There is a lawsuit and investigation going on at New Mexico’s Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. The state is spending nearly half a million dollars of your money investigating what they call “potential irregularities” in New Mexico’s insurance fraud fund. But, rather than investigating companies for alleged fraud they are investigating internally.

They are looking into how the money that funds the investigations is being collected and spent.

“It’s ironic in this case that an agency that’s tasked with investigating fraud is itself being accused of fraud,”

RGF president Paul Gessing had the opportunity to discuss a bit about the OSI and how it is funded as part of the story. Check out the story here or below:

Check out this recent article from the Santa Fe New Mexican. It discusses challenges the City of Santa Fe is having with regard to capital outlay money from the State. As we have discussed, New Mexico has built up a massive backlog of unspent capital outlay money.  According to the article, “Unspent capital outlay statewide likely exceeds $7 billion.”

At the Rio Grande Foundation we believe that one of MANY problems with New Mexico’s capital outlay system is that local priorities should be funded locally (not on a statewide basis). Legislators often prioritize projects whether they are really a local priority or not. As the article notes, “State lawmakers are frustrated with the municipalities’ ability to quickly spend capital outlay allocated for local projects, something that may affect what they choose to fund in upcoming sessions.”

And, due to the lack of project prioritization and any comprehensive analysis of NEEDS vs. WANTS vs. POLITICAL PORK, “One lawmaker has said she refuses to give Santa Fe more money until a sewer line connection in her district is complete, while other said their main focus is funding shovel-ready projects.”

As Santa Fe Public Works Director Regina Wheeler told a City Council committee in early July, “The Legislature funds their priorities more than they fund the city priorities.”

And, of course, New Mexico remains ranked near the very bottom of various national lists like the following from US News & World Report. See below:

Over the weekend Gov. Lujan Grisham appeared on Face the Nation, one of the many “news magazines” designed to give the politicos of both parties an opportunity to provide long-form commentary on the issues of the day. You can find the full transcript of MLG’s comments here. MLG is hardly the only politician that fails to tell the truth, but with a biased media that often overlooks New Mexico we decided to check some of her statements:

1. Paperwork: Bizarrely MLG begins her remarks complaining (rightly) about the absurd amount of paperwork involved in health care. But there is no connection between increased health care paperwork and the BBB. Interestingly in a recent executive order (separate from the Big Beautiful Bill) Trump did something that will hopefully reduce paperwork in health care. MLG’s statement is meaningless and she offers no solutions or arguments.
2. MLG accurately states “We need to be moving out of poverty.” But, as governor of the most impoverished state in the nation over the past 7 years she has done nothing substantive to reduce poverty in New Mexico.
3. MLG claims “We (New Mexico) are in really good financial shape that takes planning and effort. New oil and gas discoveries pouring money into New Mexico’s coffers has nothing to do with MLG except the fact that she keeps attacking the industry while New Mexicans remain the poorest in the nation.
4.  MLG implies that jobs numbers or the economy are worse than when she was in college. There is simply no planet on which she is right about this unless the Gov. was in college during the 2008 economic crisis (she wasn’t). 
5. MLG claims “Susana Martinez canceled behavioral health.” That’s not exactly true, but, according to a June 2025 Source New Mexico report:. While there’s been a rise in the number of people accessing mental health services, utilization data indicates that it’s not necessarily translating into better outcomes. 

Watch the full interview here:

There is no question that Deb Haaland is an extreme leftist. Everything she has done in her political career is indicative of that. Unfortunately, New Mexico is a Democrat-dominated state and the Party continues to move further and further left (both in New Mexico and nationally). Take the rise of self-described socialist Zohran Mamdami who is running for Mayor of New York or Omar Fateh who is running for mayor in Minneapolis. A recent Axios article written by former AP reporter Russell Contreras even lumped Albuquerque candidate (not a self-described socialist to our knowledge) in with these others for his far-left political stances.

The point is that Democrats nationwide are moving further and further left and there is no sign they are coming back to the middle anytime soon. Deb Haaland is the frontrunner in the Democratic Party’s primary for governor. That makes her tweet (below) extra scary.

