On this week’s interview Paul talks to Andrew Handel of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) about the new 2025 Education Freedom Index which he authored and his organization published. New Mexico ranked a poor 44th in the latest version of this index.
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (Nation’s Report Card) scores released this week were depressing for New Mexico as we ranked dead last in each of the categories tested (4th grade reading/math and 8th grade reading/math). Someone put together a cumulative index of all 50 states and categories which you can see below. It isn’t pretty but it is useful.
On a more hopeful note (at least for school choice advocates) you can see that Catholic schools perform MUCH better than either traditional public or charter schools. New Mexico has many great Catholic schools and they are reasonably priced (though not “free”). Of course, RGF advocates for school choice and Tennessee became the latest state to embrace private school choice.
The following chart put together by the Rio Grande Foundation uses data from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation which tracks EV sales on a quarterly basis. In 2023 Gov. Lujan Grisham pushed a statewide EV mandate through an unelected board. The full impact of the mandate is expected to kick in later in 2025 when 2026 model year vehicles start appearing on dealer lots.
As you can see below, while New Mexico EV sales have risen slightly through the third quarter of 2024 current EV sales and their rate of increase is nowhere near enough to comply with the Gov.’s mandates. Assuming that no federal or state changes are made to this mandate New Mexico auto dealers will face a requirement to sell vehicles that are either not available to them or that are not desired by prospective buyers who will instead head to neighboring states like Texas to purchase the vehicle they want.
This will destroy New Mexico jobs and tax revenues without any positive impact on the environment.
It’s been a week since the Legislature began. Paul has been to Santa Fe twice and discusses what is happening.
SB4 (net zero) is one of the craziest bills that will be moving this week.
MLG gave her State of the State address. We have some thoughts. The Santa Fe New Mexican did a fact check of the address.
RGF is part of a coalition working to defeat Paid Family Leave. Find out more here.
New Mexico has the lowest median pay in America: DC workers now make nearly two and a half times as much as the average New Mexico resident.
ABQ bus ridership continues to slowly rebound post-COVID.
Mayor Keller’s latest scheme in downtown Albuquerque is particularly dumb.
This event is co-hosted with the New Mexico Federalist Society.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Silver Room
2401 12th Street NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104
February 21, 2025
12:00PM-1:15PM
Doors Open at 11:45AM
Event Description:
In the past, Columbia Law School produced leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and several Supreme Court justices. Now it produces window-smashing activists. This cannot continue. Ilya Shapiro will discuss how the illiberal takeover of legal education is transforming our country. Unless we stop it now, the consequences will be with us for decades.
The problem is bigger than radical students and biased faculty—it’s institutional weakness. Shapiro met the mob firsthand when he posted a controversial tweet that led to calls for his firing from Georgetown Law. A four-month investigation eventually cleared him on a technicality but declared that if he offended anyone in the future, he’d create a “hostile educational environment” and be subject to the inquisition again. Unable to do the job he was hired for, he resigned.
Ilya Shapiro will discuss how we got here and what we can do about it and his new book, Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites.
About the Speaker:
Ilya Shapiro is Director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Shapiro is the author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the Constitution (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008–18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek.
He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, is a legal consultant to CBS News, and once appeared on the Colbert Report. Shapiro has testified before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 400 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court, including one that The Green Bag selected for its “Exemplary Legal Writing” collection. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi.
He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2015, National Law Journal named him to its 40 under 40 list of “rising stars.”
Cancellation policy: Cancellations made by 12:00pm MDT on February 7, 2025 will be honored, minus a 15% processing fee.
Register below or visit https://donorbox.org/events/730948.
Michelle Lujan Grisham’s failed COVID lockdowns did serious harm to already-lagging New Mexico student outcomes in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in which New Mexico students were ranked last across ALL categories 4th and 8th grade reading and 4th and 8th grade math.
With the release of 2024 NAEP numbers we see yet again that New Mexico students rank at the VERY bottom in each of the same categories.
In 4th grade reading New Mexico scored 201 which ranked us 52nd (behind all 50 states, DC, and DoD schools). Alaska students were 2nd lowest at 202.
In 8th grade reading New Mexico scored 245 which again ranked us 52nd. Alaska students were again 2nd-lowest at 246.
In 4th grade math New Mexico scored 224 which again ranked us 52nd. Alaska students were again 2nd-lowest at 226.
