Nearly half the employees at the State Personnel Office have BlackBerrys paid for by state taxpayers, according to information obtained by The New Mexican.

Of 64 employees in full-time positions, 24 have BlackBerry World Edition Smartphones and four have BlackBerry Storm phones. The plan for each phone costs $79 a month, for a total of $2,240.

The department says it didn't pay full price for any of the phones, as it took advantage of upgrades or other promotional offers to obtain them. Both models can be bought online for about $150.

This type of expense might be something lawmakers take aim at when they meet in a special session this fall. Legislators need to trim at least $400 million in spending for this fiscal year. Gov. Bill Richardson has proposed cutting $444 million, including 3 percent cuts in all agencies except public schools.

Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, called the number of phones "excessive." He added, "State government has to be modern, but I don't know in an agency of that size that you need to have 28 phones like that. That just seems like an awful lot," he said.

The department says it did away with the landlines of the people with cell phones, and that the smart phones make employees more accessible.

"In order to properly service our customer state agencies and strengthen our oversight and administration, the State Personnel Office has changed the way it does business and in doing so requires key staff to be mobile and accessible," Records Custodian Shelia Zamora said in a response to a request for information by The New Mexican.

"It is with this effort and fiscal prudence that the State Personnel Office has removed landline phones of employees with BlackBerrys, with the exception of essential land lines, which results in a savings to the state of $308 a month," she wrote.

The cell numbers of the people without land lines aren't published anywhere, but the number to the office's front desk is, and a receptionist there can transfer calls to a BlackBerry user, Zamora said.

Jennings said he hopes those employees are just as accessible as people with landlines. "One of the biggest complaints I get is that you can't get a person to answer the phone in state government," he said.

Among other things, the people with the phones "supervise all administrative and technical personnel activities of the state and provide for a classification plan for all positions in the service," Zamora said.

House Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, said he doesn't have a major problem with the phones, because they might help employees be more efficient. "It's the new way of communication," he said.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.