New Mexico is a poor state, but it’s not because of our overwhelming number of millionaires and billionaires “taking” all the money.  In fact, New Mexico only has ONE billionaire and he runs a solar company. Of course her tweet uses imprecise language and fails to tell readers WHAT she’d do about the situation. What kind of “fix” to the “broken” system is she referring to?

And, we included the rejoinder comment because when she joined the Biden Administration Deb Haaland listed her net worth as “zero” according to Forbes. It’s nearly impossible for a 64 year old attorney to have ZERO assets, but this is Deb Haaland we’re talking about.

On this week’s interview Paul talks to former Cuba Schools teacher and author of an impactful op-ed Blake Gumprecht. You can read his opinion piece from the Albuquerque Journal here in which he decried the pressure he and other teachers experienced to pass unprepared students along. He also had concerns about the vast gulf between student achievement and graduation rates.

Gumprecht and Gessing certainly agree that what is happening in Santa Fe regarding education is unacceptable but don’t necessarily agree on solutions. Check out this impactful conversation!

It’s official, MLG is going to call a special session of the Legislature. We’ve heard September, but expect something to happen this fall. As Dan Boyd of the Albuquerque Journal notes in his article the Gov. plans to:

Reinforce state’s Medicaid and food assistance programs in response to federal budget bill.

• Enhance criminal penalty for felons convicted of possessing a firearm.

• Prohibit New Mexico cities and counties from entering into agreements with federal government on immigration detention facilities.

Each of these issues plays in some way into the work of RGF. We’d likely oppose or at least want to tweak the 1st item, support the 2nd, and oppose the 3rd. Here we’ll discuss the 1st which will likely occupy a fair amount of time as it is easily the most complicated of the three. The options are as follows:

1. The Legislature (as we’ve noted) has plenty of money and can easily pour state money into the Medicaid and SNAP programs to replace lost federal funds. This is the wrong approach but also by far and away the most likely one.
2. The Legislature could replace SOME, but not ALL of the federal cuts which would result in overall cost savings and a somewhat streamlined Medicaid budget. This approach has potential, but it would require MLG and the Legislature to tacitly admit that Congress and Trump are at least partially correct in reducing Medicaid spending.
3. The Legislature COULD leave the cuts intact and make needed changes to medical malpractice laws, GRT taxation of medical service providers, and enter New Mexico into various health compacts. They COULD have done that in the 60-day session, but won’t.
4. Another approach (possibly by Republicans) could be to push for efforts to ensure that Medicaid dollars are spent for their intended purpose, not fraudulently. The link is to a 2022 LFC report highlighting potential steps to that end.

We don’t know exactly what the Gov. will put on the Legislature’s agenda. Undoubtedly MLG will be trying to avoid a debacle like the crime-focused special session of last year.

A UNM professor recently spoke to a business group and called New Mexico an emerging economy. What’s that supposed to mean?

Santa Fe Studios recently was put up for sale amidst a depression in Hollywood filmmaking. What’s the deal?

NM’s new automatic voter registration law will create big problems.

The East Central Ave. rework isn’t going to solve our pedestrian death issues.

I have it on good authority that MLG is going to have a special session in September to discuss health care issues. Also, the Albuquerque Journal editorial page was dominated by health care/doctor shortage issues on the editorial board page this Sunday.

Under the American system of federalism one of the easy ways to see which states are successful and which aren’t is to see how people move from state to state. While there are plenty of reasons for people to NOT move from one state to another, economics happens on the margins. And, over time (and for generations) people and their money have moved towards greater economic freedom.

Sadly, as anyone who follows New Mexico or the Rio Grande Foundation knows, New Mexico has long been a bastion of LESS economic freedom in the American Southwest. So, that means that people and their money continue to leave our state. You can check out the site and play around with its numerous useful features.

Below I have used the site to compare New Mexico and Arizona. RGF’s president wrote recently about the myriad economic advantages Arizona policies have over New Mexico’s. Taken directly from https://votewithyourfeet.net/

From 2012 to 2022, more people moved from New Mexico into Arizona than moved into New Mexico from Arizona.