In 8th grade math New Mexico scored 256 which again ranked us 52nd. West Virginia at 261 was 2nd-lowest.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has put out a new Education Freedom Index which ranks all US states on their level of education freedom. New Mexico came in 44th in the 2025 index. That is a dramatic decline from our 35th ranking two years ago. The authors changed the report slightly to more heavily weight private school choice like Education Savings Accounts, vouchers, and tax credits, none of which are in place in New Mexico.
Other areas analyzed (including New Mexico’s grade) are:
Charter Schools (C)
Home Schooling (B)
Virtual Schooling (D)
Open Enrollment (F)
You can see the map of overall rankings and the list of rankings below. New Mexico shows no signs of improving based on the current political climate while Texas is expected to soon embrace school choice in a big way.
In recent years to the extent New Mexico’s population growth has grown it has largely been due to the addition of retirees. But, according to a new report from Wallethub New Mexico ranks a poor 46th overall among places to retire. The ranking which includes variables on affordability, quality of life, and health care give New Mexico low marks overall with 38th in affordability, 45th in quality of life, and 33rd in health care.
One particular area of concern is the cost of in-home services (below). This is undoubtedly driven by New Mexico’s burdensome gross receipts tax, high minimum wages in the cities, and low workforce participation rate. All of these unnecessarily boosts cost of labor-intensive services. New Mexico’s overall living costs were neither high or low, but typically New Mexico is seen as a low-cost option relative to other states. Not in this area.
And, of course there is crime. And, while seniors are not particularly sensitive to failing schools in New Mexico or elsewhere they ARE impacted by New Mexico’s high crime rate, especially property crime. According to the graphic below our property crime rate is 4X that of Idaho.
Check out this new report from Axios which looks at median pay by state across the nation. The report uses data from payroll provider ADP’s monthly “Pay Insights” data and is based on gross wage and salary data for about 17 million U.S. jobs.
As our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity note: The top three states based on the median-sized worker paycheck are:
Furthermore, as the Committee notes, “DC residents also earn twice as much as the median earner in 13 states. New Mexico’s workers can’t be too happy. DC workers now make nearly two and a half times as much as the average New Mexico resident.
This is yet another indictment of New Mexico and its poor economic management. It is also an indictment of how big, powerful, and awash in cash our federal government is and that it and its power need to be downsized. Of course, (ironically) New Mexico (like Washington, DC) is heavily dependent on federal dollars. Sadly, even WITH our large federal presence New Mexico’s median wage is LOWEST in the NATION.
In years past (especially 60 day sessions) things tended to start slowly. Considering the left-leaning makeup of New Mexico’s Legislature this was a good thing. No longer.
Below is a screen shot of some of the bills we’ve rated for our Freedom Index. They are already beginning their legislative journeys this week with their first committee hearings. The strategy seems to be to overwhelm opponents (like RGF) and our supporters who simply cannot engage on every bill with our limited resources.
So, if you are curious about any or all of the following bills which will all be up for hearings this week, go to the Legislature’s website and reach out to the proper committee (or attend the hearing in-person or virtually). As you ca. n see, all of these bills have been labeled “extreme” by RGF. Most of them impact the oil and gas industry that keeps New Mexico afloat and fuels America’s domestic energy growth.
While ALL of these bills are unlikely to pass, even one or two of them passing could be devastating for New Mexico.
The theme of the 2025 legislative session so far is that Democrats who control majorities in both houses are going to push their biggest, worst bills as quickly through the 60 day session as possible.
We already know Paid Family Leave (HB 11) will be heard on Monday (click here to push back on that).
Net Zero is coming up on Tuesday (SB 4) which would make New Mexico “net zero” in terms of CO2 emissions (and destroy our economy) is up for its first committee assignment in (Senate Conservation Committee).
According to Stanford University reaching net zero globally would cost $120 TRILLION. Of course, many of the biggest polluting nations in the world (China and India to name two) have ZERO interest in net-zero and will continue to grow their economies and their CO2 emissions regardless of what happens in New Mexico. Of course, the US as a whole continues to see reductions in CO2 emissions even in the midst of an oil and gas boom which has its epicenter in NM.
These bills are BOTH rated -8 in RGF’s Freedom Index.
The following is directly from Wednesday’s Santa Fe New Mexican. It is a exceedingly gentle fact check of some of MLG’s biggest whoppers during her State of the State address. We did our own analysis of her speech here.
