Recently, RGF noted in this space that Forbes had named Ron Corio of Array Solar the State of New Mexico’s first billionaire. But if you look at the data by place of birth as a new report does, New Mexico is actually a great place to be from to be a billionaire. As the chart below shows New Mexico ranks 7th as a place to be FROM and become a billionaire.

Many New Mexicans are aware that Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon.com and the richest man in the United States was born in New Mexico, but how about Dan Kurzius who founded MailChimp (Albuquerque), Ernest Garcia II who founded Drive Time and is CEO of Carvana (Gallup), or Paul Foster who founded Western Refining (Lovington)?

And, of course Bill Gates (3rd on the richest list) famously founded Microsoft in Albuquerque before moving his company to the Seattle area.

What does it all mean? Arguably it is just random, but perhaps it is an indicator that New Mexicans are as entrepreneurial as anyone (if not more) but that they have to leave New Mexico to make their business work (unless they are in a subsidized industry like solar).

Despite MLG’s claims, NM still lags in job creation.

Another data point highlights the fact that New Mexico government spends much more than its neighboring states. 

New Mexico has seen a steep drop in the number of young children. 

Santa Fe mayor plans to raise the City’s minimum wage to $20 an hour. 

In another potential bad policy move from Santa Fe the City is considering an excise tax for affordable housing. 

RGF leads national coalition effort to highlight problems with the federal Railway Safety Act being considered in Congress.

“…In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

— Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 1789

We’ve all heard the quote before, but how have tax burdens directed economic growth in the United States over the last century? Our upcoming speaker Brian Domitrovic has co-authored the book Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States, with Arthur B. Laffer, to answer this and other questions.

Domitrovic will join the Rio Grande Foundation to discuss American history, especially the past 100 years since creation of the federal income tax at a luncheon hosted by the Rio Grande Foundation.

August 8, 2023
Taxes Have Consequences
11:45AM – 1:00PM
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
2401 12th St NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104

About Brian Domitrovic:
Brian Domitrovic is an intellectual historian interested in the history and development of supply-side economics. He is the author of six books, beginning with the now standard history of supply-side economics Econoclasts (2009) and extending to the history of the income tax Taxes Have Consequences (2022 and co-authored with Arthur B. Laffer and Jeanne Sinquefield). He has been a professor at institutions in Texas and Colorado and is the Richard S. Strong Scholar at the Laffer Center in Nashville. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

Tickets:
Tickets are limited. Price before July 28, 2023: $50
Price on and after July 29, 2023: $55
Price at the door if available: $60

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Cancellation policy:
The Rio Grande Foundation will honor cancellation requests until July 31, 2023 at 12:00PM MT, 2023, minus a 15% transaction fee.

The following is a guest post by Manu Mathew, M.D. who describes himself as a National Advocate for Unmatched Doctors

According to a recent study conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the national shortage of primary care physicians is projected to range from 17,800 to 48,000 by 2034. Additionally, a survey conducted in December 2021 revealed that a significant number of physicians and advanced practice registered nurses intend to reduce their work hours or retire, further exacerbating the healthcare workforce shortage.

This shortage has led to thousands of medical graduates being unable to submit a rank list or secure a match each year. Fortunately, physician assistants and nurse practitioners have been able to slowly expand their scope of practice, seeking prescriptive authority and even being able to prescribe controlled substances. In fact, nurse practitioners are currently working independently in over 25 states (including New Mexico), with the aim of alleviating the healthcare workforce shortage.

This shortage is especially acute in New Mexico. The 2023 legislative session included numerous bills dealing with everything from Medicaid reimbursement rates to tort reform and taxation and more to bring and keep more doctors in New Mexico. The problem is by no means solved. Access to care in rural areas is limited due to misguided policy decisions resulting in a shortage of practicing physicians. Allowing medical school graduates to practice under provisional licenses could help mitigate this shortage.

The reason why medical graduates are not being matched may be due to various reasons, for example the person did not score high enough on the US Medical License Examination ( or did not apply to enough residency programs. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) sets guidelines for medical residency programs and (National Residency Matching Program) NRMP conducts the match every year. The entire world applies to the match when there are not enough residency seats which makes it anti-competitive as stated in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) recent resolution.

Expanding the number of residency seats is one possible way to increase the number of doctors in the United States, but much of the problem is created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. There are solutions to the issue that can be undertaken right here in New Mexico.

