If there’s an image that should be ingrained in the minds of New Mexico’s governor and legislators, it’s the one above. It depicts the number of individuals on the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as “food stamps.”
Since April 2014, the number of SNAP beneficiaries has risen, every single month.
Every. Single. Month.
Nationally, “American businesses have added 15.5 million jobs since February 2010 … the longest streak of overall job growth on record.” The unemployment rate is down to 4.9 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has soared past 19,000.
But in the Land of Enchantment, the unemployment rate is the highest in the contiguous states, and 26 percent of the population is on food stamps.
In two weeks, legislation for the 2017 legislative session will begin to be prefiled. With no serious alterations in public policies, implemented awfully quickly, New Mexico’s economic, fiscal, and welfare woes are sure to continue.
We are still waiting for the food stamp-induced economic stimulus.
The incomprehensible stupidity of the NM Senate and House over the past many decades have made us reliant on nonexistent “opportunity” (Run that wonderful chart again)
RailRunner – At least $500 million, and rising
Spaceport – Well over $200 million
Widening I-10 from Las Cruces south to Anthony ($65 million boondoggle by Richardson), improving a highway from Level of Service A (LOS-A) to guess what? — Level of Service A. Three empty lanes instead of two, still no “High Mesa Road” connecting Las Cruces to Santa Teresa, New Mexico’s greatest hope and expectation for long-term success (Again, hope is NOT a strategy; it’s the same as waiting for Santa. Guess what?)