In total, 16,335 people moved into Arizona, (referred to as the Net Domestic Migration), and took $599,689,000 with them, defined as AGI to individual income tax state data as provided by the IRS.

You can compare New Mexico and numerous other states against each other or find out how they are performing on a variety of population and financial metrics.

Since the days of the Richardson Administration the Rio Grande Foundation has opposed the State’s film subsidies. Under Bill Richardson the subsidy was 25% of film expenses (thus Hollywood could receive up to 25% of the costs of operating in New Mexico).

That spending was capped under Susana Martinez at $50 million in annual spending. But, when MLG was elected she immediately cut Hollywood a check for $300 million and (along with the Legislature) expanded the subsidy program up to 40% of film expenses.

Now, due to a collapsing film industry (filming in New Mexico has fallen from $740 million annually down to $323 million from July 2024 to June 2025) the owners of Santa Fe Studios are looking to sell. 

Sadly, while New Mexico will actually save money due to the decline in Hollywood filming with the massive subsidy, Santa Fe studios received subsidies above and beyond the State’s 40% credit. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the “Studios received a $10 million grant…from the state, and (Santa Fe) County kicked in another $3.6 million worth of infrastructure improvements for the project. It also is guaranteeing $6.5 million worth of a $10 million loan the studio’s principals secured from Los Alamos National Bank.”

That’s in addition to a $22 million Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) which exempted the facility from property taxes.

That’s a lot of money. But, New Mexico continues to pump money into other film-related programs like $40 million for the Next Generation Media Academy and millions of additional dollars supporting various film programs through the corporate welfare “LEDA” program.

Industry insiders question whether the Industry will ever recover or whether this is a “new normal” for the Industry. Only time will tell. But, rather than going all out to attract one industry, New Mexico’s political leaders should be focused on making the State an attractive destination for businesses of all kinds with low taxes and reasonable regulations.

I was not at the recent presentation by University of New Mexico Professor Manuel Montoya, but the article in the Albuquerque Journal makes it sound like Montoya is off his rocker. He compares New Mexico to the “BRICS” group of so-called “emerging” nations. (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.” But Montoya actually thinks New Mexico is MORE similar to an even more nascently emerging group of nations: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (he calls them MINT).

In summary, Montoya claims, ““Frankly, (New Mexico) looks, acts and thinks like the emerging economies that by the end of this century are going to become (epicenters) of the world economy.”

Say what? In 75 years (by the end of this century) New Mexico and these other nations are going to be epicenters of the world economy? Based on? Neither the BRICS nor MINT nations (nor New Mexico) are particularly fast-growing based on population numbers. Nor are their economies growing especially quickly (India and China are).

Nor are these countries (or New Mexico) adopting free market policies (like Argentina as an example).

Ultimately, COULD New Mexico “emerge” like some of these countries? Sure, we believe New Mexico has massive potential, but (like Argentina) has been held back for decades by bad public policy. Currently, New Mexico shows no signs of embracing economic policies that will generate that economic growth. In fact, New Mexico is in the process of missing out on a transformative economic boom thanks to politicians’ failure to use massive growth in oil and gas revenues to diversify and grow the State economy.

Could New Mexico still “emerge?” Of course. But, like the BRICS and MINT nations such emergence will have to come from significant economic changes.  As the Rio Grande Foundation found recently neither New Mexico’s population growth or GDP growth are on a particularly positive trajectory. 

PS: we plan to reach out to Professor Montoya to see if he’ll come on Tipping Point NM.

On the latest Tipping Point NM Paul talks to Carter Swanson. Carter has been an intern with the Rio Grande Foundation for over a year. He is heading to Australia to study abroad. Paul and Carter discuss what “the kids” in New Mexico think of free markets and freedom, his educational and career aspirations, and more. If you are concerned about the next generation this episode may alleviate your concerns!

There are several issues with this KOB 4 story which seems to imply that things are getting better on Central Ave. in Albuquerque. But let’s start with the treatment of the group Together for Brothers as if they are some kind of experts on how to improve East Central. This group actually led the way in creating the “free” city bus system which in turn led to a decline in safety and the need to hire more security on buses (covered recently by none other than KOB). 

