MLG’s public education department secretary Kurt Steinhaus presented his department’s plans in terms of what they would like out of the 2023 legislative session. If adopted the education budget would rise from $3.8 to $4.1 billion annually (an increase of 7.9%).  PED spending accounts for 45 percent of the total state budget in fiscal year 2023. If this spending proposal is adopted education  spending will have grown from $2.69 billion to $4.1 billion, a massive 54.2 percent increase since just FY 2018.

NOTE: The Santa Fe New Mexican article linked here and above states the request was for $4.1 billion while the Albuquerque Journal (a day later) states the request is for $4.3 billion.  The Journal’s calculation results in a 60% increase since FY 2018.

All that being said, with $2.5 billion (and possibly more) in “new” money available to the Legislature this session, this request isn’t that big. One potential bright spot within this budget is the $23 million allocation for early literacy and reading support and math initiatives, including teacher training and additional literacy coaches.

Steinhaus also proposes using $109.3 million to give all staff 4% pay increases which Steinhaus claims “will help us address the educator workforce crisis and  fill teacher vacancies.”

Will any of this “move the needle” on New Mexico’s education outcomes (which rank dead last)? It’s doubtful. Focus on early reading and literacy can be effective, but must be a center of real focus along with other reforms like those that have worked in Mississippi.

The plan of two Albuquerque city councilors to eliminate “free for all” ($3 million for the rest of us, in addition to the system’s overall costs) bus ridership has been postponed as of Monday night’s council meeting. As KOB-TV reports:

The proposal details a 25% increase in security calls in just the first few months after the free bus fare program was launched. The state attorney general’s office also claims the shoplifters are using the free buses as getaway vehicles and councilors believe increasing the price could keep away those bad actors.

But, as with any government spending program, even gentle tweaks in the interest of public safety are attacked by well-funded left-wing activists. Check this article out from the left-wing Source. NM. Incredibly, there is a well-funded advocacy organization called Together for Brothers that works to make buses “zero-fare” with a focus on “transit justice.”

In a classic Marxian argument the leftist activists claim, “The bus is perceived as more dangerous because of the stigma and bias against the ridership, especially compared to those with the most power.”

According to the City budget the City plans to spend $63,571,000 (a big increase) to service a dramatically-shrinking number of riders. Dividing the budget over the 2021 ridership number comes to: $14.46 per ride. In most cases that’s more than an Uber trip and certainly more convenient.

In her reelection campaign Michelle Lujan Grisham made a lot over the State’s low unemployment rate. Unfortunately, when it comes to workforce participation, not only has New Mexico not come close to achieving pre-pandemic levels, but the State’s participation rate actually DROPPED by .5% from June 2022 to October 2022.

Will the 2022 session include ANY public policy reforms that address New Mexico’s low rate relative to other states? Full chart below and linked.

New Mexico has followed the left-wing “playbook” of groups like Voices for Children, not for years, not even just for decades, but for the better part of a century. In a recent op-ed, the head of Voices highlights ways in which the 2022 election further supports their vision of a large government with numerous, “generous” welfare programs.

And, while it is true that New Mexico has had Republicans in the governor’s mansion over the years and not ALL Democrats for the last 92 or so years have been “progressive” in their own day or certainly by modern standards, the reality is that New Mexico has been a liberal bastion in the American Southwest even relative to neighboring Colorado.

Alas, all that money hasn’t helped New Mexico get out of 50th place in Voices’ own report, despite the infusion of massive oil and gas money (which Voices loves to hate). Perhaps it is time for New Mexico to change direction by adopting a more market-driven economy and a choice-driven education system?

As has been commented on at this site and on some others, voters in some of New Mexico’s most conservative counties did not show up on Election Day 2022.

We have worked through a bunch of calculations using data from the SoS website and have determined that with Mark Ronchetti having lost by 45,467 votes, there is no realistic way for him to have won based on turning out more votes in New Mexico’s most conservative (and underperforming counties) which include: Lea, Roosevelt, Curry, Otero, and Chaves Counties. The populations simply aren’t big enough to put him over the top even at turnout levels exceeding the state average (52.38%).

However, if Yvette Herrell’s home county (Otero) and the areas eligible to vote for her in Lea and Eddy Counties had turned out at the statewide average, Herrell would have closed the 1,350 vote gap with Vasquez and won by a few hundred votes.

