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:

1. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan: 13 US service members were killed and untold both US citizens and US-friendly Afghans were left behind in the biggest foreign policy blunder since the 2003 Iraq invasion;
2. Anti-energy policies: whether it is the canceling of the Keystone XL pipeline, LNG export limits, or putting 625 million acres of outer continental shelf off limits Joe Biden’s policies consistently attacked American energy;
3. Insane border policies: whether you support more legal immigration (as we do) or less, leaving a wide-open border for millions of un-vetted migrants to walk across is bad policy and dangerous;
4. Created inflation crisis with his overspending and anti-energy policies. Trump and every other president (and Congress) who overspent in the past bear some of the burden, but ultimately inflation reared its ugly head under Biden and he was unable or unwilling to solve it;
5. Disregarded rule of law: while Biden never stopped talking about Trump and the rule of law, Biden single-handedly attempted to force millions of Americans to receive an experimental vaccine (this was rejected by the Supreme Court), force taxpayers to pay off student loans, and claim the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment on his way out the door. These are just a few “lowlights” of his harmful policies.
6. Cracked down on free speech
7. Failed COVID policies: unlike Trump, Biden had time and a vaccine ready to go on Day one. Unfortunately Biden’s policies on COVID were both anti-freedom and a failure.  
8. Overspending: while Trump certainly overspent even before the COVID pandemic Biden did nothing to restrain spending and instead took it upon himself to increase the federal deficit by about $2.5 trillion more than what the Congressional Budget Office projected for fiscal years 2021-2024. Spending surged by about $4.7 trillion and tax revenues by about $2.2 trillion. The national debt rose to $35.5 trillion.
9. Overly aggressive enforcement of anti-trust: Biden was anti-business and that included efforts to push back against a host of corporate mergers from Spirit Airlines to Albertsons and Nippon Steel. None of these mergers would have created anything resembling “monopolies.”
10. Overregulation: Biden was a big fan of government regulation with new regulations totaling $1.4 trillion.
11. Abuse of presidential pardon: from Hunter Biden (for crimes that potentially benefited his family) to Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the members of the January 6th Select Committee (including war hawk Liz Cheney), Biden’s abuse of the pardon power was his last abuse of power on his way out of office.

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.

This story has been corrected to reflect that it is Women’s Specialists of New Mexico that will no longer deliver babies at Presbyterian Hospital. These two news stories hit on the same day.  According to Dr. Jean Valdez (as quoted in the story) of Women’s Specialists:

“We can no longer stretch our physicians to cover two hospitals,” Valdez said. “We have to take both the physical and mental wellbeing of our physicians in mind and can’t stretch them out too far.”

The change will impact more than 200 patients. Valdez said they have nine physicians providing 24-hour OB coverage. They need that to double. But our state’s facing a crippling shortage of doctors and other medical providers.

Valdez cites New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws, tax policy, and Medicaid reimbursement rates as reasons.

In related news, Democrats who control the Legislature and have controlled New Mexico for nearly 100 years outlined their plans to supposedly address the doctor shortage. The Albuquerque Journal article referred to housing subsidies and mandates to keep certain nursing ratios (of course those ratios require the existence of enough nurses).

The Democrats’ entire plan hinges on Rep. Eleanor Chavez’ ridiculous statement “that corporate greed is a driver of the (health care) crisis.” In reality America and New Mexico have a health care crisis driven by numerous factors including: the third party payment system, Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare, occupational licensure, medical malpractice law, our poor economy, poor schools, and high crime (not to mention New Mexico’s rural nature). 

Of course, Democrats don’t want to address what the EXPERT says is the issue which involves fundamental policy change. Instead they’d like to blame “corporate greed” and do nothing.

As the 2025 legislative session looms most are buckling up for another “bumpy ride.” The Legislature is populated more than ever with leftist so-called “progressives” who don’t understand basic economic policies or why New Mexico so often tends to be at “the bottom of the good lists and top of the bad ones.”

