New Mexico’s SNAP embarassment

There has been a great deal of talk in the last week or so about food stamps (SNAP). Reason being is that federal SNAP benefits may run out by November 1 as Senate Democrats (including Sens. Heinrich and Lujan) continue to vote to keep the federal government shut down.

While the merits and demerits of the shutdown have been widely discussed and MLG has even stated that she’s going to spend 30 million of state tax dollars to keep SNAP benefits flowing, the real issue for New Mexicans SHOULD be that we have so much of our population (more than 20%) on SNAP to begin with.

As the map below highlights, New Mexico is the ONLY state in the nation with more than 20% of its population on SNAP. Our proportion of recipients is also FAR higher than the national average.  Meanwhile, the State is sitting on $66 billion in its sovereign wealth fund. State government spending has grown by 71% under the current Gov. (from $6.3 billion annually to $10.8 billion).  And, the oil and gas industry continues to flourish.

Yet, New Mexico remains deeply dependent on federal welfare programs like SNAP and Medicaid because the current “leadership” of New Mexico has been completely inept at using the windfall from oil and gas to do anything to improve the State’s impoverished position. Gov. Lujan Grisham touts improvements in New Mexico’s poverty problem. Why do so many New Mexicans need food stamps then?