The Rio Grande Foundation continues to track economic data relating to New Mexico. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent data from metro areas in terms of job growth is seen below (raw data is here). New Mexico’s metros continue to lag the average for metros in our neighboring states. Albuquerque and Las Cruces are growing. Farmington continues to grow slowly. It is unclear why Santa Fe saw such a big decline over the year from June 2018 to June 2019.

The following is an embedded tweet from the New Mexico Economic Development Department. There is less of a lag with this data. It is definitely good to see strong growth in the real (private) economy. Mining (oil and gas) are doing especially well along with construction which was depressed for many years. There is no doubt that these are good economic times for New Mexico.

New Mexico 9th in U.S. for private sector job growth + 18,700 y/y — a wowzing 2.8 percent, says @NMDWS
Construction +8.9%
Mining +8.8%
Leisure +6.8%
Prof Serv +3.5%
Financial +3.2%
Manuf +1.5% @GovMLG@BillMcCamley
@AliciaJKeyes@cabq #nmleg

— NM Economic Development (@NMecondev) August 16, 2019

New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission has found itself at the center of controversy (often for the wrong reasons) over the years. But, on a couple of major issues this year, the PRC has stood firm in its role of seeking to balance the interests of utility customers and utility rate payers, something critics of the recently passed Energy Transition Act (“ETA”) say has been completely ignored by recently passed legislation.

As early as today, a group of New Mexico legislators  could hold a vote to hire attorneys to take on the PRC and their decision to move forward under a rate case that preceded the massive “Energy Transition Act (” ETA”) which passed earlier this year.

One issue at play is whether due to the timing of existing regulatory filings, previous law and regulatory practice applies in the disposition of San Juan Generating Station or whether the newly passed ETA is the sole law determining process of evaluating the complex issues at hand. The practical issue at hand is if customers of PNM will be protected from future rate hikes under the ETA.

Gov. Lujan-Grisham and Democrats like Speaker Egolf and Majority Leader Wirth want the PRC to play ball or step aside. Oh, and just to be clear, the PRC is not full of people who philosophically oppose the ETA or “renewable” energy. Rather, they are hoping to maintain some consumer protections as the ETA is implemented.

Finally, the PRC’s decision on Facebook’s transmission wires also appears to be justified. The company will pay $39 million toward the cost of new utility lines for the purpose of bringing “renewable” electricity to its facility near Los Lunas. Analysts including one from PNM itself have said that the line will primarily benefit Facebook, not utility customers as a whole.

While reforms to the PRC including making them appointed (as opposed to elected) officials may be sensible, the current attacks on the PRC are motivated by “sour grapes” and politics. The PRC has actually been doing its job.

On this week’s interview, Paul Gessing interviews Len Gilroy of the Reason Foundation. Len is an expert on public employee pension issues and New Mexico has plenty of them. You can read more about Reason’s analysis of New Mexico’s pension issues here and here. Also, Gov. Lujan-Grisham has proposed some pension reforms.

Len offers his take on those reforms and whether they will put New Mexico’s underfunded pension system on a sound footing.

Pensions may seem like a boring subject, but their impact on the New Mexico budget and taxpayers (not to mention the State’s credit rating) cannot be overstated.

Making movies is fun and we all love to watch a good movie now and again. Documentary films often involve lots of time and resources and can be very influential (remember Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth?”)

The disconnect between those who make movies and those who actually understand science was illustrated in the Albuquerque Journal on the front page article about an upcoming documentary about vaping that made some startling claims such as that vaping is “more detrimental than being addicted to cigarettes.”

That is a patently untrue statement left unchallenged by the reporter (who after all covers film, not science). While government agencies and many activist groups are reluctant to deem ANY new technology “safe,” the vast preponderance of evidence is that vaping is much safer than smoking cigarettes.

But, the message that new technology is improving human lives and safety isn’t nearly as compelling as making scare-videos…whether the topic is global warming or vaping.

The Rio Grande Foundation has sent the following letter (linked here in pdf format) to the Bernalillo County Commission. The letter details numerous, specific, substantive issues with the proposed sick leave proposal.