Why does KOB give extensive airtime to this group even though their single policy achievement is a failure? Good question. More importantly, while they accurately note that Albuquerque is the second-deadliest city in the country for pedestrians and that East Central is a big part of that problem, the situation is not going to change with a “road diet” (which will make driving on East Central more difficult and shift traffic elsewhere) or more and better crosswalks. The problem is too many drug addled and homeless who throw caution to the wind when walking on and around Central.

Of course, the Keller Administration and New Mexico’s politicians have a long track record of throwing money at problems when the issue has nothing to do with money or the latest big government project. You can bet this will wind up as another costly mistake on Central.

In 2023 and against the wishes of most conservatives (including the Rio Grande Foundation) New Mexico’s Democrat-controlled Legislature passed “automatic voter registration.” The new system under which people are registered when they head to the DMV or deal with nearly any other government agency (like signing up for SNAP) took effect on July 1, 2025.

Here is the experience of one RGF friend:

I needed to renew my driver’s license yesterday so I went to my normal vendor on 4th street.  It was a simple renewal, new pic, eye test, but at the end of the process I was required to register to vote – I saw no option to opt out, I didn’t see a button that said “no thanks, already registered”.  I even queried the employee and said, I’m already registered, why must I fill all this out?  She didn’t have an answer.

The process is all on-line and you sign the vertical screen with your finger – good luck matching signatures with that system down the line.

So, presumably, I’m now registered as a voter twice.

This could be solved with a “No thanks, I’m already registered” button, but if it was there, I missed it.  I really don’t think I had an option…

So, existing inaccuracies in New Mexico’s voter rolls will be worsened as already registered voters may be registered under duplicate names or with slight variances in their names and addresses…and to what end? So a bunch of people who can’t be bothered to register to vote will be registered whether they want to or not.

On this week’s Tipping Point NM conversation Paul and Wally discuss:

New Mexico’s impending demographic disaster.

State Sen. Harold Pope is running for Lt. Gov., but all he can talk about is Trump.

Surprising absolutely no one, a Wallethub report finds New Mexico dead last in education.

Trump cancels $4 billion in federal funding for CA high speed rail.

RIP Ed Fuelner of Heritage Foundation.

Paul discusses his family vacation to DC, Philly, and NYC.

The Rio Grande Foundation is pleased to announce that we have received a completed candidate survey from Christopher Sedillo. Sedillo is running for Albuquerque City Council in District 3 which is currently occupied by Klarissa Peña.

You can find Christopher Sedillo‘s survey. It is also embedded in the post below:

A few years ago the Rio Grande Foundation filed an ethics complaint (you can read it here) with the New Mexico Ethics Commission regarding campaign finance concerns over documents linked her to a nonprofit once led by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein. RGF had received an anonymous tip that Stansbury was involved in TerraMar Project, a now-defunct nonprofit founded and led by Maxwell. Our hope at the time was that an investigation would be undertaken by the Commission to understand what involvement Stansbury had (if any) with Epstein and Maxwell. Sadly, no such investigation ever took place and allegations relating to Stansbury have swirled since shortly after she was elected to Congress.

Recently, with so much attention focused on the “Epstein list” and other issues relating to the case the Pinon Post wrote a piece citing RGF’s ethics complaint and Daniel Chacon of the Santa Fe New Mexican wrote a story for which we provided public comment. Both stories are worth a read if you are and they include comments from Stansbury as well. What is the truth? We may never find out.

But, as John Block notes in his Pinon Post article:

Only after the Rio Grande Foundation filed a public complaint linking the disclosure to Maxwell did Stansbury amend her form. On April 21, 2021, she quietly changed it to say “Terramar Consulting Group – Santa Fe, NM.” Then, in a 2022 disclosure, she listed a third variation: “Terramar, Inc.,” another Santa Fe entity, which had been incorporated and dissolved by Cristina Mormorunni — behind the “Terramar” entity in Santa Fe — and campaign donor to Stansbury.

