In advance of July 4th Independence Day celebrations Wallethub has put together a ranking of the most and least “independent” states. Overall New Mexico ranked a mediocre 42nd, but when you dig into the variables, New Mexico appears on some of the worst lists (see below). In the area of “Financial Dependency” New Mexico is 47th while Government Dependency and Job Market Dependency rankings are 48th.

Some of the specific categories included by Wallethub in which New Mexico ranks lowly can be found below.

Check out the screenshot below (or go to the link here). This is obviously contrary to Gov. MLG’s efforts to force EV’s on car-buying New Mexicans. One According to McKinsey & Co. 46% of American EV owners are likely to switch back to internal combustion engine vehicles. wonders how many of these EV owners ALSO own a gas-powered vehicle.

We are two years from MLG’s requirement that 43% of ALL vehicles sold in New Mexico being EV’s. So far she refuses to back down by altering her unrealistic and destructive regulation. 

As we have noted in recent years New Mexico Voices for Children has begun backing away from their own (the report is compiled by Annie E. Casey Foundation and released in NM by Voices and we regret any implication to the contrary) “Kids Count” report which once again ranked New Mexico 50th overall.

Here’s a quote they put out in the wake of the report: 

“New Mexico’s ranking in the education domain is heavily impacted by national standardized test scores, including fourth grade reading proficiency,” said Emily Wildau, KIDS COUNT Coordinator at New Mexico Voices for Children. “Reading proficiency is critical for students to succeed academically and as adults. These scores do not reflect the ability of our children, but rather an education system that is not designed with our multicultural, multilingual students in mind.” New Mexico K-12 students of color and those who are Native American, from low-income families, and who have disabilities tend to not fare as well as their white, more affluent peers, largely as a result of generations of underfunding the education system and a lack of culturally responsive instruction and support.

There are so many rebuttals:

1. New Mexico spends a great deal on K-12 education. Some states spend more and some spend less, but New Mexico has been nowhere near the bottom in K-12 spending for years.
2. What happened to pre-K as the savior? Pre-K has been “free” and universal for only a few years, but taxpayer-funded pre-K has been around in NM for two decades. Has it had ANY positive impact on student outcomes?
3. Test scores account for JUST TWO of the Kids Count report’s variables. They are really blaming just two variables for New Mexico’s awful 50th ranking?
4. We certainly take issue with the idea that minorities can’t perform well on standardized tests. That seems a bit racist and would undoubtedly be labeled as such if it were asserted by conservatives.
5. Finally, many states with large populations of black and Hispanic students perform WELL on the NAEP and other standardized tests. Maryland, Florida, California, and Texas all have large minority populations yet they blow New Mexico out of the water. We’ve documented Mississippi’s educational improvement as well.
6. Their statement ALMOST could be taken as an endorsement of school choice and giving parents the ability to choose an education that fits with the student’s culture and interests. Alas, Voices opposes school choice.

Like New Mexico Hawaii is a “deep blue” state. It also has no oil and gas to speak of. They certainly don’t have $15.2 billion in tax revenue from the industry in a single year. And while Hawaii’s income tax burden is heavier than New Mexico’s, under this plan their income tax burden will be lower than New Mexico’s once fully implemented.

Yet, Hawaii recently enacted significant income tax cuts. And, unlike New Mexico’s paltry cuts (which were partially offset by tax hikes and wasteful tax credits) Hawaii’s tax reductions are significant. Hawaii’s tax cuts dramatically expand the standard deduction under the income tax taking it from $4,400 joint or $2,200 single to $24,000 or $12,000 for joint and single filers respectively.

 There are also rate reductions to Hawaii’s income tax although the top rate of 11% is far too high (at least fewer people will be paying it). Hawaii’s tax reform is not perfect. It is highly progressive, but it is MUCH better than nothing or the slight tax reductions we’ve seen since the oil boom really kicked into gear.

New Mexico remains in the midst of an unprecedented oil and gas boom. When will average New Mexicans see the benefit?

Johnny Cash pretty much explains the last few weeks for us at the Rio Grande Foundation. The only difference is that all of our travel for RGF has been within New Mexico. Here’s where we’ve been:

Primary election radio coverage for 3 hours on KSFR in Santa Fe;

Traveled to Farmington for Four Corners FRW meeting and other meetings;

The following week took us to Gallup for a presentation to the Rotary Club

Monday of this week we held events with school choice expert and advocate Corey De’Angelis

On Wednesday and Thursday we headed to Deming for a Rotary meeting and Las Cruces for a presentation to the Coalition of Conservatives in Action and various meetings.

