Wayne Propst’s finance philosophy is straightforward: spend less than you bring in

Wayne Propst, the Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, has built a reputation as one of the calmest figures in state government.

That reputation comes even though he has often been handed troubled agencies, including the state retirees’ health care system, which was expected to run out of money within a few years, and the retiree system itself, which was carrying billions of dollars in debt and heading toward bankruptcy.

“I seem to take jobs where, whatever the entity that I walk into, needs to be fixed,” Propst says.

Over the past four years, he has led the Department of Finance and Administration, the state’s main agency for budgeting and fiscal management. He calls it “an extraordinarily powerful agency,” and says it is the capstone of a career that is nearing retirement.

Even so, he jokes with his usual bluntness that his own personal finances are not his strong suit.

“I don’t know how I ended up as the secretary of (DFA), because my checkbook — you don’t want to look at it,” he says. “I can’t do an Excel spreadsheet to save my life.”

Instead, he relies on “really good people” to handle the details while he focuses on the broader task of helping ensure the Legislature and the state spend wisely and save wisely during a period of strong revenues.

“My perspective on finance is very simple and more grounded in my life experiences than necessarily my professional experiences,” Propst says. “And that is that you don’t spend more than you earn. That’s pretty basic.”

He traces that outlook to a childhood in rural Indiana with a single mother, to work as a Peace Corps volunteer helping villagers in central Africa develop a fishing business, and later to helping a newly democratic Nigeria establish a national Legislature.

He says the lesson is simple: “Whether you are doing manual labor or you’re the secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, you give people an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.”

When asked about his hardest challenge, he points to the period after he finished law school and decided the world did not need another lawyer, so he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Gabon in Central Africa.

After training, he recalls being dropped alone into a village and facing a roomful of people expecting something from him, with no transportation and nowhere to go. He says the experience taught him to stay calm, keep his bearings and find a way to function in a deeply disorienting situation.

“Like a lot of Peace Corps volunteers would tell you, it was the greatest experience of their lives,” he says. “It was certainly the greatest experience of my life. It was the toughest job I’ll ever love.”

Asked what he has accomplished at DFA, Propst points to the influx of billions of dollars above projections over the last four years and the resulting investments in the environment, health care, early childhood care and education.

He also cites the upgrade in New Mexico’s bond rating from Moody’s, saying it reflects hard work and sends a message that the state has strong financial controls, is open for business and offers opportunities for investment.

As for what comes next, he says a change would be healthy for DFA and that he is ready for a break after four demanding years. He says he does not yet know his next step and plans to take some time off.

His “don’t spend more than you earn” mantra, he says, has been shaped by periods when state leaders had to search for every available dollar to fund government. He says he has lived through several economic downturns and knows that prosperous times do not last forever.

Reflecting on his time in Africa, he says the biggest lesson was that the world is much larger than one’s own surroundings, but that people everywhere want many of the same things: to prosper, feed their families, enjoy a good life and laugh.

He says that even though the world is complicated, in some ways human wants are very simple.

He also points to the Bible’s instruction to treat others as you would want to be treated and to remain humble. And he quotes an African proverb about the higher a monkey climbs a palm tree, the more the villagers can see its backside, saying that as he has climbed his own “palm tree,” he has tried to remember that others may not view him the way he would prefer.

THE BASICS: Wayne Propst, 61, was born in Howe, Indiana, and has been married to Sarah Cottrell Propst since 2010. He earned a law degree from the University of New Mexico in 1990 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Eastern New Mexico University in 1987.

POSITIONS: Cabinet secretary, New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, since 2023; chief of staff, New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, 2021-2023; executive director, Public Employee Retirement Association of New Mexico, 2012-2021; executive director, New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority, 2008-2012; principal/senior analyst, New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, 2006-2008; director, Office of Policy and Multicultural Health, state Department of Health, 2005-2006.