Errors of Enchantment

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National organization promotes ideas for improved management of Albuquerque Zoo

11.29.2012

Albuquerque City Council decided to kick the can down the road rather than change how the Albuquerque Zoo is managed, but that doesn’t mean the issue will go away. That’s especially true with the City facing a sizable deficit of $10 million.

The folks at Reason have an idea: privatize zoo management. As this article outlines, the solution is one that a majority of zoos in America now follow.

Oh, and while they’re at it, perhaps City Council needs to consider some alternatives to rate hikes at City golf courses.

Albuquerque city council should have last say on minimum wage issue

11.29.2012

The folks at The Alibi are very concerned that Albuquerque’s City Council could “ignore the will of the people” by rescinding all or part of the recently-passed minimum wage increase. My response in which I remind them of a bit of recent history was posted in this week’s edition.

Marisa Demarco is very concerned that our elected members of City Council may overturn the voter-passed minimum wage increase [“A Simple Majority,” Opinion, Nov. 22-28]. She goes so far as to encourage readers to call the Councilors who might support such a measure and voice their opposition. This is all fine, but democracy is more complex than mere majority rule at the ballot box.

For starters, I don’t recall the Alibi running any articles expressing outrage that City Council subsequently voted to increase the minimum wage after voters rejected a ballot measure on the issue mere months before. The fact that there are several facets to the recently passed ballot measure and faulty language only strengthen the case for repeal.

Lastly, we do live in a republic, not a democracy. This is per the vision of the founding fathers. If we lived in a true democracy, President Obama’s health care law would have been repealed long ago, as the law has been opposed by a plurality (and often a majority) of Americans since it was passed.

City Council is faced with declining tax revenues and a foundering state economy, and it should carefully consider its options before going along with an economically harmful hike in the minimum wage.

Discussing License Plate Expenses with KRQE Channel 13

11.28.2012

New Mexico allows some non-profits to fund raise by creating special license plates. While good in concept, the State has a warehouse full of unused plates sitting around for a number of these organizations. Channel 13 asked me to weigh in:

Department of Education study reinforces need for K-12 reform in New Mexico

11.27.2012

Rio Grande Foundation has long been a proponent of a diverse array of education reforms in New Mexico including school choice, charter schools, digital learning, a ban on third grade social promotion, A-F grading, and yes, even vouchers. Why? Well, aside from the viewpoint that parents and students, not bureaucrats, should be empowered to make decisions, we have long believed that New Mexico’s schools are failing.

Now, add the US Department of Education to the long list of entities concerned about New Mexico’s schools. According to a new report with full chart here, New Mexico’s four year cohort graduation rate is better than only one other state’s (Nevada). Where have you heard that before? Perhaps you’ve seen our repeated postings about the “Diplomas Count” report which has shown that New Mexico’s graduation rate is better than only one state (Nevada).

Lest you middle and upper-class white folks get too complacent and think this is just a problem with Hispanic kids, the study breaks out graduation by states AND ethnicity. White students in NM have better graduation rates than only Nevada and Oregon. In fact, all students in school-choice-happy Arizona (and several other states) graduate at higher rates than do white kids in New Mexico.

Santa Fe, we have a problem. Will the Legislature embrace a reform agenda? Gov. Martinez, it is time to put forth a bold, choice-centric agenda on education reform.

HT: Rob Nikolewski

NM should emulate successful states by saying “no” to ObamaCare Medicaid $$

11.27.2012

If you see success and willfully do the opposite, where do you wind up? New Mexico’s neighbors Texas and Oklahoma are creating jobs at the fastest pace in the nation (see the chart on page 3) while New Mexico continues to lose jobs. Notably, Texas and Oklahoma have said “thanks but no thanks” to the federal Medicaid offer or bribe.

This expansion is, of course, being portrayed by backers as an unmitigated boon for state economies, but the reality is that putting people on welfare is not a path to economic prosperity and never has been. Given the makeup of the Legislature, Gov. Martinez will have a limited number of opportunities to actually influence New Mexico’s biggest public policy issues for at least the next two years. The opportunity to say “no” to even greater dependency is one she should embrace.