Summer means lots of time on the road and talking issues with various groups. If you want to hear about the Rio Grande Foundation and its research/work on limited government and individual liberty in New Mexico send an email: info@riograndefoundation.org

We’ll have video and audio of Corey’s talk. In the meantime here’s a photo of the Albuquerque event:

On this week’s show Paul talks to private space expert Doug Messier about the latest from Virgin Galactic, their collapsing stock price, and challenges they face turning a profit in the future. Messier writes at his substack.

The following appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican (and other media outlets).

On this week’s Tipping Point interview Paul talks to independent researcher Leanna Derrick. Derrick has been working to uncover and highlight the outsized influence of “progressive” group Emerge New Mexico which recruits, trains, and funds left wing women in public office throughout New Mexico. They discuss the “Emerge” group which operates in two dozen states. Who funds them? What do they do and what has been happening here in New Mexico with Emerge-recruited and backed candidates? Check out this important conversation. Leanna Derrick can be reached by email at: 68sharpie@gmail.com

Recently Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Environment Department Secretary James Kenney traveled to Australia with other members of the Administration. The trip, taken at taxpayer expense, wound up costing New Mexicans $15,000 (instead of $2,000) because the Secretary wanted to fly Business Class. This was a violation of New Mexico’s rules according to the Auditor’s office (check out the story from KOAT 7 here).

RGF’s president was asked to comment and discussed both the financial aspect of the trip as well as the fact that MLG is possibly the most anti-traditional energy Gov. in New Mexico history and yet neither Zoom nor even an economy class ticket were deemed adequate. As is typically the case MLG and her “green” agenda only apply to average New Mexicans, not herself and her own staff.

You may not hear about it from Gov. or liberal media outlets, but 100 years ago was arguably the most important economic event in modern New Mexico history: discovery of oil. One can argue that the creation of Los Alamos/the Atomic bomb and the military-industrial complex in New Mexico trumps oil and gas, but they are neck and neck.

Anyway, this weekend in Artesia they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of oil and gas in Eddy County in the Permian Basin. Energy expert Alex Epstein is speaking and it seems like a fantastic event. Check it out if you are anywhere near Artesia on Saturday.

Oil and gas not only generate much of New Mexico’s budget, but they provide the US energy security and affordability that are simply not available in many areas of the world. If our politicians supported the role of energy in making America a great nation and used the money to improve life for New Mexicans we’d all be better off. Happy 100 oil and gas! We believe the industry has at least another 100 years here in New Mexico.

The Pew Center on the States does great work tracking American patterns of population growth. Their most recent report is worth a close look for New Mexicans and elected officials in the state.

You can see from the map below that New Mexico’s low population rate since 2008 lags the nation as a whole.

What is truly stunning, however, is that New Mexico actually lags every state West of Kansas in population growth over the 15 year time span considered.

Perhaps the scariest thing Pew considers is their projection that by 2040 New Mexico is expected to see a net population decline. New Mexico is not the only state projected to begin losing population by 2040, but we ARE the only state West of the Mississippi projected to do that. Of course, the future is not set in stone. New Mexico COULD use its oil and gas wealth to bring long-overdue policy changes to the State. But, we need change in the Legislature to make it happen.

According to the latest data from the Legislative Finance Committee (discussed in the Albuquerque Journal) New Mexico piled up an astonishing $15.2 billion in oil and gas tax revenues in FY 2023.

Here are a few details:

Oil and gas revenue to New Mexico has more than quadrupled over the past five years, according to the LFC.

In a bit of good news, the LFC has even acknowledged that “New Mexico could still reap gains from high oil production for nearly a decade.” Some analysts have predicted imminent shortfalls.

Sadly, the same economic ignorance among policymakers and analysts DOES continue when the topic turns to potential uses of the massive windfall. When analysts claim that,  “(The windfall) makes it difficult to grow more independent from the volatile oil and gas industry” that highlights a serious lack of vision. New Mexico shouldn’t be this dependent on oil and gas forever because the revenue available should be used to lower taxes and bring new businesses and industries to New Mexico.

Of course, such thinking requires common sense and logic (both of which are in short supply in Santa Fe these days) so we continue to pile more money into a combination of government “permanent” funds, corporate welfare, and new spending (none of which do much for the state economy).

