As we await the governor's decision to sign or not to sign the Legislature's drastic 7.6 percent budget cuts to state agencies, my question as a state employee is, "How did our state get to this point?" Obviously, there is a lot of blame to go around.

There are two groups of New Mexicans that should not bear blame for the budgetary mess. First, the citizens of our state who hand over hard-earned wages to the state in the form of taxes. Second, the average state employee, who for the most part gets a very bad rap. This group of people provides the needed services directly to our citizens.

So, whose fault can it be? Ironically, the citizens of our state. We have allowed this to happen, by foolishly listening to our politicians in election years, as though there were actually something in it for the average citizen. We have allowed them to mislead us and mismanage our state into this financial mess.

We the citizens have not held our so-called "elected officials" accountable to high ethical, moral and professional standards. Officials in every corner of state government including the legislative and the executive branches have been involved, mentioned or even implicated in some sort of wrongdoing.

We all can only stand back and watch the governor blame the legislators and the legislators blame the governor. They have failed the citizens by overspending on high-dollar projects that no average New Mexican could possibly benefit from; the space port is one that comes to mind! We have been misled by ill-advised tax cuts, and all approved by our Legislature!

Those tax cuts were not for the average citizen, but for big business. Neither the executive nor legislative branches have done anything to fix the problem and go after big businesses that legally dodge paying their fair shares of taxes in New Mexico, which costs the state millions of dollars annually.

The list goes on, from double dipping by state employees to excessive appointment of exempt employees with their excessively high wages. Combined reporting has fallen on deaf ears, tax breaks for the rich continue, as do poor revenue forecasting and budgeting, while the average citizen and state employee sees less each paycheck.

Some would say that state employees, who are the average citizens, have it made, and it is time for them to feel the pain of the economic downturn. Trust me, they have. New Mexicans also need to know that the two big unions that represent most state employees have worked with the governor, allowing negotiations that include no raises when bad economic times hit.

Did that help? No! The state came in and raided our retirement, so while we paid more the state paid less. New Mexico state employees are some of the lowest paid state employees in our region and around the country. I highly doubt that the governor's employees or the legislators will have their incomes cut to this level.

The budget is a statewide issue, and all citizens must be willing to share the burden in fixing the mess that our elected officials have put us in. We are more than willing to pay a little more in taxes to ensure that services stay available to those who need them. If we are truly one state, then all segments of state government must share equally in these budgets cuts, including the governor himself, his exempt employees and all legislators. All New Mexicans need to come together.

Tony Barajas is a state employee and president of the Amercian Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union in Taos.