Last week the Pew Research Center’s “Stateline” website noted some good news for U-Haul: “Americans are picking up and moving again as the recession fades, personal finances improve and housing markets recover. Counties in Nevada, Arizona, eastern California and Tennessee also saw some of the nation’s biggest growth in movers last year.”
We already knew that New Mexico was one of only six states to lose population between 2013 and 2014. But Pew’s granular analysis reveals the extent of the problem. Twenty-four of the state’s 33 counties lost population. Doña Ana County neither gained nor lost residents, so just eight counties saw positive migration. Growth in Bernalillo County, where about a third of New Mexicans live, was a dismal 0.1 percent.
Haaaa! Forgotten New Mexico, loving it.
This suites me just fine. What’s so great about traffic congestion and over population like California?
Yes, a few of my neighbors comment: “Let ’em move… we don’t need those people anyway.” But here’s the problem: the folks moving out of New Mexico tend to be the go-getters who want jobs. If our intention is to populate the state with welfare recipients, undocumented immigrants and state government employees, we will need a critical mass of productive citizens to support them.
One easy way to reverse this trend is to give retirees a tax break on Social Security and military pensions. That will attract new residents who will bring their money with them and will not be deterred by substandard schools. Building the economy will help, too, but that may be too much to ask.
That’s correct, but another way is to eliminate NM’s income tax altogether by using a one-time third of its sacrosanct $20 billion O&G “permanent fund” put in the budget cycle with some other GRT adjustments.
Sadly, New Mexico will soon pass a demographic threshold in which its welfare classes overwhelm everyone and everything else….then it will be completely impossible to change course.