New Mexico is worst in nation maker/taker index

11.26.2012

For anyone living in the Land of Enchantment, this report from Forbes must be troubling. New Mexico has more “takers” relative to “makers” than any other state in the nation according to the report. According to the report, the number of “takers” is the number of state and local government workers plus the number of people on Medicaid plus 1 for each $100,000 of unfunded pension liabilities. See the full, scary list below:

Time to abandon NM’s Three-tiered-licensing system

11.26.2012

There has been a lot of discussion recently about New Mexico’s “Three Tiered Licensing System.” This has been spurred by a report from the Legislative Finance Committee which stated that “New Mexico’s three-tiered career ladder system does not align pay with student achievement.”

Curiously, this seems to be a factor IN SUPPORT of the system, at least according to the unions. Quoting directly from the article:

The three-tiered system was never, ever about raising student test scores. In fact, as the Journal itself has aptly pointed out on numerous occasions, including in this article, student test scores correlate more closely with demographic factors such as family income, home language and parents’ level of educational attainment than they do with a teacher’s location on the three-tier professional scale.

So, what he is saying is that we have this three-tiered-licensing system that has nothing to do with improving test scores, but simply results in more highly paid teachers. No wonder the unions like it, but no one else does. While it is obvious that having excellent teachers is an important factor in improving educational outcomes, paying teachers more for simply having another set of credentials is a silly and ineffective way to spend money.

What should be done? Simply put, rather than wasting money on a broken and irrelevant licensing system, why don’t we judge teachers based on the educational outcomes of their students? Standardized tests shouldn’t be the ONLY or even the dominant measure here, but objective measures are important if we are serious about measuring teacher performance objectively.

AG King: are you serious?

11.25.2012

New Mexico Watchdog Jim Scarantino takes Attorney General Gary King to task for his unwillingness to prosecute State Rep. Ray Begaye for his outright fraud on travel reimbursements. It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to do business in New Mexico when the man entrusted with enforcing our laws is unwilling to prosecute such blatant cases of law breaking by its elected officials.

New Mexicans should support free trade in natural gas

11.23.2012

With everything going on in Washington these days, some important issues are bound to get lost in the mix. One issue that Congress will hopefully tackle soon is to open up the international market for natural gas. New Mexico is a big producer or natural gas and to say the least, prices are down.

Unfortunately, while the US has a surplus in natural gas, the international market in the fuel is just developing for a variety of reasons. The federal government holds one major key to opening international markets like Japan to US exports.

Such openness could be a boon for New Mexico which has been hurt by low natural gas prices. Support of free trade SHOULD be a no-brainer for our Congressional delegation because it is clearly in our self-interest and a truly non-partisan issue. The folks at the center-left Brookings Institute have written a brief explanation of the issue and why free trade is a good thing.

Free trade would be a boon for New Mexico, but powerful interests oppose free trade in natural gas. Where does your Congressman/woman stand?

Online learning needed in New Mexico

11.21.2012

Full-disclosure, I am on the founding board of the charter school discussed in this opinion piece, but the message is absolutely important and relevant to reforming New Mexico’s education system moving forward. Online learning may not be right for every child, but it can help large numbers of them. We need to get out of the “one-size-fits-all” mentality in education.

US Senate to vote on bill giving federal government unlimited access to your email (without warrants)

11.20.2012

Sounds like one of those ridiculous forwarded emails that can easily be debunked on Snopes.com or another site, right? Wrong. This legislation is being voted on in a lame duck Congress as early as next week. It would give nearly two dozen federal agencies unlimited access to your email without a warrant.

Yes, we normally stick to “economic freedom” issues here at Rio Grande Foundation, but this threat from power-hungry “representatives” in Washington is simply too big to ignore. Economic freedom requires a semblance of privacy and the ability to carry on business without government meddling and looking over our shoulders.

Bingaman’s DC phone number is: (202) 224-5521
Udall’s DC number is: (202) 224-6621

Questions to ask on Albuquerque’s proposed bus rapid transit system

11.20.2012

If you aren’t already aware, the City of Albuquerque which now says it is facing a “severe budget crunch,” is considering the creation of a new “Bus Rapid Transit” system to run down Central Avenue. The good news is that bus rapid transit (BRT) won’t be nearly as expensive as was Mayor Marty’s proposed streetcar. The bad news is that, according to this report, the proposed BRT system will cost more than $100 million to construct. Future maintenance issues are not discussed.