Several states have implemented innovative and alternative solutions to increase the supply of available physicians. In general, these solutions allow medical graduates, upon successful passage of American medical licensing exams, to work under the supervision of licensed physicians.  Some states, such as Alabama and Idaho allow medical graduates to work under such a provisional license until they match into a residency program, others such as Missouri, allow such graduates to do so indefinitely.

The criticism has been; this produces inferior class of medical graduates, however this is not true since “one big difference between the PANCE and the USMLE is the test format. While test-takers take the sections of the PANCE all at once, the USMLE is divided into three steps. Step 1 is an eight-hour exam that encompasses 280 multiple-choice questions that aim to evaluate the test-taker’s knowledge of basic sciences and their ability to apply these concepts to the clinical practice of medicine. Questions on this test might cover topics of the mechanisms that contribute to health, disease and treatments.

Step 2 of the USMLE is another one-day test, this time consisting of 318 multiple-choice questions administered over a period of nine hours. In this step of the USMLE exam process, test-takers answer questions about the clinical science and medical skills used to care for patients, promote health and prevent disease. Finally, Step 3 is a two-day test that consists of 232 multiple-choice questions on the Foundations of Independent Practice (FIP) and 180 multiple-choice questions plus 13 computer-based case simulations pertaining to Advanced Clinical Medicine (ACM).”1

Tennessee has adapted elements of the Australian medical licensure model, streamlining experienced foreign doctors into the American medical system so they can practice independently without doing a residency at all.   Increasing the number of medical residency positions, in combination with these measures, will help retain the physician workforce in New Mexico. New Mexico should consider unmatched doctors as a resource to tackle the healthcare shortage.

While left-wing prognosticators consistently downplay the future of New Mexico’s oil industry and push the narrative that a downturn is looming, the reality is that the State remains firmly in the grip of an oil boom of epic proportions.

As the chart below highlights oil production remains very close to record levels. Production is up approximately 14 times since late 2009.

As noted in the following chart from the Energy Information Administration, Lea and Eddy counties are responsible for 29% of ALL Permian Basin oil production.

The City of Santa Fe is about to embark upon yet another misguided public policy mistake. The latest issue is with the City’s ongoing housing shortage. According to news reports, the plan is to levy a 3% excise tax on sales of million-dollar homes to create a new revenue stream for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

As the article describes it, a buyer of a $1.5 million home would pay the tax on $500,000, and the $15,000 collected would go into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help cover down payment assistance, rental assistance and housing rehabilitation for city residents.

The problem is the plan won’t actually do anything significant to solve the City’s housing challenges for the simple reason that it doesn’t create any new housing. Rather, by taxing high-end housing and shifting those dollars to the low-end buyers, these new dollars will result in price inflation on those lower cost properties.

If Santa Fe policymakers are serious about making housing more affordable then increased supply (not redistributionist taxes) MUST be the largest part of the equation.

At RGF we ran across the map below from the Economic Innovation Group. The chart shows which states have seen an increase or reduction in the number of children aged 0-4 over the last few years.

Considering the nation’s plummeting birth rate it is no surprise that few states have seen an increase (a few have), but New Mexico is one of the states that have seen the absolute greatest decline (outperforming only other “deep blue” states California, Illinois, New York, and Hawaii).

Shifting America’s overall demographic profile is beyond the scope of the Foundation’s efforts, but with New Mexico performing so poorly in the Kids Count report, it is no surprise that families with small children are not flocking to New Mexico. An interactive version of the map is below with a picture below.

In the past RGF has used the excellent USgovernmentspending.com website to determine how much state and local government spends as a percentage of the State’s GDP (4th most in the US).

Another report, this one from Kaiser Family Foundation, looks at Total State Expenditures per Capita (person) rather than as a percent of GDP. The data are for FY 2021 and we are currently in the FY 2024 budget. Given the rapid rate of spending growth in recent years, New Mexico is likely the biggest-spending state in the nation at this point.

You can see the results below as the table highlights that New Mexico spent more than twice per-person what either Colorado or Texas in FY 2021:

As the map below highlights, only California, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska spend more per-person than does New Mexico.

The Rio Grande Foundation, alongside the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute have led a coalition letter (available here) of state-based and national free market organizations and leaders in expressing serious concerns about provisions contained in the “Railway Safety Act,” (S. 576) which is now moving through Congress.

Among the numerous issues with the bill is its arbitrary 2 person crew mandate;

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the “City Different” could soon have the highest minimum wage in the United States if Mayor Alan Webber gets his way. The Mayor has plans to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour from the current $14.03 rate and eventually raise the wage as high as $29 an hour.

