I had a place at the table for last week’s “In Focus” program on Channel 5 KNME. Topics included Obama’s visit to Albuquerque, the race for governor, the closing of the GE plant in the South Valley, and more.

Check it out:

Watch the full episode. See more New Mexico In Focus.

Recently, in Tennessee, a man’s house caught fire. The man lives in a rural area of the county where, if you want your house protected against fire, you pay a $75 fee annually. The guy didn’t pay the fee and the firemen let the house burn. The full story can be found here.

Sounds awful, right? It certainly is and we at the Rio Grande Foundation have never come out opposed to publicly-financed fire departments as our friends on the left seem to imply. Local governments can and should experiment with policy solutions and if the local folks want to pay for the fire department using an “insurance” model, that is their right. As an aside, I believe the fire department in Tennessee that watched this house burn was still a government fire department!

What should have happened or would have happened in a privatized world? I would think that in order to win a new customer, gain positive publicity for their company (remember, they’re competing in a free market), and do something good for someone in need, that a private fire department would have put the fire out and then billed the guy later.

Private fire departments can succeed. We at RGF don’t fight that battle because at $75 a year, if government was limited to fire, roads, ambulance, and police, I’d be a happy camper. Leave it to the lefties to make this stuff up.

I have written Rep. Heinrich in the past on a variety of issues. While one of these issues was the health care bill that Heinrich voted for twice and that is now deeply unpopular, I’ve written to him and received responses from him on a variety of issues.

Recently, I received this unsolicited letter from Heinrich’s office. I was surprised to receive it because it had been some time since the health care vote and any correspondence with the Congressman on the issue. But, we are getting close to Election Day, and this mail (known ad “franked” mail) is taxpayer-financed. The letter simply defends ObamaCare and is clearly meant to assist with Heinrich’s re-election campaign. While it is technically legal according to my former colleagues at the National Taxpayers Union, that doesn’t make it right or fair.

This year may see a record number of incumbents go down to defeat, but franking is one of the advantages of incumbency that most certainly tilts the playing field in favor of those already in office.

State income taxes are big news these days. First, we published of our study on Governor Richardson’s successful income tax cuts. Today, the Wall Street Journal had an excellent piece by Art Laffer which shows how personal incomes slow economic growth in those states that have adopted them.

As Laffer writes:

Each and every state that introduced an income tax saw its share of total U.S. output decline. Some of the states, like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, have become fiscal basket cases. Even West Virginia, which was poor to begin with, got relatively poorer after adopting a state income tax.

Richardson’s cuts, as we’ve shown, stimulated growth. Our next Governor should seriously consider eliminating New Mexico’s personal income tax, especially once the economic outlook brightens and needed cuts and reforms are made that will further increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of New Mexico government.

As this column from the Albuquerque Journal notes, “Waiting for Superman” may be the most important movie of 2010. With a popular movie, widely distributed in theaters and on Oprah, the push for school choice and improved access to an excellent education is taking on an urgency not seen since the 1950s.

New Mexico is one of the worst performing states in terms of educational achievement in the entire nation (which isn’t performing all that well either). Check this movie out and get yourself and your friends educated and active on the issue.

We at the Rio Grande Foundation have been saying to anyone who will listen that major new environmental regulations (a New Mexico-specific carbon cap) are too important to be decided by an un-elected and highly conflicted Environmental Improvement Board (also see testimony here).

It looks like someone has been listening. I am heartened that Republican legislators have taken the conflict of interest issue to Attorney General King and I hope he does the right thing by demanding that partisans with personal interests on either side of the global warming debate recuse themselves. Only time will tell, but it is good to know you are not shouting into darkness sometimes!

While it is easy to get caught up in the errors of our own politicians. For some perspective, it is useful to compare their foibles to those of other politicians in other states. The Rio Grande Foundation recently praised Richardson for his income tax cuts which have had a positive economic impact. The Cato Institute which has generally graded New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson highly in the organization’s report card on the nation’s governors, gave Richardson relatively high marks scoring him a “B” in their latest edition.