But, there are some bright spots. A newly-minted legislator from Hobbs, Rep. Elaine Sena Cortez penned an excellent opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal calling for total elimination of New Mexico’s personal income tax. It is a long-shot given the proclivities of the Legislature, but such a move would make New Mexico the 10th state with no income tax (see below). Currently our top income tax rate of 5.9% is the highest in the region and MUCH higher than economically booming Texas which has NO income tax.

New Mexico HAS plenty of money to do it. The PIT is expected to bring in $2.1 billion in FY 2026. MLG’s proposed general fund budget is $10.94 billion which is a fat budget fueled by rapid revenue growth (thanks oil and gas). With the State expected to bring in $13.4 billion in FY 2026 you could eliminate the whole personal income tax this session and STILL have about $400 million available above and beyond what the Gov. wants to spend.

That’s assuming that eliminating the income tax would have no effect on New Mexico’s economic growth and that there is no way find savings in New Mexico government relative to what MLG wants to spend. Of course the Legislature could also phase in tax cuts over a few years assuming future revenue growth remains strong.

Lots of people in Santa Fe TALK a big game about “diversifying” New Mexico’s economy, but few are actually willing to do it. Kudos to Rep. Sena Cortez for taking a bold step as an incoming freshman.

On this week’s conversation Paul and Wally discuss the closure of the Amador Entertainment District in Las Cruces and the owner’s eye opening comments.

RGF helped the national Free Speech Coalition win a big victory w/ Meta/Facebook.

New Mexico ranks last in Wallethub’s best states for families.

Albuquerque City Council takes one step forward, one back.

RGF was in the National Review recently.

Paul has a few thoughts on California fires.

With the presidential inauguration and New Mexico Legislative session coming early next week we are excited to keep our listeners updated on developments in Washington and Santa Fe.

Just a few weeks after Gov. Lujan Grisham made some big (since rebutted) claims about improving child poverty in New Mexico, Wallethub has ranked New Mexico dead last in its reports on the best and worst states to raise a family.  There are too many metrics to consider in the Wallethub report (and we don’t agree with ALL of them) but it is yet another indicator of the rampant mismanagement of New Mexico and its economy, education, and criminal justice systems even while the State has benefited from massive oil and gas driven budget surpluses.

You can see the map of all the various states and their overall rankings here:

New Mexico scores poorly in a shocking number of metrics which can be seen below. Violent crime and % of families in poverty are well-known, but did you know New Mexico suffered from such dramatic family problems?:

The following appeared at National Review’s Capital Matters on January 13, 2025.

For decades, New Mexico has struggled with poverty. Thanks to its blue-state model of convoluted and elevated taxes, a failing government education system, and high crime (to name just three issues), it is hard to see New Mexico’s poverty situation changing dramatically.

Sadly, this status quo has not improved even with one of the greatest oil booms in history. Between 2010 and 2023, New Mexico oil production rose tenfold.

If the state had improved its poverty ranking, it wouldn’t have come as a total shock. That jump in oil production has created state budget surpluses and provided opportunities to spend more on social programs.

Unfortunately, after six years in office, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D.) has instead had to resort to pick ‘n mix statistics (others may put it differently) to make it look like her policies have improved childhood poverty.  On November 21, she went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and told the hosts, “New Mexico went from 50th in child poverty to 17th.” No qualifiers or explanation was given for this dramatic improvement.

It is just one sign of the media’s sad situation that neither host asked the governor any follow-up questions. Such dramatic improvements are hard-won and usually driven by significant policy changes. What were those changes and how did New Mexico improve so quickly?

There wasn’t really a dramatic improvement in New Mexico’s childhood poverty. Lujan Grisham is conflating two different data sets in hopes that the compliant media won’t question her.

So, what’s going on? Simply put, there are two poverty measures produced by the Census Bureau. One of those, the official poverty measure, has been used since the 1960s. It compares pretax income to standard thresholds based on family size. The other, known as the supplemental poverty measure, accounts for government transfer payments and includes variation based on the different costs of living in different parts of the country.