As an aside, turnout in New Mexico’s most conservative counties has been an issue in past elections. Just looking at the presidential cycles of 2020 and 2016 we find:

In 2020 statewide turnout was 68.67%

Lea: 55.89%
Eddy 67.31%
Chaves 64.03%

In 2016 statewide turnout was 62.36%

Lea: 52.54%
Eddy: 63.79%
Chaves: 60.39%

Needless to say, voter turnout in Lea County (Hobbs area) in particular tends to lag dramatically  behind the statewide average, but other SE New Mexico counties tend to as well, just not by as much.

New Mexico voters may have given MLG a second term, but perhaps the saddest part of that was to reward her poor performance on COVID. And, while her decisions were made 2.5 years ago, the studies highlighting her mistakes (and those of pro-lockdown governors), especially in education continue to come in.

One study highlighted above, found that student learning loss will amount to $900 billion. That study used NAEP test results and extrapolated future earnings based on educational performance. Given NM’s devastating decline in test scores even relative to other states, this will of course be especially challenging.

Furthermore, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal quotes one of the researchers observing that, for eighth-grade students:

College enrollment would fall 2.4%. Meantime, the number of high school dropouts would increase 3.6%, of teen mothers by 3.2%, of the unemployed by 6.6%, and of young men incarcerated by 14.2%.

Finally, as Christopher Jacobs points out in The Federalist, another study analyzing this year’s NAEP results proved what many observers might intuit: The poorest areas suffered worst from learning loss.

More money hasn’t helped New Mexico kids much whether the conversation is pre or post-COVID. MLG certainly hasn’t put forth any detailed education plan. How long do New Mexico kids have to wait?

On this week’s interview Paul sits down with Elizabeth Stelle, Director of Policy Analysis at Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Foundation. The organization recently published a comprehensive study and ranking of state policies relating to public employment laws:

The report, “The Battle for Worker Freedom in the States” analyzes state laws that either constrict or increase freedom for public sector workers. Not surprisingly New Mexico ranks poorly in this report at “D-.”

Finally, after more than 2.5 years of living with COVID-19, Gov. Lujan Grisham is telling State employees they need to return to their offices on January 1. The Rio Grande Foundation recently spoke to KOAT Channel 7 about the issue and the fact that $18 million annually was being wasted on empty office buildings.

While there is understandably some pushback from government employees to returning to their offices, the fact is that in most cases state workers are better paid with better benefits and less stress than most any other equivalent job.

According to a 2014 report from the American Enterprise Institute New Mexico government employees receive 24% greater overall pay and compensation benefits than their private sector counterparts (that’s “only” 20% if you don’t include job security which we ALL saw the value of during COVID. See chart below:

So, if New Mexico government employees don’t want those jobs anymore, good luck to them. If the State wants to manage up and create clear policies to make sure the work gets done in a telework environment that would be fine, but why do that after 2.5 years? (many complain that government workers didn’t do much work remotely).

The City of Albuquerque rejected rent control legislation, but a bill will be introduced in the upcoming session.

My opinion piece which ran in papers around the state over the last several days asks some pertinent questions.

A scandal recently exposed by KRQE’s Larry Barker involving New Mexico’s capital outlay process illustrates why passing Amendment 2 was a bad idea and highlights other issues in state/local governance.

Once upon a time Arizona trailed New Mexico in education outcomes (4th grade reading NAEP scores). According to Statista, New Mexico now spends 19th-most among US states on K-12 education (More than $15,000 per-student).

We at the Rio Grande Foundation may sound like a broken record repeatedly highlighting the disconnect between New Mexico’s education spending and the results of its education system.

Sadly, according to data from Statista (linked and below), New Mexico now spends an astonishing $15,338 per-student on K-12. That is the 19th-highest among states and in excess of our neighbors. According to this same chart, both Arizona and Mississippi spend approximately 2/3rds the amount New Mexico spends per-student.

But, as the charts below that show both Mississippi and Arizona have dramatically moved the “needle” on education results including the all-important 4th-grade reading (according to the latest NAEP results).

The case is clear. Arizona and Mississippi are reforming their systems and improving results. New Mexico is spending more money and, if anything, seeing worse results.

As reported in the Albuquerque Journal (via the Washington Post) recently, retail giant Wal Mart unveiled a hologram version of (deceased) founder Sam Walton. The technology, called StoryFile, is the same as that released just one month ago with New Mexico Attorney General candidate Jeremy Gay.

