Santa Fe costs too much: so let’s raise the minimum wage?

According to the Albuquerque Journal in a supposed effort to somehow make living in Santa Fe more affordable Mayor Alan Webber is planning to raise the City’s minimum wage from it’s current $15 an hour to $17.50 an hour. Santa Fe is indeed an expensive place to live, but artificially raising wage rates (to the extent that people in the City are currently earning the minimum wage) is at best a waste of time. At worst it will only further increase inflation in living costs in the City.

Of course, Santa Fe is an expensive place to live. It is a desirable location for many to live and it has numerous land use and building code regulations both city and state that cause prices to go up. Simply put it is not going to be the most affordable place to live in New Mexico regardless of government policy.

Taxes could be cut, so could regulatory burdens especially on land use. Zoning and historical preservation related regulations aren’t going anywhere, but land south of town remains available for construction. The State could also help by reforming the GRT on housing and ending its absurd EV charging mandates.  Income tax relief at both the city and especially state level would put more money in the pockets of average Santa Feans and help improve affordability more effectively than a minimum wage hike (past mandated wage hikes have clearly not improved affordability in Santa Fe).

Sadly, New Mexico’s so-called “progressive” politicians typically prefer to throw money at problems or add additional government mandates on top of existing mandates that only result in further warping of the marketplace (in this case both housing and the labor market).  It would be nice if the politicians figured that out for once.