It received very little media attention, but the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey figures on state-level poverty yielded ho-hum news for New Mexico.
From 2013 to 2014, the poverty rate in the Land of Enchantment fell slightly, from 21.9 percent to 21.3 percent. (Only Mississippi fared worse.)
A look at poverty in the era of the Great Recession/Weak Recovery shows how little progress has been made:
Centrally planned economic development, a too-generous welfare state, no right-to-work law, little innovation in government education, and a cumbersome and pervasive tax on gross receipts. Is it any wonder New Mexico can’t escape its poverty trap?
The most important item on Albuquerque’s agenda is not the economy but how to spend $100 million on a useless bus system down Central Avenue. It is basically a welfare project for the Transit Department supported by lies about how much it will help business. Why not help business all over the city by lowering taxes and regulations on all small business. Why are we constantly pouring more and more money into the rotten core of Albuquerque when 90% of us never go there?