The major difference is that you can physically go to a Wal Mart and see/interact with a hologram as opposed to interacting with the “virtual” representation of the interviewee online.

Regardless of the mechanics, this new technology is sure to become a popular way to give average people the ability to engage in a more realistic-feeling way with public figures (dead or alive).

The following article appeared in Las Cruces Sun-News on November 27, 2022.

This Election Day a majority of New Mexico voters seemingly ignored the State’s manifest failures of governance. Instead, voters prioritized abortion rights while penalizing anyone who could plausibly be painted as “election deniers.”

Thus, New Mexico, one of America’s “bluest” states for decades, became even more Democrat dominant. Democrats now control every office of significance in State government as well as all five seats in Congress.

Whether the results are a sign of satisfaction with the status quo or just animus towards Republicans, the fact is that New Mexico’s governing Democrats faces serious challenges. Here are some that need to be addressed in the next few months:

1. PNM (the State’s largest utility) has repeatedly expressed concerns about having enough electricity during the summer of 2022. The San Juan Generating Station coal plant was allowed to continue operating for an additional three months during this past summer due to fears of blackouts and brownouts. That will not be an option next summer. In fact, there has been little improvement in New Mexico’s electricity supply situation since then. What will the Gov., her new PRC, and the Legislature do to keep the lights on for New Mexicans? Waiting until the heat of next summer is not an option. Decisions need to be made right away.
2. Speaking of the PRC, the Gov. now has a chance to mold New Mexico’s powerful regulatory body into something of her choosing. Will she prioritize geographical and ideological diversity or make the body a rubber stamp for her California-style policies? And, will they push through the Avangrid/PNM merger (rejected by the elected PRC but supported by the Gov.) as one of their first acts?
3. New Mexico is one of just 11 states still in a COVID 19 emergency. It has been in a an “emergency” since March of 2020 (more than 2.5 years at this point). Will the new Legislature demand a “seat at the table” or continue to allow the Gov. to keep control until she sees fit? What does this mean for “democracy?”
4. Voters approved Amendment 1 which taps into New Mexico’s permanent fund to boost education spending. With an expected $2.5 billion surplus, education spending is likely to rise even further. The State’s recent NAEP scores placed New Mexico at the very bottom across all four grade levels and subjects tested. Will New Mexico simply continue increasing education spending or will needed reforms be enacted?
5. Speaking of that budget surplus, the Gov. and Legislature undertook a series of tax cuts in the 2022 session in anticipation of the election. Can New Mexico taxpayers expect further tax relief? If so, will those tax cuts be superficial, or will they address the State’s knotty economic challenges like “pyramiding” of the gross receipts tax?

Most of these questions are for New Mexico’s (even more) ascendent Democrat majority, but there is one question for the GOP: what can be done to boost voter turnout (and overall political engagement) in New Mexico’s most conservative areas? Overall voter turnout was 52 percent. In liberal Santa Fe County that number was over 63 percent. But, in conservative bastions like Lea, Eddy, Chaves, San Juan, Otero, Curry, and Roosevelt counties, turnout lagged the statewide average, sometimes by double-digit margins.

Many conservatives feel like their vote doesn’t make a difference either due to the State’s “blue” status or allegations of election fraud. Either way, New Mexico’s GOP must figure out how to engage its base through grassroots activism to become relevant.

No matter which side of the aisle you’re on, New Mexicans of all political stripes face more questions than answers.

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

KRQE’s Larry Barker has uncovered an example of corruption in both the City of Albuquerque and State of New Mexico governments. Ironically, while what happened is clearly illegal under current State law, voters’ (misguided) decision to pass Amendment 2 on Election Day seems to allow for future deals like this one.

The Duke City Gladiators may be named after Albuquerque, but they play in Rio Rancho. That didn’t stop the City of Albuquerque (seemingly just Mayor Keller) from using City and State capital outlay dollars meant for use in the City ($239,622) to fund a turf field for the team.

Using Albuquerque $$ for a Rio Rancho project is problematic enough, but the spending is clearly for private use (Gladiators) of public property (Gladiator’s field) without compensation which is a violation of the “Anti-Donation Clause” of the State Constitution.

Ironically, State voters JUST decided to weaken New Mexico Constitution’s anti-donation clause (which disallows the use of tax dollars for private benefit). The Rio Grande Foundation argued against the change in advance of the vote due to the very real potential for corruption as sign in this example.