Lujan Grisham has repeatedly (not just on MSNBC) conflated the two measures. She has used the fact that New Mexico ranks 50th in the official measure and 17th in the supplemental measure to claim that transfer payment policies put in place by the Biden administration and the state government have reduced child poverty.

The official poverty measure attempts to place all American families on a statistically even playing field while the supplemental poverty measure represents a worthwhile attempt to factor in variables like cost of living and government transfer payments.

Each poverty measure has its pluses and minuses in understanding real conditions, but for a politician to conflate the two to claim such vast improvement based on her policies is nothing more than a sad attempt to cover her abject failure to improve child poverty.

The defeat of Kamala Harris keeps Lujan Grisham out of Washington for the time being. She was widely reported as being a potential secretary of health and human services in a Harris administration. New Mexicans, who live in one of America’s poorest states, may not see that as good news.

Paul J. Gessing is the president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a think tank based in Albuquerque, N.M. @pgessing

Businesses come and go for many reasons. Here in this space we don’t usually consider the opening or closing of one business or another as a big deal because we know the trends and the data. We know that New Mexico is in a massive oil boom but that our political classes have completely fumbled the ball and that shows no signs of turning around. So, while oil and gas remain growing, job creating, revenue booms for New Mexico, the rest of the private sector economy is relatively weak and experiencing slow growth.

Recently the Amador Entertainment district in Las Cruces closed and we found the reasons provided interesting. The news article can be found here, but the relevant comments are below:

Paul talks with Representative John Block about the upcoming legislative session.  They discuss issues that will likely be addressed and the Republican’s ability to shape what passes and what does not pass.  In addition, they discuss the Pinon Post, a site John created “to bring New Mexico the highest-quality independent news and conservative opinion on politics and current events.”

Albuquerque City Council recently voted on two policy changes that will have significant impacts on the local economy and development issues. One reduces the power of so-called “neighborhood associations” to veto development. This is a good thing. Albuquerque is overly bureaucratic in its approach to infill and land use in general. That could change in a positive way as a result of this action.

Sadly, the other is a “more of the same” approach which blames property owners for underutilized buildings. The plan is to fine property owners up to $500 a day if their building is vacant or “dilapidated.” Given the City’s massive issues with crime, homelessness, and an anemic economy outside of oil and gas it is hard to see how this move will improve downtown. While downtown has its share of vacant and dilapidated buildings, the rest of the City (especially along Central) has them too. Of course, it also has the same crime and homeless issues as well.

While the former policy is welcome, the latter is truly disturbing. Government mismanagement has created the problems. If Albuquerque’s mayor or council were serious about addressing them they would:

1. Fight crime and homelessness in a serious way.
2. Ask the State Legislature to reduce taxes on businesses (including the GRT, corporate tax, and personal income tax). This would generate economic growth statewide and (with a serious effort on crime/homeless) a reason for businesses to locate downtown.
3. IF downtown property owners faced with a growing private sector economy are unable or unwilling to fill or sell their buildings there MAY be a reason to penalize them, but we are a LONG way from that situation existing.

While RGF focuses like a laser on New Mexico tax and economic policies we do strategically work on issues that we believe will have profound impacts on the lives of New Mexicans and all Americans. One of those is free speech, especially online free speech where it has been most threatened in recent years. In early 2021 the Foundation joined the Media Research Center’s “Free Speech Alliance.” After all with these online media companies squashing truthful information about the Hunter Biden laptop, gender ideology, and COVID 19 (to name a few) we believed we needed to DO SOMETHING.

The Coalition just achieved a MAJOR victory when Meta/Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced (you can view his announcement at the link) that it was going to change its censorship-heavy approach to managing its sites. Zuckerberg, responding in part to the election of Donald Trump, but also to pressure from the Free Speech Coalition and other (predominantly conservative voices), recently outlined a much more free speech oriented approach than it had used in the past.