The latest Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation is in and (yet again) New Mexico remains dead last. As we noted last year, the partner organization in New Mexico which publishes the report Voices for Children, continues to back away from their own report because it only highlights the failure of “progressive” economic and education policies in New Mexico. Voices has one paltry quote in the Albuquerque Journal regarding their report and even THAT quote is an obvious attempt to cast doubt on the findings.

“Even though the results aren’t showing up this year or next year, we have a lot of faith that they will show up over the long term. So we should not be discouraged.”

Other advocates argue (without merit) that New Mexico’s “economic reality” prevents the State from performing well in the report. But, even with New Mexico’s massive oil and gas surplus and rapidly-growing spending the State has continued to struggle. The model of economic reform (lower taxes, deregulation, education reform) advocated by Rio Grande Foundation has sadly NOT been attempted in “blue” New Mexico.

In this year’s report New Mexico improved on 7 metrics and declined on 7 metrics. Yet again, New Mexico ranks dead last in education.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-Radical environmental groups) is back at it. His latest “accomplishment” is bringing $6.9 million in federal dollars to purchase 20 new electric school buses for Albuquerque’s Public Schools (see embedded tweet below). Quick math tells us that these buses cost at least $345,000 each while a quick Internet search found that a diesel version of the same bus can be purchased for about $100,000. 

We don’t know what the additional chargers and other potential facilities will be needed for the new EV buses, but we DO know that numerous districts that have received these subsidized buses have had serious problems from manufacturing defects to poor performance in cold weather to “a lot of downtime.”

Electrifying school buses is about making sure our kids aren’t breathing in dangerous diesel fumes. Proud to welcome $6.9 million from our Infrastructure Law to purchase 20 new clean electric buses for @ABQschools. pic.twitter.com/1U2aLiRsP5

— Martin Heinrich (@SenatorHeinrich) June 8, 2024

While Heinrich’s desire to “electrify” everything truly knows no bounds it is amusing that several “studies” purport to show that diesel buses cause issues for children. One would think that with generations of American kids having ridden diesel buses that finding a control group would be rather easy. Also, if there really ARE problems, perhaps something ought to be done to address diesel fumes rather than embarking upon a foolhardy switch to an inferior technology. But, we already know the Biden/Heinrich EV bus craze is about politics, not the environment and certainly not our kids’ health.

According to a new report (details from KRQE Channel 13) children across the United States face serious developmental challenges thanks to COVID lockdowns. As a reminder, New Mexico had some of the harshest and longest lockdowns of any US state. These lockdowns failed to achieve any positive

As KRQE reports:

The survey by Education Week showed 94 percent of teachers of young children say their students have a challenging or much more challenging time listening and following instructions. Eighty-five percent said their kids are struggling more with sharing and cooperating with their peers.

In terms of fine motor skills, 77 percent of educators found young students are having greater difficulties handling pencils, pens and scissors, while 69 percent saw their charges struggling to tie their shoes at higher rates than five years ago.

Critics of MLG’s lockdowns said as much at the time. We AT LEAST would’ve liked to see some legislative debate on the impacts of COVID lockdowns, but MLG took it upon herself to dictate policies and her Democratic flunkies in the Legislature have been unwilling to restore a seat at the table for themselves.

And, while the recent crime spree in Albuquerque  undertaken by an 11 year old undoubtedly has numerous causes, this kid was undoubtedly impacted by COVID. The left which tries to blame everything BUT the perp when it comes to crime simply won’t call out COVID lockdowns as having negative impacts on our children.

According to the Census Bureau New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the nation.

It has zero Fortune 500 companies headquartered within the state. Oil and gas are responsible for about 15% of the State’s economy (GDP).

But, recently, New Mexico’s State Investment Council(SIC) announced  $550 million in investments, much of which will be invested in Europe. The SIC recently announced that IT is having trouble investing all the money available to it due to the flood of oil and gas revenues.

New Mexico has both massive general fund surpluses AND massive “permanent funds” which are outlined in the New Mexico Constitution and provide additional money to public schools and the like. Simple policy decisions made in Santa Fe could reduce/eliminate taxes on citizens and businesses alike, address New Mexico’s flagging education outcomes, improve roads, reduce crime, and more. Sadly, this is not happening.

The money is being spent (often wasted) by government or being held onto by government in the form of future “investments.” New Mexico government is being flooded with cash but you would have no idea if you lived here or visited from another, better-run state.

The following opinion piece appeared at KRWG and in several other publications.

