Government dependence and New Mexico’s horrid year-over-year economic growth numbers

This series of charts from David Freddoso via our friends at State Budget Solutions, illustrate the troubling issue of states and their dependence on Washington. Interestingly, as the two charts note, New Mexico is one of only two states to both be among the most dependent states in the nation and that saw the greatest growth of federal dependence from 2001 to 2012. The growth in dependency chart is below while the overall dependence chart can be found at the first link above (Louisiana is the other state to both be among the most dependent and to have seen the dependency grow most quickly)

And, lest you think this dependency is not a problem, this chart from Monday’s Outlook section of the Albuquerque Journal which shows that of Western states, in terms of jobs growth over the past year, New Mexico lost jobs at the rate of 0.5% while all other states in the region gained significant jobs with Texas, Nevada, and Colorado having grown at 3.0% or above. Truly astonishing how badly New Mexico is lagging the region.