SANTA FE – State Auditor Tim Keller announced Aug. 16 that the Office of the State Auditor is set to award financial assistance to small political subdivisions across New Mexico.

The OSA will award grants to entities, such as acequias and soil and water conservation districts, to help them complete state audit requirements that bring transparency to public funds. Over the last three fiscal years, the OSA has awarded about $420,000 to 64 small, mostly rural entities in 19 different counties.

Helping entities become compliant with audit requirements allows entities to receive capital outlay funding and other state or federal assistance.

“A little help goes a long way in assisting...

Julie Kronhaus was a well-regarded estate planner with impressive training and credentials. She was a licensed attorney, a certified public accountant, and had earned a master’s degree in taxation. Unfortunately, she was also home-schooled in fraud.

Between 2009 and 2015, according to court records, Kronhaus defrauded clients and banks out of approximately $2.7 million. The Florida resident often acted as a trustee for her clients and held their money in bank accounts she controlled. With that access, she diverted money into her law firm’s bank accounts and used it to afford a lavish lifestyle that included clothes-buying sprees and regular trips to New York and Europe.

“She...

On Aug. 16, New Mexico Political Report wrote about New Mexico’s dipping reserves. In Fiscal Year 2016, the reserve fund was at $146 million, and in Fiscal Year 2017, New Mexico was $67 million in the red.

Now, the Legislative Finance Committee has released its revenue forecast for the state.

Among the report’s highlights:

Preliminary FY 2017 ending reserve balances are $329 million. Projected FY 2018 ending reserve balances are $206 million.

Preliminary recurring revenue for Fiscal Year 2017 is $5.7 billion. That’s $140.4 million higher than the December 2016 consensus estimate, thanks in large part to gross receipts tax revenues.

Forecasts for corporate income tax called...

New Mexico’s savings keeps dropping —and now the state has one of the smallest cushions of any state in the nation. Even now, those reserves are still well below pre-recession levels.

If no new money were coming in and the state government could rely only on those reserves, there would only be enough cash to run the state for 8.4 days. That’s according to The Pew Charitable Trusts and its analysis of states’ fiscal health.

In Fiscal Year 2016, the amount of money New Mexico held back and put into savings—to pay for unexpected expenses or shore up the budget when revenues dip—was at its lowest level since 2000, according to Pew. That year, the fund was at $146 million...