Find out more from RGF on its involvement in the Alliance here and here. Find out more about the Media Research Center-led project here. That organization did the heavy lifting. MRC Founder L. Brent Bozell III and his team did the heavy lifting both in terms of working with policymakers AND putting public pressure on media companies like Meta/Facebook. We are pleased to lend our support to the Coalition and its work!

New Mexico remains a slow growth state when it comes to population.

Tax changes took effect at the New Year. Here’s what they mean.

New Mexico’s Environment Department releases a draft “clean fuel standard.”

New Mexico’s RailRunner ridership rises slightly in 2024.

The Administration of ABQ Mayor Tim Keller was found to have misused federal COVID $$ to give raises to top officials.

Bills are being introduced in the 2025 legislative session.

In a win for freedom Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned as Canada’s prime minister.

Biden is locking up large tracts of offshore resources in his waning days in office.

In the wake of the Rail Runner’s ridership collapse during the COVID 19 pandemic, the number of riders on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express continued to rebound slightly in 2024. The 2024 number is a slight, 2.6% increase over 2023’s number. It appears to represent a “new normal” for the commuter train system.

Of course, ridership remains well below what it was in 2019. And, given these numbers the Rail Runner remains a net carbon emitter relative to driving your personal vehicle. In 2024 the Legislative Finance Committee reported that ridership would need to be increased by 23% in order to simply break even on CO2 emissions.

Even these numbers are a big drop from those seen in the initial years of the Rail Runner which can be seen below:

As is so often the case at New Year’s new laws took effect with the start of 2025. This year New Mexico is among the growing list of states to reduce personal income taxes. That sounds great and is something that SHOULD be happening far more aggressively. But, while New Mexico is slightly reducing personal income taxes the full effect of the tax law passed last year is going to be rather mixed.

The tax cuts are explained here. The reductions are very slight and actually ADD a tax bracket which is not good. They will reduce taxes by an estimated $159 million this year.

Sadly, the Legislature did not stop there. They increased capital gains taxes by an estimated $61 million and corporate income taxes by an estimated $16.1 million. That is still a tax cut (on net) of $87 million annually (a drop in the bucket given the State’s massive budget surplus and spending growth, but there is more bad policy in the bill.

$13 million in geothermal credits;

$45 million for EV’s;

$18 million for solar credits;

$25 million for ‘advanced energy equipment’ (wind and solar) credits.

When taken together these tax credits for MLG’s preferred wind, solar, and geothermal industries (totaling $101 million in FY 2026) are greater than the $87 million being returned to New Mexicans.

Overall the tax provisions kicking in this year are nothing more than a missed opportunity and a variety of harmful subsidies.

As the following chart from Americans for Tax Reform highlights New Mexico’s high 5.9% top income tax rate makes New Mexico uncompetitive with its neighbors. Neighboring Oklahoma with a 4.75% income tax rate is 20% lower than New Mexico’s top rate.

According to new data from the US Census Bureau New Mexico’s population growth remained stagnant over the past year despite the State’s ongoing revenue boom thanks to the State’s booming oil and gas industry. As the map below shows only Mississippi, Vermont, and West Virginia are losing population. New Mexico joins Oregon, Wyoming, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Maine as the slowest-growing states in the continental US.

Which states ARE growing? You can see for yourself below. But more importantly, three of the top 10 (Florida, Texas, and Nevada) lack an income tax. Nine of the 10 fastest growing states have “right to work” laws on the books (only Delaware does not). And three of the top 10 border New Mexico (Utah, Texas, and Arizona).

At the Rio Grande Foundation we have emphasized and will continue to work to highlight New Mexico’s policy failures that have caused it to lose its young, working age population. Sadly, nothing of note is being done in Santa Fe to address these issues and make New Mexico a more attractive destination for jobs, economic development, and ultimately young people.

According to news reports (based on a report by the City of ABQ IG) the Keller Administration spent $288,000 in federal money that was supposed to go to early childhood centers for bonuses for top employees instead. The bonuses were given to 27 city workers and ranged from almost $4,000 to $22,000.

