Don’t get TOO excited about those one-time “rebates
New Mexico is awash in revenue from the State’s oil and gas industry and as we reported last week, that flood of revenue shows no signs of stopping. New Mexicans will soon be receiving $500 or $1,000 checks from the State thanks to legislation passed in the recent legislative session and those are welcome relief for families that have seen negative wage growth in the Biden economy.
However, there are two major issues with these rebates:
- They do nothing to address New Mexico’s long-term economic struggles because they don’t change the State’s fundamentally anti-business tax and regulatory climates;
- They are a pittance compared to what the State is receiving and spending just this year. As a reminder, New Mexico’s budget surplus was $3.6 billion just this year. The total (one-time) “cost” of these rebates is a estimated to be $667 million. Compare that with the $1.2 billion in new spending and the fact that
