$1.2 billion subsidy from Bernalillo County for six full-time jobs shows Economic Development Rubric to be irrelevant, politically-driven

• Workforce Development: Creating quality jobs with strong labor standards and training.

• Small Business Support: Engaging local vendors and supporting the regional business ecosystem.

• Environmental Responsibility: Incorporating sustainability and green practices.

• Quality of Life: Investing in placemaking, housing affordability, and cultural preservation.

These metrics are sufficiently vague that if politicians WANT a project, they can get the project to look good. If they don’t like the project, they can make it look as bad as they want. In its first-ever use of the rubric, the Commission just approved $1.2 billion in economic development incentives for a massive new solar farm on the extreme Western edge of Albuquerque. The company will get a 70% abatement on county taxes for the creation of a whopping 6 full-time jobs. The power generated will likely  be purchased by PNM which, under state law, is required to phase out fossil fuels. In other words, in the absence of County subsidies this solar farm would have a ready buyer for its power. Subsidizing it just shifts the “burden” from utility customers to the County.

If this was a data center or another politically disfavored project, even one with a massively positive economic impact in terms of , there is no doubt it would have been treated differently (less favorably). It just goes to show that while economics and common-sense would make broad, low, and fair taxes more logical and better, politicians prefer to hold the keys and make decisions that allow them to retain power.