As the fact check below notes, MLG AGAIN made bold claims about poverty reduction in New Mexico. What the New Mexican fails to clarify is that there simply was NO reduction from 50th to 17th in New Mexico’s child poverty rate. We have written on this extensively and it is simply pathetic that the Gov. continues to make this claim.
And, of course the Gov. wants people to believe that CYFD’s myriad failures are a funding issue when of course New Mexico has been flooded with resources.
Finally, as Joe Biden so regularly did, MLG likes to claim every job destroyed by COVID and recovered since then was her doing when in reality New Mexico’s job growth has been modest.
On this week’s interview Paul sits down with Zach Fort. Fort, a return guest on Tipping Point NM, handles legislative affairs for the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association. They discuss threats to gun rights, crime and whether genuine efforts to fight it will come about it in the the 2025 legislative session as well as Gov. Lujan Grisham’s status as the most anti-gun governor in the entire country.
As they have in a few recent legislative sessions the “progressive” left in Santa Fe is pushing paid family leave. As in years past Rio Grande Foundation is part of the grassroots coalition (The Coalition for Working Families) working to stop this horrible bill which would:
RGF will be sure to alert you to how you can help us stop this horrendous legislation (HB 11) here at Errors of Enchantment, but if you want to get MORE involved in the effort we encourage you to sign up for alerts from the Coalition.
The bill failed by two votes last session with a bipartisan coalition opposing it in the House. We expect this to be a hard-fought battle once again.
Albuquerque’s bus ridership continued to slowly rebound from the COVID 19 pandemic in 2024, but as with the Rail Runner, ridership remains well below pre-pandemic numbers.
The Rio Grande Foundation requested and received publicly-available ridership records showing that ridership on the city bus system crept over 7 million for the 2024 calendar year. That’s a 12.6% increase from 2023 to 2024. But, bus ridership remains nearly 22% below where it was in 2019 (the last full year before COVID).
Notably, starting in January 0f 2022 the City began offering “free” bus fares which the City claims has boosted ridership, but bus ridership actually lags behind even the RailRunner in terms of where it stands relative to 2019.
In an effort to better understand exactly where New Mexico is heading during her final two years we took a close listen to MLG’s State of the State address which took place on Tuesday. We watched it in its entirety. Here are a few thoughts. For starters, it is worth noting that MLG does not mention paid family leave which has been a priority of the “progressives” in the Legislature. Stopping that is RGF’s top priority and we are hopeful that perhaps MLG is not going to push the issue. She also does not discuss tax cuts except for cuts targeted at one specific group (see below).
MLG is very excited about NM potentially seeing an improvement in its bond rating. Of course this is due to the revenue boom from oil and gas which she omits. She also omits ANY mention of returning part of the budget surplus to the people of New Mexico.
MLG cites New Mexico’s “Cradle to Career Education System which includes a Right to Child Care, Universal Pre-K, and Free College.”
She repeatedly applauds “a right to child care” and repeatedly refers to “universal pre-K” as “child care.” She even asks for $205 million MORE to make “child care” truly universal (what happened to the money already allocated from permanent fund or the Early Childhood Permanent Fund)? Finally, it is interesting she calls it “child care” and not “pre-K.”
MLG touts an 11% increase in reading proficiency thanks to last summer’s reading program. She offers no data backing this up nor does she cite where this number comes from.
She urges the Legislature to fund the 180 day school year which she has tried to mandate (no 4-day school weeks).
She asks the Legislature for $50 million to directly fund tribes and pueblos to provide educational services through the Indian Education Fund.
She again cites “Free child care, free pre-K, free school meals, free college, child tax cred, & working family tax credits as benefiting New Mexico families.”
“When you take into account the investments we’ve made in recent years our poverty rates drops to 17th in the nation, better than the national average. She’s fine until she states “50th-17th two years and says “check the numbers out.” Where? We have critiqued her claims and attempted to find any evidence for her claims. Good luck finding a state ranking of the supplemental poverty measure by state.
In an interesting move she calls for the Legislature to exempt foster families from personal income tax and double stipends for foster families.
She wants to create a state sponsored fire insurance fund which is a bad idea.
She wants to fund a Strategic Water Supply that would involved using frack water for various non-consumption-based uses. This seems like a reasonable idea.
She urges the Legislature to make New Mexico “Net Zero by 2050” which is a terrible idea.