Here is what the folks at Cato had to say about the Guv:

Governor Richardson has carried through on phased-in income and capital gains tax cuts
he put in place seven years ago. The top income tax rate fell from 8.2 percent in 2003 to 4.9
percent in 2008. Richardson has supported other modest tax cuts, but they have not been progrowth
reforms like his income tax cuts. In 2009, for example, he signed into law energy tax
credits and one-time income tax rebates. The governor has supported some tax increases. In
2010, he signed into law an increase in the gross receipts tax rate, a broadening of income and
sales tax bases, and a cigarette tax increase. On spending, Richardson allowed the budget to
balloon during the middle of the decade, but he has cut back recently. Between FY03 and
FY09, the general fund budget increased 49 percent. However, Richardson’s proposed spending
for FY11 is down 11 percent from the peak in FY09.
New

Interestingly-enough, Richardson crushed right-wing darling Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, who scored a lousy “D” on the report which only examines fiscal issues. Richardson also scored better than likely presidential candidate Mitch Daniels who also received a “B,” but was not scored as highly as Richardson.

What do you think? Did Cato go overboard in praising Richardson?

All this week, KUNM has been airing interviews (available on their website) with various Richcardson-watchers during its afternoon “All Things Considered” program. I (Paul Gessing, President of the Rio Grande Foundation) took part in this effort. I was interviewed for stories on scandals and energy and environment which have been posted.

More will be available here as they are uploaded to the site.

Congressional Republicans are now running for office on a platform of repealing the recent federal takeover of the US health care system. Unfortunately, while repeal would undo a great deal of harm, positive reforms are needed in the health care sector. Rio Grande Foundation board member and physician Deane Waldman wonders what will happen and outlines some positive reforms in a new article "If Obamacare Is Repealed, What Then?"

The Rio Grande Foundation has previously analyzed and criticized higher education spending. While this sector is particularly bloated in New Mexico, the problem is not limited to our state. In fact, the cost of college is rising nationwide.

That’s why the National Center for Policy Analysis recently studied the cost of higher ed and found some interesting facts:

Where Is the Money Going? Much of the increased spending is going outside the classroom. For example, according to economist Richard Vedder, at four-year U.S. colleges and universities:

The ratio of teachers to students remained relatively stable, at about seven teachers per 100 students from 1976 to 2000.
In contrast, the ratio of nonteaching staff members to students doubled from three to six per 100 students from 1976 to 2000.

This suggests that less money is being spent on students’ education and more is being spent on noninstructional activities, such as administration and faculty research.

Also,

Institutional spending per fulltime equivalent student for student services – such as student organizations, intramural athletics and career counseling – rose more than 36 percent at private research universities from 1998 to 2008, after adjusting for inflation.

By contrast, institutional spending on instruction increased only 22.4 percent at private universities.
At public research universities, student services spending increased 20.1 percent and instructional spending rose just 10.1 percent over the same time period.

The reason I (and many others) believe higher education to be in a “bubble,” much like the real estate bubble is that students are being forced to take on ever-greater levels of debt:

The average amount of a federal student loan increased 180 percent from 1990 to 2008, after adjusting for inflation.
Students borrowed $1,637 in federal loans (in 2008 dollars) during the 1990-1991 school year, on the average.
By contrast, students borrowed an average of $4,585 during the 2008-2009 school year.

In case you haven’t seen it, Congressional Republicans have released their “Pledge to America.” It has a few very nice, solid ideas in it, specifically:

Repeal and Replace ObamaCare;

Cut Government Spending to Pre-Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels (2008 levels);

End TARP Once And For All;

End Government Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;

Those are all very good ideas as far as they go, but as Gene Healy of the Cato Institute writes, there is a lot of work needed — going far beyond the ideas contained in “The Pledge” — needed to turn around the US economy.

Whether it is mandated 401k’s, ObamaCare, or his latest, nationwide renewable mandate, it would seem that New Mexico’s senior senator’s best and only idea for turning our nation’s economy around is for the federal government to mandate economic growth.