That would give Santa Fe the highest minimum wage of any city or state in the nation (Seattle is at $18.69). Going to $20 would also represent a 42.5% increase over the current rate. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var a in e.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<t.length;r++){if(t[r].contentWindow===e.source)t[r].style.height=e.data["datawrapper-height"][a]+"px"}}}))}();

ABQ Journal cartoonist John Trever’s cartoon (below) hits the nail on the head (again). RGF president Paul Gessing recently visited Texas and traveled from north to south. He has seen firsthand the booming economy of the Lone Star State.  The Texas economic model isn’t just about not regulating vehicles. They are also a Right to Work state, have a zero income tax, and spends MUCH less money than New Mexico. Also, a much higher percentage of the State’s citizens actually work. 

It’s no surprise that Texas continues to see a massive population influx while New Mexico’s population remains stagnant.

The federal government is “good” at one thing: taking money from producers and handing it to others, almost always with dramatically-less efficient outcomes. This is often done through taxation but nowadays with debt.

Two stories from the ABQ Journal highlight this situation. You can read them here and here:

One story details a mother (presumably single) raising four children in the “International District” of Albuquerque. This is one of the poorest, most crime-ridden areas of Albuquerque. Sen. Martin Heinrich was in town to tout a $10,500 grant for “updated and more powerful and efficient electric system, advanced light bulbs, air sealing, high efficiency shower heads, low-flush toilets and other improvements.”

This is all well and good, but according to the Journal story, “Her children were often spraying water into the swamp cooler to try to cool the home.”Did the feds provide a new swamp cooler or switch her over to refrigerated air? Not according to the article.

One wonders what a single mother of four might prioritize for her own family given $10,500. Instead she gets what Henrich and the Biden Administration want her to have.

It’s much the same with the 2nd story which highlighted the City of Albuquerque receiving $18.2 million for 20 buses at a cost per bus of $910,000 per bus. According to the pro-electrification American Public Power Association, “An average diesel transit bus costs around $500,000, compared with $750,000 for an electric bus.”

Not only did the feds apparently overpay for these buses, but with plummeting ridership, are more buses really a high priority?

Paul and his family took a trip to Texas recently. RGF often cites data highlighting the economic success of Texas. He shares a bit about the trip and Texas’ economic success. Also, Buc’ees are awesome!

NM’s already small share of national GDP shrank between 2012 and 2022. Gov. MLG plans to push ANOTHER EV mandate through the unelected Environmental Improvement Board. Currently the Gov. has imposed a 7% mandate as of 1 year ago by 2025.

The Gov. plans on imposing a 43 percent mandate starting in 2027 with that requirement going to 82% by 2032. The Gov. has also called on the Biden Administration to impose strict regulations on trucks. An RGF op ed on Kids Count ran statewide.

Also, RGF is hosting a statewide conference on education reform through its Opportunities for All Kids project on September 22nd. Sen. Heinrich & White House tout mother of four living in ABQ’s “International District” being given $10,500 for “updated and more powerful and efficient electric system, advanced light bulbs, air sealing, high efficiency shower heads, low-flush toilets and other improvements.”

The City of ABQ also received $18.2 million in federal $$ for 20 buses. That’s $910,000 per bus. According to the American Public Power Association An average diesel transit bus costs around $500,000, compared with $750,000 for an electric bus.

Gov. Lujan Grisham has touted New Mexico’s low unemployment rate and overall job numbers recently, but yet another objective report show that New Mexico job growth continues to lag behind its neighbors’.

If you don’t believe us check out this new report from Pew Center on the States. The report notes that “prime working-age employment rates lag pre-pandemic levels.” While New Mexico is one of 24 states that still lags, of New Mexico’s neighbors (as seen below), New Mexico had the worst employment level and it still hasn’t recovered. See below:

With a drop of 4.1 percent, New Mexico’s decline is worse than EVERY state in the union with the exception of West Virginia which saw a 5.4 percent drop. Amazingly West Virginia STILL slightly outperforms New Mexico when it comes to prime working-age employment rate.

At the Rio Grande Foundation we often contrast New Mexico with our faster-growing neighbors. By any measure Texas is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. Over the Independence Day holiday we saw firsthand that everything really IS bigger in Texas.

For starters our travels took us by plane to Love Field (we are a Southwest family and the airline was started in Texas). After briefly heading north for a concert by Lainey Wilson for one of my daughters we returned to the Dallas area to check out the Texas School Book Depository. We then drove to San Antonio to tour the Alamo and see the Riverwalk before heading to the beach at Port Aransas. Other points of interest included the Dr. Pepper Museum and Mammoth National Monument near Waco.