This scandal-in-the-making raises numerous concerns:

1. How could Keller’s Administration be so blatant? They should know better.
2. We know that a LOT of COVID money was wasted and spent fraudulently. Hopefully there never is a “next time (pandemic),” but it was clear (to us) at the time that shutting down the entire economy was unwise. Allowing the federal government (both the Trump and Biden Administrations working with Congress) to hand out cash was not going to go well. This is just one of example with total COVID relief fraud topping $9 billion.
3. Why is the City involved in early childhood in the first place? APS runs the schools in Albuquerque and has its own bureaucracy and infrastructure. 

New Mexico’s Clean Fuel Standard rules took another step toward full implementation with the recent publication of a draft standard. As we at RGF have noted, this “standard” WILL increase gas (and diesel) prices in New Mexico. Of course, it will take time to be fully implemented.

While the Standard was adopted by the Legislature in 2024 and thus IS moving forward in some form, NMED will host an in-person meeting on Monday, Jan. 6, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Albuquerque International Public Library, as well as a virtual meeting from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 9. Additional details and links to the meetings are on the NMED calendar.

From Friday, Dec. 20 through Friday, Jan. 17 at 5 p.m., the department will also accept feedback through NMED’s public comment portal.

As you can see from the chart below (part of the draft put out by NMED) the full impact of the policy will take nearly 15 years to fully take effect.

A few months ago on the pages of the Albuquerque Journal Doug Peterson and I outlined our concerns about the proposed downtown Tax Increment Financing district. Unfortunately, the Albuquerque City Council recently adopted the TIF which (as the Journal notes) is “an economic development tool used to subsidize redevelopment projects.”

In other words, greater resources will be kept in downtown at the expense of surrounding areas.

But a TIF isn’t going to solve downtown Albuquerque’s issues. Solving crime would help. Bringing new businesses and economic activity to town would help downtown. Rather than redistributing a fixed pie, reducing taxes would grow the pie. Not all of the money would flow downtown, but with a lot of available office space some number of businesses would go downtown. And, of course ALL of Albuquerque and ALL of New Mexico would benefit from tax cuts.

And, of course, New Mexico with its exploding oil and gas revenues can easily afford significant tax reductions.

It is true that the massive surplus is under the State, not local control, but the City of Albuquerque has put together its “requests” for the 2025 legislative session. Sadly but not surprisingly, no tax reform was included in the Mayor’s or Council’s requests.

Former President Jimmy Carter has died at 100. While his overall legacy as President of our country is very much debatable, we will focus on his successful approach to deregulation here. One of the many reasons for “stagflation” which impacted the US economy in the 1970s was the non-stop growth in government regulations. Jimmy Carter did a great deal to address that situation.

In his first term in the White House President Trump took regulatory reform seriously and it was a bright spot in his economic track record, but with the death of Carter (a Democrat) it is worth highlighting the fact that Carter began the process of deregulating the US economy that led to the Reagan economic boom.

Here are a few of Carter’s regulatory successes:

Airlines;

Trucking;

Freight Rail;

Brewing;

Natural Gas prices.

Each of these deregulatory efforts reduced prices, increased innovation and diversity within the respective industry, and restored the role of markets in setting prices. Sadly, the political left is no longer are willing to acknowledge and do something about the ways in which government regulations hurt consumers (especially those with moderate incomes) by driving up costs and reducing options.

Conservatives are not always willing to tackle regulatory reform, but Trump HAS. So, here’s hoping Donald Trump will continue the deregulatory successes of both his own first term and Carter’s presidency.

On this week’s Tipping Point interview Paul sits down w/ Carla Kugler head of the NM chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. They discuss New Mexico’s performance in the organization’s Merit Shop Scorecard. They talk about New Mexico’s massive $6 billion in unspent capital outlay dollars and the State’s deteriorating roads. Finally, they discuss New Mexico’s construction workforce and how the state can find and train new workers in the trades and what ABC is doing about it. You don’t want to miss this important discussion!