Of course, the real-world economy doesn’t work like that. Mandates are necessary because the behavior that government force is used to dictate is not the most efficient or least expensive way to do things. Paul Chesser writing in the Washington Times As Chesser writes:

A study by the Washington-based Institute for Energy Research found that states with their own binding renewable electricity standards have 40 percent higher electricity prices than do states without such mandates.

The full impact of these renewable energy mandates at the state level has not yet been realized as most of them (like New Mexico’s, which goes fully into effect in 2020) are not fully-implemented. If Bingaman and his allies in Congress really want to turn the economy around, perhaps they will consider repealing some mandates. I’m not holding my breath though.

Governor Richardson's big-spending ways have often drawn the ire of fiscal conservatives (like the Rio Grande Foundation), but there is no doubt that the 2003 tax cuts which he pushed through the Legislature that year have resulted in a burst of economic prosperity for New Mexicans, especially when compared to other states.

In fact, as personal income data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis and compiled online by New Mexico’s own Bureau of Business & Economic Research clearly shows the upward trend that started after 2003.

Read the full text of the new study here.

I found this article from today’s Albuquerque Journal fascinating. It was written by 32-year educator Del Hansen. It would seem to me that Mr. Hansen and his ilk are a big part of the problem in New Mexico education.

Hansen spends more than 800 words complaining about parents and our society and how it molds students into what they are. In Hansen’s world, schools have little to no impact over the 12 (or more) years of schooling because if parents don’t do the job, teachers and schools are doomed to fail. Ben Chavis, who I blogged about yesterday, is just one prominent example of an educator who, regardless of society and parents, pushed his students to succeed. I’m not blaming teachers for not always succeeding, but until we have a school system that is designed with success in mind, mediocrity will be the norm.

Speaking of mediocrity, I found the comments of Houston Texans running back (and Albuquerque native) Arian Foster very interesting. An article about him appeared in the paper as well.

Said Foster: “Looking back, it’s easy to see why so many Albuquerque kids fail. It’s the attitude out here, and that’s terrible,” says Foster, who says he still visits at least three times a year and is in the process of creating programs to help straighten out troubled teens. “I will do anything to help the kids there. But there’s just kind of this attitude where people accept mediocrity.

Strong stuff, especially to tell your home-town newspaper, but I find his statement compelling and accurate. Until our schools demand excellence and our government’s policies reward (rather than discourage) hard work and individual initiative, New Mexico and its citizens will be achieving far less than they should.

John Stossel recently had an excellent education special on his show “Stossel” which appears on Fox Business Channel. Recently, he had a great show on education reform that included previous RGF event speaker and educator Ben Chavis and DC schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee..

Check out the Chavis interview below with links to other segments here.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart certainly tilts to the left, but when unions hire non-union, minimum wage workers to do their protesting dirty work for them (sound familiar?), the hypocrisy is too rich to pass up.

Warning, laughs ahead!

As you may already know, the Rio Grande Foundation has released its government transparency website, www.newmexicospending.com. I wrote an article for The Alibi which discusses the benefits of government transparency and our experiences with some school districts that were more (and less) willing to release supposedly-public data.

I have been honored to work these past two years with the Rio Grande Foundation.  But I’m off to other adventures.  My farewell from New Mexico Watchdog is here.

The Rio Grande Foundation has been at the forefront of efforts to put the government employee pension problem on the agenda. Look for writings by “Scott Moody” in the search box on our website. It is a good thing we’re on the ball because the more data that comes out on this, the worse New Mexico’s pension problems look.

For starters, there is a new study which Capitol Report New Mexico has written on showing that New Mexico’s pension plan for state employees will run out of money in the year 2023.

Among the other findings of the report are that New Mexico will be expected to pay out $2.6 billion in state employee pensions in 2024.

That $2.6 billion figure represents an estimated 46 percent of the entire state tax revenue for a given year

In other words, if the Rauh/Novy-Marx model holds true, in less than 15 years, New Mexico will have pension obligations that equal nearly one-half of the state’s entire annual intake of taxes.