August 14, 2019

Dear Commissioners,

As a free market business advocacy group located in Bernalillo County we have several concerns about the proposed Bernalillo County paid time off ordinance which will soon be voted on by the County Commission. This letter is our attempt to address the myriad problems with the currently-drafted ordinance in detail.

Employment policies including paid vacation and sick leave should be voluntarily negotiated between the employer and employee. Government attempts to micromanage this process lead to serious problems. That said, we call on the Commission to consider the changes below as a means of improving the ordinance and making it somewhat less onerous a burden on local businesses.

1) This ordinance does not put any accountability on the County to inform affected businesses, nor does it require administrative relief prior to any legal action that could overburden the already crowded courts. Instead, the ordinance would allow complaints to quickly result in costly legal battles for businesses. It is critical that administrative investigation and enforcement be exhausted before the legal system is engaged in enforcing this mandate.

2) Failure to comply with the ordinance as written may result in suspension of business registration and civil penalties. Current language does not require “intent” on behalf of employer, just a finding of failure to comply. Intentions must be considered.

3) Applying this ordinance to micro-businesses as small as two employees is a serious problem that will particularly impact startups and other small businesses. Even the federal government’s own guidelines fluctuate in terms of the definition of “small business,” but the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 applies to businesses of 50 or more employees. This is the logical threshold for a local ordinance.

4) This ordinance should not apply to part-time, seasonal, or temporary workers as these workers traditionally do not receive paid benefits.

5) The ordinance is written to address “sick leave” but is now for paid time off. The ordinance now demands that employers provide paid time off to be used by employees for any purpose they choose.

In a typical paid leave system, an employee has to request the time off and the employer can either approve or deny the request. Employers need to control staffing level during certain peak times of business or to meet customer obligations.

Under this ordinance an employee could use paid leave to go golfing on a day where they are critical in the creation of a product for a customer. However the employer cannot deny the usage and according to the ordinance the untimely usage of the paid leave cannot negatively affect the employee (because it will be seen as retaliation). This made sense for an ill employee, but not in the other instances.

6) Collective bargaining is supposed to promote equity, but under this ordinance different job sites within and outside of the unincorporated areas of Bernalillo County will have different benefits. How would this ordinance impact labor unions and their members around our County and State?

7) Many small business owners have family-like relationships with their employees. They often make exceptions and assist their employees in times of need. The mandates of this ordinance eliminate any flexibility small business employers provide for their employees.

8) In 2019 the Legislature adopted SB 85 which eliminates various domestic labor/service exemptions and affords domestic service workers the same protections under these laws that other workers enjoy. Based on this the County’s ordinance seemingly applies to anyone who uses multiple babysitters, domestic care workers, or even cleaning staff. Since the only businesses exempt are those that employ 2 or fewer employees, once you use three babysitters or other domestic help you now have to track and give paid leave. This is a very burdensome requirement and one that could put average New Mexico families in legal jeopardy.

9) Because the ordinance now mandates Paid Time Off rather than Paid Sick leave, the ordinance requires clear guidelines determining if or when an employer is required to pay out the unused time to the employee upon separation.

10) The ordinance purportedly exempts “interns,” but not all interns work for an employer in exchange for college credit. Many internships are undertaken by students for minimal pay in order to gain experience in a particular industry. Without a more inclusive definition of “intern,” employers who cannot afford this benefit will likely refrain from hiring interns, which will negatively impact students’ ability to obtain such opportunities.

Sincerely,

Paul Gessing

President

Rio Grande Foundation

(Albuquerque, NM) – “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” This brief but powerful message appears on the masthead of one of America’s leading newspapers, The Washington Post.

“Unfortunately,” says Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing, “Bernalillo County is attempting to keep citizens in the dark about who is behind the proposed ordinance and what citizens have said to their commissioners about the ordinance (such as whether they support or oppose it and in what numbers).”

Because true representative democracy cannot survive without an informed electorate, the Rio Grande Foundation has filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in New Mexico District Court under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) demanding that the County Commission not vote on the paid time off mandate until it provides public records relating to the County’s proposed “Mandatory Paid Leave” ordinance.

