Our close examination of the records of the office of Lt. Governor Diane Denish has turned into a case study. We started reporting how $62 million was appropriated by the Governor without legislation authorization. That in itself is an extraordinary statement. In our constitutional system of government, the Legislator holds the purse strings, not the Executive Branch. But in the case of the 2003 fiscal stimulus delivered to New Mexico under the Jobs Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, the Legislature was shoved out of the way, literally. As we’ve reported, Governor Richardson simply spent the money, divvied it up and parceled it out, as though he were a one man Appropriations Committee. Legislators abdicated their constitutional authority to a very aggressive Executive Branch.

And then no one–no one–looked to see how this $62 million was spent.

We received from a confidential source an internal report by the Department of Finance and Administration detailing in very rough terms where the money went. But the sums are so large and the descriptions of the expenditures so vague the report is not an accurate auditing of how the money was spent and who got all these millions.

We sampled three entries on the report, half a million to the Office of Natural Resources Trustee for “environmental studies,” $1.6 million to the Department of Economic Development for “research,” “business recruitment,” and “border projects,” and $225,000 to the Office of Lt. Governor for “various projects.”

The Lt. Governor’s records immediately raised questions when we saw expenditures of federal stimulus funds for Christmas cards and chauffeur services. With a very large, but manageable pile of paper before us, we have been able to conduct a quite detailed examination of how the money was spent. That led us to find and question entries on the time sheets showing that stimulus money was spent to “work on Kerry for Saturday,” referring to a visit to New Mexico by Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, and other activities indicating the money was not spent to stimulate New Mexico’s economy or meet federal mandates, but to underwrite the political and public relations operations of an elected official.

We expect one more report on the Denish records to focus on glaring irregularities in bookkeeping and administration of these funds.

What’s the point of all this? After all, it is “only” a quarter million dollars. And, in a state where politicians have been stealing the equivalent of entire school district budgets, why so much time and effort on this paltry sum?

The answer that comes to mind is the “Broken Windows Theory” of law enforcement. New York City applied this approach in cleaning up sleazy Times Square. Other cities since then have also used this approach successfully. Every infraction of the law was treated as an infraction of the law, period. If the law is to be worth anything, then it must be enforced across the board, for everyone, no exceptions, and no passes because the violation “doesn’t matter enough.” Broken windows, a violation of the housing code, were cited and property owners were forced to replace them. What the city noticed was that one violation of the law, one looking the other way, encouraged more illegal activity. But by paying attention to details, the criminals got the message that there was no room for them, and they moved on and out. The theory worked.

New Mexico state government is the equivalent of New York City’s former sleazy Times Square. The corruption, waste, fraud and indifference to the public interest is out of control. It is a blighted zone on the map of public trust and accountability. But, by paying attention to the details, by shining the light on all aspects of government and how politicians handle every dime of public money, by citing every broken window, perhaps the crooks will get the message and move on and out.

One thing we’ve shown in our examination of how the Lt. Governor spent an extra $225,000: when no one’s looking, and when an official is given complete discretion on how to spend public money, they will spend it on their first priority, themselves. We have also learned that when a member of the public comes back and asks very specific questions about how the money was spent and for what precise purpose, the politician can’t provide very precise answers.

Which leads to concerns about how the 2009 stimulus funds will be spent and tracked. Governor Richardson has at his disposal–again, because the Legislature has defaulted–about $50 million in unallocated federal funds that will be appropriated at his discretion. Who is going to follow every cent of that money? Since those expenditures are off-budget, and outside the normal appropriation process, how will accountability be ensured? Those accountability mechanisms are not in place. Government spending exploded without a commensurate increase in government watchdog functions. By the time someone starts asking detailed questions, all that money will be gone. As we’ve learned from our look at the 2003 stimulus spending, the time to repair the broken windows is now, before politicians are at a loss to explain what they did with our money.