The release of two of the biggest box office movies since COVID shut down the industry (Barbie and Oppenheimer) coincides with the ongoing (and recently expanded) labor strike going on involving writers and actors.

Because New Mexico has spent so much money in the form of subsidies (an estimated $145 million this year alone before the strike) many New Mexicans and their elected officials may feel strongly about taking sides. As seen below Rep. Stansbury did exactly that and it is no surprise that New Mexico’s left-wing political leaders are on the side of labor.

RGF has not taken sides, but we DO oppose subsidizing Hollywood. While Rep. Stansbury supports the film subsidies, she appears to think that CEO’s of the very companies New Mexico subsidizes make too much money. Apparently, the fact that our tax dollars are directly funding the pay of CEO’s running these big corporations is completely lost on her.

Hollywood execs are saying the demands of the writers and actors on strike aren’t realistic.

Walt Disney CEO made $24M
Netflix CEOs made $51M & $50M
Comcast CEO made $32M
Paramount CEO made $32M

Stop saying you cannot afford to pay your actors and writers fair wages.

— Rep. Melanie Stansbury (@Rep_Stansbury) July 21, 2023

According to KOB TV, the City of Albuquerque is about to embark upon the construction of an insanely expensive 7 mile bike trail that, when all is said and done, will cost $80 million. Of course, public works projects are notoriously expensive and often face massive cost overruns, but this may be the biggest boondoggle in New Mexico since Bill Richardson spent $400 million to build the Rail Runner.

The City currently fails to maintain existing bike routes but claims it has $40 million (half of what it needs) to build an elaborate bike path through Mayor Keller’s cherished Rail Yards and to other locations in a loop throughout parts of town.

There are numerous other uses for $80 million but one we thought of would be replacement of the I-25 bridge over the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque. The bridge is used by 35,000 vehicles every day and is in serious need of repairs estimated to cost $78 million. More than $10 million per mile for a bike path is utterly absurd.

See the KOB story below:

The US Forest Service is admitting after months of delay that it caused yet another big New Mexico forest fire. Already the agency has admitted it caused both the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires, but as a recent Albuquerque Journal article pointed out, they had been reluctant to take the blame for the 2022 Cerro Pelado which happened in the Jemez Mountains in Santa Fe National Forest. The fire burned 45,605 acres.

The Agency has officially admitted it caused the fire via a prescribed burn.

For more than a decade the Rio Grande Foundation has argued that the federal government does a poor job of managing its lands and asked that states be allowed to manage national forests instead. Sadly, until fundamental changes are made to land management techniques New Mexico is likely to continue to face fires and lost opportunities.

It is hard to keep up with the myriad (often ridiculous) ways in which the Biden Administration continues to attack Americans’ personal freedom, but whenever possible the Rio Grande Foundation remains ready and willing to help.

For example, a lot of attention has been focused on their latest effort to tighten the energy and water efficiency standards for residential dishwashers, despite the fact that the standards currently in effect are causing serious problems for consumers.

The best way to push back at this point (aside from education) is to submit public comments in opposition to the proposal and RGF was pleased to sign onto comments drafted by the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute based in Washington, DC.

Caught Mayor Keller’s “One ABQ” sign on the move today. I was driving on the Interstate and the sign was on the frontage road. All of the white trucks plus 3 more at the rear of the column were involved so by my count 7 trucks plus the actual moving vehicle and trailer.

According to a 2019 KRQE story it costs $5,500 to move the “statue.”

RGF president Paul Gessing had the opportunity to  speak to the Republican Women’s Club of Carlsbad. He also had a chance to sit down with Mayor Dan Janway and his staff and did an interview with Johnny Chandler of KCCC 930AM for a discussion of the latest issues facing Southeast New Mexico.

Among numerous topics of discussion and local issues facing Carlsbad and the State, we discussed ways in which the Legislature might address revenue loss by local cities impacted by prospective gross receipts tax reform which RGF strongly supports. This is a challenging issue that needs go be considered in GRT reform debates.

It was also great to catch up with Reps. Cathrynn Brown and Jimmy Mason, both of whom capably represent the Carlsbad region.

If your civic group would like to hear a presentation on New Mexico’s economic situation and how the Legislature can move the State out of 50th place, please contact us at: info@riograndefoundation.org

Virgin Galactic has finally launched its first paid flight from New Mexico’s taxpayer-financed Spaceport America, but the facility which was built starting in 2009 at a cost of more than $200 million (plus numerous additions) is already in need of millions of dollars in repairs.

Roof repairs alone could run from $800,000 to $3 million.

The Spaceport will also install an expensive water treatment system to remove the minerals, adding that to its utilities costs.

Finally, a new 30,000-square foot building including staff offices, conference rooms, an auditorium, cafeteria, dining area and server storage is also being considered as an addition to the facility with estimated the costs ranging between $45 million and $60 million.

The good news? Virgin Galactic is finally launching from the facility.

The bad news is that New Mexico taxpayers have spent well over the $220 million construction price for the facility and are going to likely be spending millions more before Virgin Galactic even shows that they have a viable operation.

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.