Having traveled more in Texas than I ever have in my life I can say that the State is booming. That means plenty of road construction like I-35 through Dallas or the massive new bridge going up in Corpus Christi.

Of course, while nobody likes road construction, the roads need to be rebuilt or expanded to accommodate a growing population and growing economy. That means wealth and jobs. The new Tesla plant outside Austin is incredibly large and is just one of the many private sector construction projects being built in the State.

Oh, and Buc’ees is amazing. If you travel through the South where they have one I HIGHLY recommend you check it out. They pay great wages and have a bunch of unique products.

A fascinating new report from Axios recently drilled down into state GDP numbers to find out which state economies are growing relative to their previous share of the national economy and which are shrinking. The time period covered is the decade from 2012 to 2022. You can see the map below.

It is hardly a surprise that GDP is moving south and west because PEOPLE are moving south and west. North Dakota’s tremendous growth in its oil and gas sector over the last decade drove dramatic population growth, but that doesn’t seem to be happening in New Mexico (at least so far) with our shrinking share of the national economic pie.

Just one year after Gov. Lujan Grisham’s first electric vehicle mandate went into effect (7 percent of vehicles sold in New Mexico must be EV’s), the Gov. wants another bite at the regulation “apple.”

RGF had wondered since California adopted it’s own 100% EV mandate (an outright ban on gas vehicles by 2035 adopted last August) whether Gov. Lujan Grisham would follow suit with her own ban. The answer appears to be “not quite,” but the Gov. plans on imposing a 43 percent mandate starting in 2027  with that requirement going to 82% by 2032. So, California but different.

Will the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) be a rubber stamp for the Gov.’s preferences once again? We assume so. Will the market go along with these aggressive EV plans even with all the subsidies and mandates? Early signs are not great.

At the VERY least New Mexico’s elected legislature should act on this radical plan, not an un-elected body.

Nationally COVID lockdowns saw a significant decline in student outcomes. That decline was even more pronounced in New Mexico where lockdowns were particularly long and broadband is particularly poor.

A recent report, however, shows that Catholic Schools (which already outperform traditional public schools) did not see as much learning loss as did traditional public schools. Post-COVID scores DID decline slightly, but were considered not of statistical significance by NAEP.

The following article appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News and other media outlets on June 30, 2023.

Once again New Mexico is at the very bottom of a list. Kids Count 2023 is compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation with distribution and media handled by New Mexico Voices for Children.

While it is not the report Rio Grande Foundation would compile, the 16 variables considered in do highlight issues regarding the well-being of New Mexico children. Sadly, like so many similar reports, the results are not good for our state. What is unique is the positive spin being applied by Voices for Children.

As Voices for Children’s Amber Wallin recently wrote in an opinion piece, “you shouldn’t let the rankings get you down because they don’t tell us how far we’ve come.” We politely disagree and believe that Voices would not have the same sanguine viewpoint if a Republican governor or Legislature were calling the shots.

In 2019 the organization’s then Director James Jimenez said of New Mexico’s 50^th ranking, “It is very much a reflection of what happened, and more specifically, what didn’t happen during the Martinez years.”

We took a careful look through this year’s report and found that of the 16 variables, 9 of them got worse while 6 improved (one stayed the same). That is hardly cause for celebration.

Perhaps even more interesting than the overall results is New Mexico’s poor performance in four “COVID-related” indicators. In our view these include:

• 79 percent of New Mexico fourth graders are not proficient in reading. This number has dropped 4 percent since 2019;
• 87 percent of eight graders are not proficient in math. This number has dropped by 10% since 2019;
• New Mexico’s child and teen death rate per 100K worsened by 16 percent since 2020;
• The percent of youth who are overweight or obese has worsened by 6 percent since 2019-2020.

These four variables (of the 16 in the report) have significant connections to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s COVID lockdown policies that locked our kids out of school for over a year and encouraged New Mexicans to stay inside and isolate themselves from other people.

The good news is that the COVID pandemic is over, as are the Gov.’s restrictions. Sadly, as critics pointed out at the time, the impacts of her policies were clearly going to do more harm than good. Will the kids, especially those from poor families be able to recover? It is hard to say.

What is clear is that after more than four years in office and with the benefit of an unprecedented oil boom, massive spending increases haven’t improved New Mexico’s 50^th-place performance. We recommend going a different direction from the government-driven status quo (a status quo that has dominated New Mexico for nearly a century).