Here is a schedule of public meetings on the topic. Those meetings get underway next week:

Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Manzano Mesa Multi-Regional Center – 501 Elizabeth SE, 87123-2887
Thursday, November 29, 2012, 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Alamosa Community Center – 6900 Gonzales Rd SW, 87121
Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Loma Linda Community Center – 1700 Yale SE 87106
Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Old Main Library/Special Collections, Botts Hall – 423 Central NE (at Edith), 87102
Thursday, December 13, 2012, 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (Auditorium) – 2000 Mountain NW, 87104-1459

While this is just the start of the discussions, it seems that BRT should not be a priority for the City. Here are some points for discussion though:

1) At a time of budgetary distress (at both the federal and local levels), is this the best and highest use of scarce taxpayer dollars?
2) Specifically, what improvements in terms of ridership and service will we receive?
3) Could service for the existing Rapid Ride system be improved in other, less-expensive ways?
4) Will this proposal negatively impact mobility in terms of autos/pedestrians/cyclists on Central?
5) This is a big city. Is Central the best possible location for a major transit investment? How about between the airport/downtown/Old Town for example?
6) How will operations costs increase/decrease from present? How will those costs be paid?

New Mexico spending grew out of control last decade

11.20.2012

Check out the following chart:

The chart is pretty self-explanatory as New Mexico’s per-capita spending was the 6th-highest in the nation during the 2000-2010 decade. This is not surprising since for much of the decade big-spending Gov. Bill Richardson was in office, but it should give license to our current elected leaders to focus on being fiscally-conservative when it comes to state spending.

Albuquerque called 2nd-least-competitive metro area in new report

11.16.2012

According to a new report from a group called Economic Modeling Specialists, Albuquerque has been the 2nd least competitive metro area since 2010. The report relies on a concept called “shift share” with which I was not previously familiar and I’m not sure that the report effectively describes the economic reality in Albuquerque, but it is most definitely relevant that we were ranked 99th out of 100 metros.

Richard Florida has an article about this at The Atlantic.

The same outfit did an analysis of the 50 states recently and New Mexico did not fare especially well in that either. Not surprisingly, Texas ranked highly.

Kudos to Bernalillo County for true transparency!

11.16.2012

Bernalillo County has posted its payroll including names and pay online. You can find this information here. Previous efforts to make the County truly transparent had failed in the Commission, but the Rio Grande Foundation went ahead and requested the information and posted it online on our own website.

Kudos in particular to Commissioner Wayne Johnson for his steadfast leadership on transparency at the County. It is our hope and assumption that the push for transparency will continue at the County regardless of its partisan makeup.

New Mexico’s fiscal cliff

11.15.2012

I recently attended a presentation by the Federal Reserve Bank in Albuquerque. At the event, this very informative powerpoint presentation was given. As the presentation illustrates, New Mexico is one of two states to have lost a significant number jobs over the past year (coal-reliant West Virginia being the other). Here is the data in another format.

Why is New Mexico lagging? As the charts on pages 7 and 8 of that report illustrates, New Mexico is over-reliant on Washington as a basis of its economy. And, with the recognized need for Washington to start to reverse spending growth, the decline in federal spending is going to hit New Mexico especially hard.

Not to be one to say “I told you so,” the need to diversify our economy away from the federal government was a topic of RGF back in 2007. It is time for policymakers to realize that the Washington gravy train has left the station. It is time to adopt proven, free market policies that will make New Mexico attractive to businesses.

Obviously, there are different visions for our economy, but I’ll put our ideas up against anyone else’s in terms of proven effectiveness.

Proposed Regional Haze Settlement Is a Bad Deal for New Mexico

11.14.2012

(Albuquerque) The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Rio Grande Foundation today released a joint working paper criticizing the Regional Haze settlement agreement recently proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department. The study is the first independent analysis of the settlement, which would resolve an ongoing dispute between the state and the Environmental Protection Agency over the haze-causing emissions from the San Juan Generating Station.