MLG urges regulatory and zoning changes to make building housing easier plus (a good idea). She also pushes for $50 million in subsidies + a new state housing office (both of which are not needed).
She asks for $50 million to fight homelessness. We need more enforcement, not more funding.
MLG asks for a tax credit for businesses that invest in anti-crime efforts including things like private security. Leveraging private crime fighting is a worthwhile idea.
MLG notes that New Mexico medical malpractice rates are 2X national average. Rather than taking that head-on by addressing venue shopping and other issues MLG urges the creation of a state sponsored (taxpayer-funded) medical malpractice program.
The Gov.’s address doesn’t start until the 1:45 mark
Donald Trump was (again) inaugurated president of the United States on Monday. Paul and Wally discuss and address issues w/ Biden’s presidency.
Biden issued more pardons on his way out the door including for Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, and several family members. More pardons have been issued by Biden than any other president in American history.
Biden even attempted to declare the Equal Rights Amendment the 28th amendment to the US Constitution.
The LFC budget (like MLG’s) is ALSO a dud for New Mexico taxpayers.
Yes, New Mexico could/should eliminate NM’s personal income tax.
NM Women’s Specialists to stop delivering babies at Presbyterian citing New Mexico’s tax, malpractice, and Medicaid. Also, NM House Dems outline their health care plans for session (which don’t do anything for the doctor shortage).
Paul has been watching the TV show Landman. He recommends this short, profanity laced talk by actor Billy Bob Thornton about the importance of oil and gas.
The following appeared in Las Cruces Sun News on January 19, 2025.
According to the latest budget analyses from the Legislature, New Mexico policymakers have nearly $900 million in “new” money available as the session begins in Santa Fe. This comes on top of massive surpluses in recent years which the Legislature has largely spent or used to bolster the State’s already prodigious sovereign wealth funds which now total $58 billion.
In many states across the nation policymakers of both parties would be fighting to see who can come up with the best tax cut or rebate plan. Sadly, this November, New Mexico’s voters again chose to elect the most left-wing people on the ballot.
This means that instead of tax cuts, the New Mexico Legislature is (again) seriously considering raising taxes on hard-working New Mexicans.
The main tax hike on the Legislature’s agenda is a tax hike on alcohol. This has been contemplated in recent years only for varying groups of “progressives” in the Legislature have failed to agree. Gov. Lujan Grisham even vetoed a small alcohol tax hike that passed the Legislature in 2023.
Advocates of higher alcohol taxes have argued that New Mexico’s alcohol taxes are “low.” And that raising alcohol taxes will reduce problems associated with alcohol. But, currently half of the State’s alcohol excise tax revenues are allocated to the state’s general fund. If the problem is a lack of resource for treatment, the Legislature should start by increasing that allocating, not necessarily the tax.
Also, New Mexico’s taxes on alcohol are hardly “low.” According to the Tax Foundation, New Mexico’s $6.06/gallon tax on distilled spirits ranks 24th in the nation. Our 41 cent/gallon tax on beer is 14th-highest in the nation. And, our wine tax of $1.51/gallon places New Mexico at 5th-highest in the nation.
New Mexicans aren’t even particularly big consumers of alcohol relative to other states. According to data from World Population Review New Mexico’s alcohol consumption per-capita is ranked 31st in the nation. At 2.3 gallons annually New Mexicans consume less than half the alcohol consumed in New Hampshire where the average person consumes 4.8 gallons.
At the risk of being unfair we will simply note that New Hampshire performs far better on nearly every available social metric than does New Mexico (violence, poverty, child outcomes).
As is so often the case in public policy politicians are considering a tax hike on the broad population of New Mexicans to address problems created by a relatively tiny number of people. Putting the entire current alcohol tax into treatment is a reasonable way to address New Mexico’s problem drinkers. Raising taxes on everyone simply is not.
Alcohol taxes are seen as regressive because they tend to be charged at a single rate (thus impacting those with lower incomes most). On the other hand, high earners both tend to drink more and tend to binge drink more. So, while they may bear more of the tax burden, it is hard to see heavy drinkers with high incomes having their drinking decisions impacted by a higher tax on alcohol.
Taxes are a blunt tool in addressing consumption of a legal product. The policy goal of advocates seems to be some kind of neo-prohibition on the part of New Mexico’s “progressive” politicians. Considering the recent push on the part of many of these same politicians to legalize recreational marijuana one cannot help but be mystified at the inconsistent approaches applied.
Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility.