Left, right, or center, economists tend to agree that “corporate welfare” is not good public policy or good economics. A recent Rasmussen poll found that approximately 65% of Americans (regardless or political philosophy or affiliation) oppose corporate welfare. Definitions of what constitutes such “welfare” vary, but generally relate to policies that involve politicians picking winners and losers in the economy.

Sadly, New Mexico has a long history of picking “losers” and one of those losers appears to be in its death throes. Specifically, New Mexicans have spent hundreds-of-millions to construct, expand, staff, and maintain Spaceport America in Southern New Mexico.

While the facility has been used for other space-related purposes, it was expressly built to house Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for its space tourism business. Few examples of corporate welfare in American history have been more speculative. Sadly, after having been open for nearly 15 years and with just a handful of space tourism launches under its belt, Virgin Galactic laid off 185 workers and ceased tourism launches in November of 2023 pending development of a new fleet of vehicles that will (hopefully) help the company turn a profit.

Wall Street is not optimistic about the company’s prospects and the share price (SPCE) which at one time hit the $60 mark per share has plummeted to below $1 per share. An extended period at below $1 could get Virgin Galactic’s stock delisted. In the absence of Virgin Galactic at the facility Spaceport America takes on all the trappings of a costly “white elephant” in the New Mexico desert.

Sadly, there is not much that can be done regarding the “world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.” Viable uses for the facility which (by design) is far from New Mexico’s population centers are limited.

While this is an example of past corporate welfare gone bust, it is not alone. Under then-Gov. Bill Richardson New Mexico spent $100 million on Eclipse Aviation only to see it go bankrupt. New Mexicans must work to prevent future losses from future corporate welfare schemes.

The next big “loser” in the making is Maxeon Solar. The Singapore-based solar cell manufacturing company is in line to receive a mind-blowing $2.4 billion industrial revenue bond and $20 million in LEDA funding for the facility (courtesy of New Mexico taxpayers). This is in addition to myriad federal subsidies and state/local mandates that favor the solar industry.

Even with Joe Biden in the White House shoveling billions of dollars at the “renewable” industry, Maxeon Solar’s stock price (MAXN) has plummeted. In early 2021 the company touted a stock price of nearly $58 per share. Maxeon’s share price as of early May 2024 is about $2.00.

It is hard to imagine the “renewable energy” gravy train getting any more generous in a second Biden term and it will likely be reduced if Donald Trump makes it back to the White House. Is New Mexico setting itself up for yet another costly corporate welfare failure? It certainly seems like it.

Sadly, corporate welfare is attractive to politicians of both parties. But in Democrat-dominated New Mexico it seems that Democrats will not call their own out on these unpopular giveaways. Recently, the New Mexico Environment Department announced it was giving United Parcel Service (UPS) nearly $500,000 for the company to buy “clean” delivery trucks.

UPS is one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies. They can certainly afford to buy their own delivery trucks without the help of New Mexico’s taxpayers. Sadly, our politicians are busy spending our money on their priorities rather than working to improve our State.

New Mexico is the third-poorest state in the Union. Our politicians’ propensity to support corporations with our money (instead of returning it to us and improving our state’s business climate) is one of many reasons for this. Only the voters can force change in New Mexico that brings wealth and prosperity.

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. 

School choice is sweeping the nation. Arguably the most prominent national spokesperson and expert on allowing education dollars to follow students is Corey DeAngelis.

DeAngelis has a new book, The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools.

Better still, Corey DeAngelis is coming to Alamogordo. The Rio Grande Foundation and its education project Opportunity for All Kids NM is hosting a talk and book signing on the evening of Monday, June 17.

Corey DeAngelis
Monday, June 17
6PM-7:30PM
Flickenger Center for Performing Arts

Reserve your seat today. Boxed meals are available for sale ahead of the event, and Corey’s books are available for purchase online and on-site. New Mexico is in desperate need of education reform and school choice. Find out what is and what needs to happen in Alamogordo and New Mexico at this important event.

School choice is sweeping the nation. Arguably the most prominent national spokesperson and expert on allowing education dollars to follow students is Corey DeAngelis.

For nearly a decade and for MANY reasons, New Mexico’s Legislature has moved considerably to the political left. New Mexico has been controlled by Democrats since 1930 and there has NEVER been a “conservative” majority over that time period. In fact, there has only been one Democrat that I’d even consider an economic “conservative” in my 18 years at Rio Grande Foundation.