To put New Mexico’s pension issues in perspective, a table I found (displayed below) from Moody and Warcholik shows that New Mexico’s maximum pension liabilities as a percentage of state GDP is third-highest in the nation:

The view from the left is that the Rio Grande Foundation is a mammoth organization, well-funded by oil companies, the health insurance industry, and other unpopular and self-evidently-corrupt industries. Little do they know. We are a “lean and mean” organization. In part, this means relying on volunteers. Two volunteers with whom we sometimes work are economists Micha Gisser and Kenneth Brown. These two wrote an opinion piece under their own, not an RGF, byline recently, that appeared in the ABQ Journal explaining their views on the upcoming election. Needless to say, this greatly upset the folks over at ABQ Journal Watch and even led to a letter to the editor that appeared on September 13th, “outing” the two as working with the Rio Grande Foundation.

Leaving aside the obvious right of Brown and Gisser to write a column and submit whatever they want to the paper, I want to actually discuss the piece itself. Gisser and Brown essentially argue that voters who are frustrated with the floundering economy should vote for Republicans. They have a valid point, but not really for the reasons they state. The primary justification for voting for Republicans to take over at least one branch of Congress is to slow the growth of government. As William Niskanen has written, over the past 50 years, “Government spending has increased an average of only 1.73 percent annually during periods of divided government. This number more than triples, to 5.26 percent, for periods of unified government. That’s a hefty premium to pay for a bit of unity.

I do not share Brown and Gisser’s belief that if we could wave a magic wand tomorrow to put the Republicans in power of the federal government that they would do much to shrink government. After all, many of these Republicans served while Bush was taking spending to ever-higher levels as President.

Brown and Gisser are welcome to their views and they provide welcome help to the Rio Grande Foundation, but there is no conspiracy. If they write on something that is too “political” or inappropriate for the Foundation, they are welcome to do so. Claiming that this amounts to a conspiracy of any sort is downright silly.

The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board’s latest hearings on a cap-and-trade scheme for New Mexico only began last night. As reported by Rob Nikolewski, the EIB will be holding public hearings starting at 7pm in Santa Fe from now until October 1. If you care about New Mexico’s economy and don’t want an un-elected board to make such an important decision, I urge you to go up to Santa Fe and make your views known.

I testified last night on the many conflicts of interest on the board and called for the recusal of several members of the board who are on the payroll of environmental groups (or the oil and gas industry), none of which are likely to view the issues in an objective manner.

Constitutional Crisis is Appellate Attorney’s Topic at SFCC

Appellate attorney Rebecca O’Dell, will be holding a 45 minute presentation on “Our Current Constitutional Crisis” on Thursday, September 23 at 7 PM in the Jemez Rooms of the Santa Fe Community College. Odell will discuss the Constitution, each branch’s role within the Constitution, and how American citizens can regain control of their government.

Ms O’Dell has been traveling the country with this event to overwhelmingly positive reception. Rebecca O’Dell is an appellate attorney, practicing full-time before the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal and state appellate courts. She is an Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney and a member of its honor corps. She has filed several briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court which are awaiting a decision to be heard.

Tickets for the presentation are $10, payable at the door (Jemez Rooms, Santa Fe Community College). Space is limited to 200 on a first come basis.

Vic Bruno has worked in commercial real estate in Albuquerque for 40 years. With such long-term experience in Albuquerque and paying attention to real estate issues, he has a unique perspective to offer on past efforts to spur downtown development through major investments of taxpayer dollars.

Vic’s column in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal is a must-read for those who think the latest and greatest in central-planning is the key to Albuquerque’s future economic success.

Today is Constitution Day, so celebrate that founding document and its many blessings of liberty for Americans. By way of actually restoring the Constitution, the Cato Institute has taken out ads in newspapers across the nation explaining to President Obama some tangible, specific ways that he could fulfill his pledge to:

“go through our federal budget–page by page, line by line–eliminating those programs we don’t need.”