The following appeared in Eastern New Mexico News and other outlets throughout July of 2025.

If you haven’t heard already, over the 4th of July weekend, President Trump signed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) into law. Setting aside the merits and demerits of the legislation, you have to hand it to President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson for achieving the President’s goal of signing the bill by July 4.

Considering the complexity of the bill and the narrow majorities held by Republicans (with implacable opposition from Democrats), there was not much wiggle room for compromise or lost Republican votes. Needless to say, New Mexico’s hyper-“progressive” delegation universally opposed the bill, but so did Trump’s erstwhile ally Elon Musk and libertarian leading Kentuckians Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie (both Republicans).

Paul and Massie voted in opposition to the plan due to insufficient spending reduction and the potential of the plan to increase the federal debt.

New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham and the entire Congressional delegation also unsurprisingly opposed the BBB. They didn’t oppose it for reasons of fiscal restraint. Rather, they opposed the bill because it cuts taxes and eliminates subsidies for so-called “green” energy and Medicaid.

Lujan Grisham called the bill “an abomination.” Rep. Vasquez said “It’s gonna devastate New Mexico’s health care system.” Other reports claim that the reductions to Medicaid spending growth could shutter half a dozen hospitals in the state.

In reality, the BBB doesn’t actually cut Medicaid. According to health care expert Michael Cannon, it slows federal Medicaid spending growth from an annual rate of 4.5 percent to 2.7 percent. It does this by eliminating some widely recognized gimmicks like provider taxes that both Joe Biden and the Obama Administration opposed. The new law also imposes enhanced work (including education and job training) requirements for Medicaid and SNAP (food stamp) recipients.

Whatever the impact of these plans, the fact is that Medicaid is long-overdue for reform. If New Mexico policymakers truly wish to keep these benefits flowing, they have every tool available to keep them in place.

Not only does New Mexico have a mind-blowing $61billion in various “savings” accounts. Just last year the Legislature created a new $2 billion “Medicaid Trust Fund” for the express purpose of shielding New Mexico’s Medicaid program from prospective cuts.

The Rio Grande Foundation opposed this legislation (SB 88). That’s because we believe New Mexico’s massive “savings” should be returned to the taxpayers to diversify the State’s struggling non-oil-and-gas private sector economy.

But, if the Legislature and Gov. want to restore federal spending cuts, they can certainly afford to do it. Federal welfare programs like Medicaid are found nowhere in the US Constitution. More importantly, as designed, Medicaid’s incentive structure is all wrong. It incentivizes states to game the system to bring in more federal money and disincentivizes recipients from seeking gainful employment and higher pay (lest they lose their benefits). New Mexico’s heavy dependency on Medicaid is also a major factor in New Mexico’s health care provider shortage.

Even the overall health impacts of Medicaid are inconclusive at best. A June 25, 2025, headline from the liberal online news Source New Mexico stated, “New Mexico health outcomes fail to improve despite massive spending increases.” That is based on recent data from the Legislative Finance Committee. Those increases were largely thanks to Medicaid and they highlight the program’s questionable impact on patient outcomes.

Whatever the future holds for Medicaid and health care spending in New Mexico more broadly, the State has the resources to either continue existing programs or even improve upon the current situation. It’s time to stop whining and use our own considerable resources for the benefit of New Mexicans.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is 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.

As night follows day and the seasons change you can just about set your clock to the fact that New Mexico’s K-12 schools are as bad as they come in the United States. Yet another data point can be found in the latest Wallethub report “States with the Best and Worst School Systems.” New Mexico comes in at 51st overall.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report is the following chart which shows New Mexico to have the worst schools in the nation but ranked 29th in spending per pupil.

One can certainly argue about the specific methodology of the report, but when your dropout rate and median SAT scores are tied for dead last and your Math and Reading scores ARE dead last, it is pretty easy to see that your school system needs quite a bit of work. While improvements take some time, the fact is that New Mexico has had numerous opportunities to improve its schools. The latest is the Trump tax credit for school choice contained in the Big Beautiful Bill. Will New Mexico Democrats embrace that credit or continue to reject opportunities to improve New Mexico’s education system? We’ll be watching.