This request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction comes on the heels of the Foundation’s initial lawsuit against the County for withholding public records directly relevant to the debate over the proposed mandatory paid leave ordinance which could be voted on as early as August 20, 2019.

Foundation president Paul Gessing had the following to say about the injunction, “From day one the debate over mandatory paid leave/sick leave has been driven by outside groups that want to push the proposals through local government with as little debate or discussion as possible. Local voters have a right to know who is pushing the County on this issue and what opponents and supporters are saying and in what numbers. This information should be made available long before the final vote is taken by the Commission.”

The Rio Grande Foundation continues to fight for transparency, openness, and accountability in government on this critical issue.

On this week’s conversation, Paul recently sat down with KOAT to discuss an audit of the 2004 public safety tax that the City of Albuquerque has had in place for 15 years. Citizens were supposed to serve a real oversight role, but is one of several ways in which the law has not been followed.

Mandatory sick leave could be voted on as soon as August 20 by Bernalillo County Commission. The Foundation has sued the County over an open records request. The Foundation has also been in editorial board meetings with the Albuquerque Journal and led the charge on an “open letter” that pointed out numerous flaws in the current proposal.

MLG names Ryan Stewart as PED secretary. APS can’t/won’t cool their buildings despite the fact that students were in school as early as late-July.

State employee pensions have been proposed by the Governor as well. What are the merits?

Finally, big changes may be coming to New Mexico’s PRC. Are they good, bad, or indifferent?

The Rio Grande Foundation has long argued for serious reforms to New Mexico’s pension systems which are underfunded to the tune of a combined $12.8 billion. To her credit, Gov. Lujan-Grisham has outlined some detailed pension reforms to one of New Mexico two deeply-challenged pension systems (PERA). Those reforms are laid out in the Albuquerque Journal article linked above, but even if these proposals were adopted in their entirety, the ERB (New Mexico’s other big pension plan) is in need of reform and even the PERA reforms don’t go as far as needed.

The Reason Foundation has numerous experts on State pension issues and their analysts have taken a close look at New Mexico’s pension problems. A more detailed report including information on PERA’s challenges can be found in this: New Mexico Pension Health Memo. The following chart provides a detailed snapshot of the issues facing New Mexico’s underfunded pension system.

Click on the screen shot below to watch the full story.

From the KOAT story, “For years no one kept track exactly how the money was spent and a board that was required by law to monitor the tax was never formed.

Now a newly released audit says the city needs to form the board and be transparent on how it spends your money to improve public safety.”

(Albuquerque, NM) – The Rio Grande Foundation has filed a lawsuit in New Mexico District Court under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) alleging that the County has failed to provide records relating to the County’s proposed “Mandatory Paid Leave” ordinance.

Said Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing, “We requested all communications with the County regarding the (originally proposed) sick leave ordinance. The request was drafted with sufficient specificity that this should not have been an issue. However, the County’s response was incomplete: many documents that we knew existed were missing.”

In addition, text messages that were requested were not provided at all. This portion of the request was closed without any proper response. Under IPRA, this is an “improper denial.”

The Foundation received only 10 emails in the response from the County relating to its request when in reality, both pro and con forces have ramped up email and pressure campaigns in support of and against the proposed ordinance. And, of course there are likely dozens or even hundreds of emails between County Commissioners and their staffs relating to the proposed ordinance.

After receiving this initial, partial response from the County Foundation staff notified the County that the request was not complete, which resulted in the County declaring the request “overly broad” and/or “burdensome.” In their emails the County has demonstrated their capacity of doing searches of emails, so we know that this request could have been easily fulfilled. The original request was filed in June. They have had plenty of time.

Concluded Gessing, “New Mexico’s IPRA law is designed to give the public and media organizations timely access to information regarding public policy decisions and debates happening at all levels of New Mexico government. Bernalillo County is NOT exempt from New Mexico law and their attempts to stonewall us in our efforts to access basic information about an important policy issue are ridiculous and unnecessary.”