“One’s reputation for honesty and integrity is the irreplaceable credential.”

In her home, Maralyn Budke has a series of framed checks hanging on a wall. The first check, from former New Mexico Gov. Garrey Carruthers, is for $1. The second is for $2, the third $3 and the fourth $4. The checks, totaling $10, are the yearly salaries she insisted on receiving from Carruthers, a Republican, while she was his chief of staff from 1987 to 1990.

“Oh, it was never about the money,” she said, shrugging off the amount of service she provided during that time. She often worked 15-hour days and came out of retirement to serve in Carruthers’ administration . But to know Budke is to know modesty.

Despite her ability to downplay accomplishments, Budke’s effect on state government has been a lasting and respected one. Many people consider her to be one of the most important woman to ever work in state government.

A longtime Republican until recently and former director of the Legislative Finance Committee, Budke was never known to let her political affiliation get in the way of helping New Mexico advance. However, she switched to the Democratic Party a couple months ago “over the whole Terri Schiavo mess,” she said.

While in state government, she helped the state tie its income-tax system to the federal model and started creating budgets, something she said the state hadn’t done in an organized way.

“I think of myself as a government mechanic,” she said. “I’ve never wanted to be the person out in the front. I liked doing the day-to-day things.”

Budke was the first woman to hold the job of director of the finance committee. She has also done substantial work on the funding formula for New Mexico’s universities, assisted Sangre de Cristo Animal Protection and sat on the University Hospital board of trustees.

Budke is 70, an age she feels grateful for reaching after surviving tongue cancer. She has never married and lives with her two Dobermans. These days, she frequently goes on African safaris.

She got her start at The University of New Mexico as a political-science student who became an intern at the Legislature. She graduated, worked for Republican Gov. David Cargo and moved onto working with the Legislative Finance Committee. Throughout that time, her father, a Texas utility executive who left her well off, wrote her a letter each day. He had high expectations , and Budke suspects she got much of her drive and wisdom about dealing with people from him.

Budke is a leader who doesn’t often claim credit for herself, friends say. One friend, Pamela Minzner, wrote: “She seems content to let others bloom. Perhaps that has been a particular reason for her success .”

Carruthers called her “the boss” and is reported to have asked her at least three times to be his chief of staff before she finally accepted. Budke said it was well known that Carruthers never asked for something a second time. She seemed to be one of the rare exceptions.

“She was my mentor, my policy adviser as well as the sounding board … ,” Carruthers wrote in a letter to the Living Treasures Committee. “Through all of this she spoke not of political positions or political advantage, but only of New Mexico.”