One argument that I occasionally hear about New Mexico’s manifestly failed public policies is that voters don’t want the State to grow too fast and take on attributes associated with places like Phoenix or Denver (crowding, traffic, outsiders moving there). That argument doesn’t hold water (of course) because New Mexico suffers from worse social and economic outcomes than ANY of our neighbors thanks in large part to the failed policies our elected officials have implemented over many decades (but especially recently).

However, the BIGGEST SINGLE THREAT TO NEW MEXICO is the loss of our young people. Check out the following chart from Wire Points Illinois. The chart shows the growth or decline of people 18 years of age and under in certain US states between 2020 and 2024. You can see the chart below. As can be seen, New Mexico saw the 2nd-biggest decline in its youth population during the time period.

Ultimately, we recommend that New Mexico politicians and those running for office highlight this demographic decline and its implications for the future. Of course a powerful question to prospective voters could be: If you want your kids and grandkids to remain in New Mexico we need to provide them good jobs and diverse economic opportunities and a functional education system. This is clearly not currently the case and it is the failed policies of those who have run New Mexico for decades who have failed us.

Noteworthy as well are the low tax, reasonable regulation states that see tremendous growth in their younger populations. Four of the top-ten have no personal income tax and are also “right to work” states.

There are many factors that make Gallup a unique place to do business.  Paul visits with Bill Lee of the Gallup Chamber of Commerce about the challenges and opportunities that businesses face.

We are pleased to announce that Albuquerque mayoral candidate (former Bernalillo County Sheriff and former Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety) Darren White, has completed and submitted the Rio Grande Foundation’s mayoral candidate survey. You can find that survey embedded below and linked to here. 

You can also find White’s campaign website here. 

Harold Pope is one of the most left-wing members of New Mexico’s VERY left wing Legislature. He tied left-wing Antoinette Sedillo Lopez with a -163 Freedom Index score in the 2025 session. It won’t surprise any of readers to know that he’s not our favorite legislator in Santa Fe even though he DOES “represent” RGF’s president (who resides on Albuquerque’s West Side) in the Legislature.

That said, we have plenty of disagreements with plenty of legislators and we don’t write posts about them in this space. So, what’d Pope do? Check out this opinion piece he wrote in the Albuquerque Journal. It is a lengthy diatribe about Trump and the recently-passed/signed Big Beautiful Bill. None of his critiques (like those of New Mexico’s other Democrat politicians) are especially insightful or unique.

In fact, the major difference is that Pope is a state legislator (Senator) and he happens to be running for Lt. Gov. Does he have any solutions (or tout any state-level successes?) No. Rather, we get just another leftist ranting about policies he has no control over and isn’t even running to change.

Pope is running against Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard in the Democrat primary for Lt. Gov., a position that has had very little impact in New Mexico dating back decades. Will Pope (or Garcia Richard) campaign on their accomplishments and New Mexico’s needs for this state-level position? Only time will tell.

The latest from Channel 13 KRQE reports on some of the massive increases in commercial real estate property taxes. Lance Sigman owner of Allen Sigman Real Estate Group reports a 76% increase in the values of our commercial properties.

According to Rhiannon Samuel, Executive Director of NAIOP New Mexico, “There’s a lot of folks who are deeply concerned and frustrated when they get a letter that says their property has gone up 704%.

We talked to commercial real estate developer Doug Peterson about spiraling property tax assessments on a few recent episodes of Tipping Point NM as well. 

Residential property taxes also have their issues as this RGF supporter shared (he attempted to challenge his tax assessment). 

Recently, a friend of RGF emailed Bernalillo County Assessor to better understand how New Mexico’s property tax system works. Here’s his reply:

Clearly, if this is the case, New Mexico’s property tax structure is in need of reform (like the rest of our tax structure). And this doesn’t even touch all of the special “inducements” like Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRB’s) which are a massive property tax break, TIF’s, and other exemptions that impact property taxes.

New Mexico is low (34th in property tax burdens) according to the Tax Foundation. But that doesn’t mean the system works well or is fair to taxpayers.