We don’t have ALL the details about Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s latest plans, but we know enough to understand they don’t make much sense. We’re referring to his plan outlined in a speech recently to give a City-owned piece of land downtown to a New Mexico university that helped to redevelop downtown.
Here are just a few reasons why this move makes no sense:
Which all leads us to crime and homelessness and why Mayor Keller seems unwilling to do what needs to be done to improve downtown (while trying nearly every other option). Of course, the ONE option Keller has not pursued is to advocate for tax cuts and other policies that would promote economic growth Downtown and in the rest of New Mexico.
This article in the Albuquerque Journal from a research professor at George Mason University highlights just how bad the now-deposed president’s contract was/is. It is worth noting that while the Gov. has rightly expressed outrage at the contract and the behavior of WNMU’s president and regents, that SHE put those regents into place. They are her people.
Here are the details on the contract:
The 5-year employment agreement is worth more than $3.5 million — including the base salary, an annual “retention bonus,” supplemental annuity, car allowance, life insurance premium and an estimate of standard fringe benefits.
Dr. Shepherd receives a $2,000 monthly car allowance. The author couldn’t even find a car with a lease that expensive.
While President Shepard’s current contract is quite lucrative, especially for an institution of WNMU’s size and complexity, the separation agreement is, without question, the most generous we’ve seen.
The first five years of his post-presidential appointment is worth more than $3.5 million, including severance pay, faculty salary and fringe benefits. Essentially, the Board of Regents granted him the equivalent of an additional five-year term as president. In addition, the Board of Regents approved a teaching load half that required in the faculty handbook and allows him to teach all his classes remotely.
If the AG or Gov. take legal action against Dr. Shephard WNMU may have to pay any attorney fees as the agreement provides for “representation by counsel of his choosing, and the University shall pay all reasonable costs and fees associated with such counsel’s representation of Dr. Shepard.”
The author concludes: “It’s also clear from reporting by the Journal and other media outlets that State Auditor Joseph Maestas should undertake a statewide audit of expenditures by our public university presidents.”
While corruption is always a problem in New Mexico government it is also worth remembering that Gov. Lujan Grisham led the charge to create “free” college with little to no accountability. So, the Gov. while not directly responsible DOES share responsibility in two specific ways for this corruption.
Having had a front row seat to the last four years of Joe Biden’s administration we are inclined to rate him as the worst US president since Woodrow Wilson (Wilson is our choice for worst of all time). George W. Bush, LBJ, and Richard Nixon are honorable mentions, but we struggled to come up with ANY major policies on which we agreed with Biden. Here’s our Top 10 list of bad Biden policies:
On this week’s interview Paul talks to Jim Winchester. Jim is the Executive Director of the Independent Oil Producers of New Mexico (IPANM). IPANM is the voice of “small” oil in New Mexico. As small businesses their views tend to align with those of the Rio Grande Foundation. Thus, RGF works closely with Jim and his group on a variety of issues. Find out what is coming during the 2025 legislative session in this important interview.
I am watching the Paramount+ show “Landman.” It is the latest by director Taylor Sheridan and it is entertaining, especially Billy Bob Thornton’s title character Tommy Norris. And, while the show is unrealistic in its inflated portrayal of the dangers of the oil patch and I don’t think anyone could keep up Tommy’s hectic schedule and deal with all the issues he faces, his character delivers some epic speeches. The one below is a short, profanity laced, defense of the oil and gas industry.
Check out the first 3 minutes of the following clip for one of the most eloquent defenses of oil and gas you’ll see in popular media (the dialogue really starts 45 seconds in). The woman is a young attorney working with Tommy’s company.
With $900 million in “new” money and $13.4 billion in general fund revenue available to them, the Legislative Finance Committee’s budget is not much different from the one proposed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. It proposes to spend $10.8 billion which is a slightly lower amount than MLG’s $10.9 billion budget.
While the lower spending number is welcome, the reality is that whether the money is spent now or allocated to one of our State’s permanent funds it is going to be spent by government. How the money is spent makes less of a difference at this point than whether or not some of the surplus is shared with average New Mexicans and businesses (or not).
Of course, legislative Democrats and the Gov. need to look no further than November’s election results. The Democrats have grown government and mostly NOT shared the wealth with average New Mexicans and voters have rewarded them with electoral success.
So, with a long 60-day session ahead of us it looks like taxpayers will be (again) left out in the cold.