Instead of more government programs we can use the oil and gas surplus to reform our anti-business gross receipts tax and then focus on eliminating the anti-work personal income and corporate taxes. Make New Mexico the jobs and economic growth hub of the Americans Southwest and watch as good paying jobs and economic opportunity improve education, social, and economic outcomes for our children and all New Mexicans.

We are a long way psychologically and politically from breaking out of the big-government paradigm, but it is long overdue. After all, it’s for the children.

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

September 22, 2023
Albuquerque, NM
St. Pius X High School

Even before the pandemic lockdowns, the New Mexico education system underperformed. After years of being ranked at 49th and 50th, our system has slid further into disrepair. New Mexico is now ranked 51st in the nation for education.

New Mexico’s children are more vulnerable than ever to learning loss. It’s time to find alternatives to New Mexico’s faltering education system.

As families continue to be affected by policies and procedures enacted during the pandemic, it’s time to find solutions for our students and families.

The Opportunity for All Kids conference is for policymakers, teachers, administrators, legislators, parents, and concerned citizens invested in creating opportunity. Whether interested in charter schools, private schools, parochial schools, home schools, or microschools, only together can we reform New Mexico’s systems and expand education options.

Our children and families deserve an education system that sets them up for success. Join the Rio Grande Foundation for a full-day education reform conference as we discuss and collaborate on ideas and strategies for a more child-focused future.

Sign up for this exciting and informative event today!

Deadline to obtain ticket 09/16/2023, Midnight, (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

200 Tickets available

General Admission

$0 per ticket

 

 

 

 

Some interest groups are lobbying for a public bank in New Mexico. Others want a “green” bank. What’s going on with these proposals? 

Liability in the event of a disaster. The submarine loss raises questions for New Mexico about Spaceport and whether taxpayers could be on the hook in the event of a disaster. This is especially relevant as the first paying customers are set to fly out of Spaceport America this week.

Tuesday the 27th is the 5th anniversary of the Janus decision. New Mexico government employee unions saw the biggest decline in membership of any state thanks in part to RGF educational efforts.

New Mexico has $70.84 billion invested in various funds. It is not a poor state, but it is a poorly governed state:

ABQ City Council embraced casitas and rejected the “weak mayor” change for local government. Paul and Wally are pleased by the casita decision and understand the lack of willingness to switch governments. Also, RGF helped push Albuquerque Public Schools to publish their recent budgets.

Lujan Grisham wants feds to follow California’s lead on zero emission trucks. Here’s what that means.

At the Rio Grande Foundation we constantly are working to provide new and interesting perspectives regarding New Mexico’s economy. Traditionally the State which has a small population and no Fortune 500 businesses located here has not had super-wealthy people at the very top of the income scale.

One would typically expect that someone in oil and gas would be the wealthiest person in New Mexico with the State now the 2nd-largest producer of oil in the nation. But, according to Forbes, the wealthiest New Mexican is Array Technologies founder Ron Corio. He is also New Mexico’s first-ever billionaire.

Of course, solar is heavily-subsidized and becoming more so thanks to Biden Administration policies, so this is sadly fitting.

As per the usual arrangement New Mexico’s left-wing governor wants California to be the standard for what happens in New Mexico. The State Environmental Department under the auspices of the Gov. joined a few other left-wing states and signed a letter to the EPA in which it demands that the agency follow California in embracing standards equivalent to California’s Advanced Clean Trucks standard.

What would that mean? According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, here’s where the “rubber hits the road.” We have yet to see an electric or “zero emissions” tractor trailer on the road in New Mexico, but by next year that would be the requirement if Gov. Lujan Grisham got her way. You can see how the requirement would rise for various types of trucks below.  

A new report from the Mackinac Center, a free market think tank based in Michigan highlights the impact the Supreme Court decision had on membership in New Mexico government employee unions. The Janus decision by the US Supreme Court was handed down on June 27, 2018. It essentially stated that public employees could not be required to join government employee unions. This is the basic idea behind Right to Work laws.

The Rio Grande Foundation partnered with the Mackinac Center post-Janus to educate public employee unions on their rights.

According to data from the Mackinac Center, New Mexico unions saw a massive 61.9% drop in union membership in the wake of the decision. Colorado saw the 2nd-biggest decrease but New Mexico’s was by far the largest decline as can be seen in the following chart.

Clearly, when given the choice, many New Mexico government workers would prefer NOT to be in the union.