By Jim Williams
Santa Fe, NM – Just a couple of days after outgoing Governor Bill Richardson advised her against continuing to criticize his administration, newly-inaugurated Governor Susana Martinez took another parting shot at the former executive today (Tuesday). The Republican Martinez, in a statement to the press, said she is cutting expenditures by 55 percent at the governor's residence in Santa Fe by eliminating two staff positions and reducing another's salary. The governor said she has cut two chefs from the residence payroll, saving 153-thousand dollars in salaries. She is also cutting the residence manager's salary from 80-thousand to 55-thousand dollars. Martinez called the salaries "a prime example of wasteful spending that exists in state government", adding, "there is no justifiable reason to budget two chefs for the governor". The Democrat Richardson, earlier this week, left a letter for Martinez advising her not to take herself too seriously as governor and to stop referring to his administration. Martinez, whose campaign themes included a barrage of attacks against Richardson's spending, responded then by saying elected officials have to stand by their records, good and bad. Martinez did retain a short-order cook and a housekeeper at the governor's residence.