In October the City of Albuquerque Council on a bipartisan 7-2 vote rejected an initiative that would have placed the City on record as supporting rent control. We applauded the move at the time.

But, in “progressive” and poorly governed New Mexico no bad idea is ever totally dead. So, pro-rent control activists seem to have convinced powerful Democrat State Senator Linda Lopez to introduce legislation that would eliminate the State’s ban on the practice.

Some supporters claim this is all about “local control,” but the reality is that the Legislature makes economic policies that cities must adhere to all the time, including 2019 legislation that was adopted to prevent local governments from adopting “Right to Work” laws.

The truth is rent control won’t solve the problem of rising rents. Only expanding the housing supply (with a side of reducing inflation) will bring housing/rent prices down. But, it’s easier for the economically-illiterate to simply demand a legislative “fix.”

The Rio Grande Foundation worked hard to make sure that City taxpayers didn’t have to foot the cost of a soccer-only stadium for the New Mexico United soccer team.

But, as KOAT Channel 7 notes in a recent story in which RGF’s president was interviewed, local taxpayers are STILL on the hook for expenses associated with the soccer team. In this case according to recent data requested by KOAT taxpayers have spent $960,000 since the United started playing games.

Is this better than building a brand new stadium? Yes. Has City Council ever voted on this? No. It would seem that at the very least our elected officials should be voting on this. Americans and New Mexicans are often asked to subsidize sports franchises, but that doesn’t make it right.

The 2022 edition of the Canada-based Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America 2022 is out and for yet another year New Mexico remains at the very bottom among US states in terms of economic freedom. Economic freedom is the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions
about what to buy, where to work and whether to start a business.

Unsurprisingly, New Mexico performed particularly poorly in:

• Government spending as a percent of personal income (49th);
• Sales tax revenue as a percent of personal income (48th); and
• Government employees as a percent of overall employees (49th).

New Mexico DID get high marks for having relatively low property taxes (7th).

“When governments allow markets to decide what’s produced, how it’s produced and how much is produced, citizens enjoy greater levels of economic freedom,” said Fred McMahon, the Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom at the Fraser Institute and co-author of this year’s report, which measures government spending, taxation and labor market restrictions using data from 2020, the latest year of available comparable data. Florida was the top performing state in the index followed by New Hampshire. Rounding out the top five freest states are South Dakota (3rd), Texas and Tennessee (tied for 4th ).

The very worst performing states were New York at 50th followed by California.

On this week’s interview Paul talks to Fred Nathan the Founder and CEO of Think New Mexico which describes itself as a “results-oriented think tank whose mission is to serve all New Mexicans.” The organization recently published a detailed and ambitious plan to reform New Mexico schools. While Rio Grande Foundation and Think New Mexico don’t always agree on policy solutions for New Mexico, Paul and Fred both want very much to improve New Mexico’s dismal education system. This conversation really digs into the details of Think New Mexico’s education plan and its pluses and minuses from RGF’s perspective.

The Rio Grande Foundation would like to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who called, wrote, emailed, and spoke in favor of parental rights in education alongside RGF at last night’s APS school board meeting.

We would also like to thank the five APS School Board members that voted to support parental involvement in the classroom.

In case you missed it, here’s a quick summary of what happened:

KB1, also known as the Parent Rights and Responsibilities policy, passed the APS School Board in a 5-2 vote.  KB1 consolidates education rules into a clear and concise format, making it easier for parents to see exactly what’s going on inside the classroom.

Opposition from special interest groups showed up in force, including numerous paid activists.

Regardless of the heckling and boos from the special interest groups, several brave parents stood up for Parental Rights and bravely took their turn at the mic to show the real local parent support for KB1.

We could not be more proud!

You can read the Albuquerque Journal’s highly biased coverage of the meeting here.

Parental Rights were up for a vote in Albuquerque today, and the clear winners are families.

Like everyone else RGF is interested in what happened in the recent election. Paul has some analysis here.

Paul and Wally aren’t the only ones waiting for something to happen at Spaceport America. A Chicago man recently asked for and received a refund from Virgin Galactic. 

Think New Mexico proposes education reform, we analyze their plan. 

RGF will be in federal court on Wednesday against NM Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

Environmental consults presented to the Legislature recently. They claim to have put a price of $5.3 billion on New Mexico environmental disasters due to climate change, but make no specific arguments that climate change caused the disasters.