So, with 10 moderate Democrats having opposed paid family leave in 2024 and Gov. Lujan Grisham and a host of “progressives” coming after them, voters decided to move the Legislature even further left.

As Marjorie Childress at NM Indepth writes, “Four of the 11 Democratic state representatives who voted against the Paid Family and Medical Leave act this year — Anthony Allison, Ambrose Castellano, Harry Garcia, Willie Madrid — won’t be returning to the Legislature, with the winners of their seats in the primary election all endorsed by progressive organizations.

The losses of those moderates (under no circumstances are they economically “conservative”) includes further losses for moderates like former Sen. Clemente Sanchez to a “progressive.” Further losses include heterodox senators Daniel Ivey-Soto and Bill O’Neill. Neither of these men would be considered anything but “progressives,” but they sometimes bucked the establishment in their party which was enough for them to be targeted.

So, based on these results (and unless the GOP eats into Democrat majorities in November) New Mexicans (thanks to Democrat voters and various well-funded left-wing candidates) New Mexico’s Legislature will be even FURTHER to the left next year than it already is.

The Gov. recently spoke to a business group (NAIOP) luncheon. You can find an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican discussing her remarks.

For starters, MLG LOVES to tout all the things New Mexico government is doing. She LOVES to take the credit even if the oil and gas industry is what is supplying the financial largesse. She doesn’t like to discuss the fact that all of her priorities are the result of oil and gas money. Sadly, MLG reiterates the “New Mexico is poor” canard. The people are poor, but the state has plenty of money.

The Sun Zia line is a fascinating item. The power lines are designed to transport NM produced wind to Arizona and California. There will certainly be construction jobs created, but the idea that this is some kind of win for New Mexico’s economy is half-baked at best.

New Mexico’s education system is indeed terrible, but MLG has completely refused to own up to her serious mistakes during COVID (like keeping schools closed for over a year). Nothing she is doing now will have major positive impacts on education outcomes, that’s why she transitions the discussion to “free college.”

The Gov. discusses the need for housing and (to her credit) even mentions permitting and zoning issues, but offers no specifics. What she fails to address is how her own policies are raising housing costs.

Finally, MLG addresses crime. To date she has done nothing to address crime, but has attempted a well-documented gun grab. We’ll see what her agenda looks like for the special session in July. She seems to be talking about some reasonable ideas, but we won’t know until we see the particulars (and whether “progressives” in the Legislature will go for them).

The Gov. SHOULD be talking about serious tax reforms like shifting the GRT to a sales tax and reducing rates, reducing income taxes, eliminating Social Security taxes and taxes on military pensions. She SHOULD be embracing school choice AND Mississippi-style education reforms. Sadly, she won’t do any of those things.

Back in mid-April in this space I wrote about the solar company Maxeon which is receiving massive subsidies from both the Biden Administration and New Mexico taxpayers and how the company’s stock price had been plummeting. Maxeon stock has continued its downward trajectory. Its 52-week high was $32.58 per share, and its 52-week low was $1.71 per share. The company’s stock was trading at $2.02 on Thursday.

There have been numerous other developments with the company that is set to receive $600 million in government incentives. According to the ABQ Journal, China has recently decided to invest $200 million in the company. Remember, the Biden Administration JUST placed 50% tariffs on Chinese solar panels. Also, according to the article, “Maxeon earlier this month announced it received a noncompliance notice from Nasdaq for delaying the release of its annual report. This week, two shareholder rights law firms announced they were investigating the company for potential violations of federal securities laws.”

Is Maxeon the next Solyndra? At Rio Grande Foundation we believe that businesses should rise and fall on their own merits, not subsidies and mandates (in this case from both the federal government and New Mexico). And, while Maxeon and solar MAY be Joe Biden’s “baby,” is there any reason to believe that their likelihood of success will rise under a prospective Trump Administration?

Rather than pouring money into failing businesses New Mexico should be returning those tax dollars to New Mexicans and New Mexico businesses in the form of tax cuts.

Good news/bad news on jobs for New Mexico.

The NIH director acknowledges that no science supported COVID distancing rules (but we did find an amusing old post from Sen Heinrich on social distancing and how to make a cloth mask).

A proposed move to shift vote threshold to 40% at city council is sensible and quite arguably “pro-democratic.”

Paul recently spoke to KOAT about the City’s $1.4 billion budget.

ABQ to build a 2nd BMX track.

50 year old Albuquerque cigar shop closing its doors.