Our opponent, Pat Davis, pays RGF a compliment

Even if he doesn’t actually “get it” when it comes to the Rio Grande Foundation, it’s ideas, or Gov. Martinez, it was nice of Pat Davis of the far-left Progress New Mexico to recognize our organization’s impact in a recent column he wrote for the Rio Rancho Observer. Not surprisingly, however, Davis needs to brush up on his facts.

Yes, RGF supports lower taxes including those on corporations. However, as I wrote immediately after the deal, the prospects for job growth from the legislation were unclear. Besides, after a five year phase-in (that’s 2018 folks), New Mexico’s corporate income tax rate will be 5.9%. That’s one-tenth of 1% lower than Oklahoma’s corporate income tax (assuming that they don’t cut theirs). Texas will remain at zero on both personal income and corporate income taxes and is a Right to Work state, so to say that we are doing anything to emulate Texas is ridiculous.

Also, Davis fails to understand that in a free market (as opposed to government), Intel must constantly innovate to remain competitive. They are struggling to adapt to the switch to smartphones. Of course, if government were in charge, we’d still be using phones like this.

The fact is that Intel received some pretty massive subsidies from politicians who were in office long before Gov. Martinez (Davis and I may even agree that such largesse is a bad idea). But eliminating so-called “corporate welfare” makes it all the more important to have competitive policies. To say the least, Davis and the left-wingers who still control the Legislature and have run this state for most of its 100 years, have failed miserably in terms of competitive economic policy.