New Report on the federal government and New Mexico

Recently, several stories appeared in the New Mexico media regarding the potential negative impact of federal spending cuts on our state. I was able to track down the full report from the LFC/LSC here.

Interesting notes relating to the story. While New Mexico is 6th in federal spending per capita, it is number one in terms of federal spending relative to federal taxes paid. And, of course, there is the issue of the so-called “cuts” in federal spending under the sequester due to the failure of the Congressional “Supercommittee” which, while slowing federal spending growth may impact New Mexico, will not really make a dent in the federal budget.

Lastly, it is worth noting that, according to the report, “Non-farm employment in the state stood at 805,300 in March, which was 5,000 jobs ahead of March 2011 but still 50,000 jobs below the May 2008 peak.” In other words, there are 6.2% fewer non-farm jobs in New Mexico than existed before the financial crisis. That goes right along with national data indicating that if the work force were the same size as it was at the end of the Bush Administration, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent.