it is still disputable as to whether the fiscal year ends up in the black.

What’s pathetic is almost all of New Mexico’s politicians have abandoned any commitment to governance.

Members of both parties are content to point fingers at the governor, and she at them, while they all double down on fundraising for their campaigns and spinning fake news about failed state policy.

And then you have the cheerleaders for both sides.

Business leaders stick their heads in the sand and suggest returning to even more draconian and economically doomed policies of more corporate welfare will revive a dead economy.

And why are union leaders and social service advocates not chastising the Democrats for walking away from voting on increasing revenue from tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and from increased rates on the one-percenters?

The governor clearly has been in charge for the past several years.

But the Democrats also added to the state’s problems when they signed onto the 2013 corporate tax-break package, and failed to demand the governor sign an increase in minimum wages before they gave the candy to corporations.

That was New Mexico’s version of ‘trickle down economics’ – brought to you by a legislature controlled by the Democrats.

In this year’s session they failed to redeem their wayward ways, as they showed no leadership when it came to offering the bold ideas and plans to get the state’s economy out of fiscal free fall.

It seems like it is more important among the political class, and its supporters of both sides in the media, to double down on finger-pointing and political warfare instead of helping the state find its monetary mojo.

They seem unconcerned that collateral damage imposed on the state, and particularly those needing good jobs, is real.

Real people are suffering.

The state’s bond rating is suffering.

As politicians, pundits, and the fourth estate seem satisfied to pay attention to the sport of politics, there can be no question that serious entrepreneurs and businesses see only the folly of those elected to govern here in New Mexico.

Why would they think this is a good place to invest?