According to a new report from the Legislative Finance Committee the State of New Mexico is wasting $18 million a year on unused office space. The LFC report found telework and 21% of staff vacancies are accounting for unused offices.

Telework COULD be a cost-saving measure in some circumstances, but the State needs to produce coherent rules for government employees and whether those jobs are able to be done remotely or not. Sadly, the Lujan Grisham Administration has not managed to do this 2.5 years after COVID began and created the push for remote work. Watch the story here.

The following is directly from the Secretary of State website. You can look for yourself at the Secretary of State website.

In the 2022 general election there was 52% voter turnout statewide

In Lea County (Hobbs) there was 38% turnout.

In Eddy County (Carlsbad and Artesia) there was 49% turnout.

In Chaves County (Roswell) there was 46% turnout

In San Juan (Farmington) there was 51% turnout

On the other hand the big liberal counties of Santa Fe saw 63% turnout and in Bernalillo County there was 54.6% turnout.

None of the biggest conservative counties in New Mexico turned out at the State average and Lea County lagged badly.

Why did this happen? That is a good question. Certainly election denial raised its ugly head in this election. Southeast New Mexico was also split in redistricting which may have impacted things.

Regardless of why it happened, we know that New Mexico’s Southeastern oil patch funds the rest of the State. They are arguably impacted by what happens with “green” policies in Washington and Santa Fe more than any other part of the state. It would seem that getting the conservative Southeast portion of New Mexico engaged would be a critical factor in winning future elections.

In October of 2022, New Mexico’s Spaceport America hit its 11th anniversary of being open. Alas, it’s prime tenant Virgin Galactic has failed to launch a single paying customer during that time.

One customer finally said “enough.” He asked for and received a refund of his $175,000 back from the company. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a Mr. Shefket Chapadjiev paid Virgin $175,000 back in 2007 for a ticket to space. He’s now 84 years old and in poor health.

Echoing the comments of the Rio Grande Foundation, Chapadjiev, a native of Bulgaria, told the paper, “This has been for 15 years, and always we’re supposed to be flying next year, next year, people from Bulgaria keep asking me, ‘What happened?”

Chapadjiev says his refund from Virgin Galactic came minus 10% of the amount he paid.

The Rio Grande Foundation will be in federal court this Wednesday arguing in favor of free speech against New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. You can see the court notice below and read up on the case itself here.

While elections come and go, the fight for liberty continues!

The Rio Grande Foundation often works with Think New Mexico. From RGF’s perspective Think New Mexico is a politically-centrist think tank working here in New Mexico. Sometimes we agree with them and sometimes we don’t, but their latest report is on K-12 education policy (an issue we work on) and, since New Mexico will be a “blue” state for at least another two years, it is more likely that centrist ideas rather than conservative ones will get traction in the Legislature.

There are 10 proposals, all of them are thoughtful and open to consideration. A few are questionable from RGF’s perspective such as adding time to the school year. It seems like a lot of schools waste a lot of time they already have in the classroom. We’d like to see evidence that more time will be used effectively. Going to a “balanced” school year also has merit, but for young people working summer jobs, it MAY not make sense. It would seem there should be options.

Improving teacher and principal training including residencies sounds like a great ideas, but again, we want to see data that this has been effective elsewhere and it needs to be tracked, if implemented in NM, in some ongoing way.

Small schools and districts make sense, but we’re not sure about smaller class sizes. Making it easier for charter schools to be organized and operate is also a good thing as would a more rigorous curriculum. We question whether student assessments can be depoliticized though. Same for revamping colleges of education.

Finally, improving school board quality seems like a good idea, but the additional training, disclosures, and transparency may make it even more difficult to find people willing to serve in some rural communities.

So, since RGF supports many of the recommendations in this report, why isn’t it OUR report? For starters, the report mentions Mississippi’s success in turning their education results around. We have what they did and see that as a simpler starting point. It is ALSO largely the same plan as what Susana Martinez TRIED to implement in New Mexico, but failed due to legislative opposition.

Finally, WE believe that this Legislature (and Gov.) are too beholden to the status quo unions to do anything substantial to improve K-12 education in NM. Sadly, that will require a sea change especially in the Legislature. Our view is that IF/WHEN that sea change comes, we’d rather just do what Arizona and West Virginia have done and allow education $$ to follow the child. Parental accountability is the best accountability.

That being said, Think New Mexico’s report is a solid and worthwhile contribution to the education reform conversation in New Mexico.