“EPA’s Regional Haze plan would impose almost $375 million in compliance costs on PNM ratepayers, in order to achieve an “improvement” in visibility that is imperceptible,” said CEI policy analyst William Yeatman, who authored the report. “Unfortunately, the state’s alternative proposal is even worse—it would cost almost $20 million more, yet it would significantly diminish PNM’s firm generating capacity. To put it another way, the state’s alternative would cost more, for less.”

At issue is an EPA regulation, known as Regional Haze, which requires that states improve visibility at federal National Parks. In June 2011, New Mexico proposed a Regional Haze plan that required a $36-million retrofit at the San Juan Generating Station. Three months later, in August 2011, the EPA rejected the state’s plan, and imposed a federal plan that required a $375-million retrofit at the power plant—more than ten times the cost of the state’s original plan. During the summer and fall of 2012, the New Mexico Environment Department led negotiations, in an attempt to reach an alternative agreement that would bridge the gap between the state and the EPA on Regional Haze.

In early October, after months of negotiation, the New Mexico Environment Department proposed a settlement agreement, which was then sent to EPA for review. Unfortunately, the Environment Department refused repeated requests for details on the settlement agreement. Despite the lack of specifics, it is nonetheless possible to perform a line-item cost analysis of the proposal, using regulatory filings submitted by PNM and conservative assumptions.

“New Mexico is much better off continuing to fight for its original, affordable Regional Haze proposal in court,” noted Yeatman, referencing litigation launched by the state against the EPA over the Regional Haze regulation in late 2011. The case is pending before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He continued, “Due to the unique prerogatives accorded to states under the Regional Haze program, New Mexico’s lawsuit has good prospects for success. Even were New Mexico to lose its case, suffering the EPA’s regulation would be better than the settlement negotiated by the New Mexico Environment Department.”

Added Rio Grande Foundation President Paul Gessing, “New Mexico rate payers deserve the best rates possible. While environmental concerns are important as well, the original proposed retrofit is far more sensible and cost-effective than the other two options.”

To read the report, click here.”

Sequestration should move forward

11.09.2012

From all of the talk about sequestration, one might be led to believe that it will result in “massive” spending cuts. That could not be further from the truth. What’s massive is our 16+ trillion dollar national debt and the trillion+ annually being added to it. Sequestration is not ideal, but as the Rio Grande Foundation and several other prominent free market groups point out in this newly-released letter, it is necessary to start this nation moving towards fiscal sanity.

New Mexico’s strong government employee unions

11.09.2012

It might be self-evident after Tuesday’s election, but I just ran across the interesting chart below which was put together by the Manhattan Institute. It illustrates the relative strength of public-sector labor unions. It will come as no surprise that New Mexico’s public-sector labor unions are the strongest in the region by far and are among the strongest in the nation. To be sure, many of the states with strong public employee unions are also the wealthiest in the nation. They are also the “bluest” (probably a lot of both “cause” and “effect” there) and are generally seeing slow population growth or even loss). This, despite relatively high incomes, makes one wonder why more Americans are moving to middle-income, non-union states rather than high income, heavily unionized states. Lastly, New Mexico is easily the poorest state to have public-sector unions as strong as it does. I can’t get the table to go past Florida, so go to the main paper by clicking here to find it.

Disasters don’t create prosperity

11.08.2012

The damage that was brought upon the coastlines of New York and New Jersey by Hurricane Sandy, estimated to cost up $50 billion, has some economic analysts stating that the tragic event could be an economic blessing (as discussed in a November 5 article). These individuals believe that the disaster could provide a desperately needed boost for the sluggish economy due to reconstruction. The idea that massive destruction is good for the economy should be seen as absurd on its face, but many economists – including Nobel-winner Paul Krugman – subscribe to this fallacious argument.

The great political economist Fredric Bastiat challenged this erroneous view back in 1850. Bastiat used the example of a broken window to illustrate how although we may see the new work which has been provided to the glazier to fix the window, but we do not see where that money could have been spent or invested absent of the damage. By simply replacing the broken window with a new one, no new wealth has been created; rather society is one window poorer than before.

The scarce resources that will be employed to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by Sandy will be denied of their other potential uses. Of course, the rebuilding of damaged property is necessary, but it robs us – especially those directly impacted – of wealth. Disasters should not be confused with economic stimuli.

Ben Sugg
Policy Analyst
Rio Grande Foundation