There will be two debates for Gov. While all debates are important, this one is especially so as MLG has so few details about her future plans. The first debate will take place Sept. 30 and will be hosted by KOB-TV. The second hourlong debate is being hosted by KOAT-TV, along with the Journal and KKOB Radio, and is set for Oct. 12.

Opinion piece runs statewide: MLG is trying to win reelection on abortion. What about other important issues?

So far, the most forthcoming remarks MLG has made on her future policy plans have been to the Albuquerque Journal. We compare and contrast the candidates stated views on the issues.

MLG fibs again, this time on COVID numbers. Paul really wishes the media would challenge her on some of these basic questions, but it will fall to Ronchetti to do so in the upcoming debates.

PNM tells policymakers and media (again) that New Mexicans are likely to experience blackouts and brownouts next summer. Again, the media fail to connect this to the Gov.’s Energy Transition Act. California is of course experiencing many of the same issue and will continue to do so until policies change.

Like anyone who lives in or visits the Albuquerque area, it is clear that homelessness is a serious problem. At a recent conference attended by the Rio Grande Foundation, we were able to hear experts from the Austin-based Cicero Institute discuss the situation.

The group offers basic solutions:

1) Ban street camping.

2) Instituting pay-for-performance contracts for those paid by the government to provide services to homeless.

3) Reform mental health admission criteria to allow for 72 hour holds;

4) Provide affordable shelter and service alternatives.

The organization has put out a short documentary on the issue here:

We have criticized Gov. Lujan Grisham for not clearly outlining an economic or education policy agenda in advance of the election. And, while the Albuquerque Journal article about her did little to illuminate her positions, the Journal HAS surveyed the candidates.

Here are MLG’s survey responses and here are Ronchetti’s. We’ll break them down (on issues RGF works on) below.

1) What steps should the Legislature take to diversify the state’s economy and revenue base?

MLG: We must continue diversifying the economy and invest in education to develop New Mexico’s workforce. (basically, continue spending more money on education).

Ronchetti: We must diversify the economy by growing the private sector and revitalizing our small businesses through a competitive tax structure, less regulation and stronger workforce. We make things too difficult for small businesses and don’t empower them to grow. (RGF Take: Ronchetti, few specific policies, but an emphasis on tax/regulatory reform and attracting small business.

7) What changes, if any, should New Mexico make to its gross receipts tax code?

MLG: I signed the first GRT cut in 40 years, delivering tax relief to New Mexico families while making our businesses more competitive. This is in addition to other tax cuts we have implemented. As we grow our economy, we should continue to look at ways to save New Mexicans money. (the Gov. leaves the door open to tax reduction, but oddly has never shared specific ideas)

Ronchetti: Level the playing field for small businesses, who get hammered by layers of gross receipts taxes that big corporations don’t have to pay. We’ll also reduce the GRT every year and not allow local governments to raise the GRT without going to the voters (RGF take: Ronchetti has a detailed plan) and has made it clear that addressing both “pyramiding” and rates on the GRT are critical)

9) Education?

MLG: I increased spending/teacher pay and will focus on early childhood and bilingual education.

Ronchetti: Our education system is ranked last for all children. It’s critical that we help our kids catch up from the lost learning they suffered as a result of school shutdowns, which disproportionately hurt minority children. Chronic absenteeism and lost-learning are completely unacceptable. (RGF take: Ronchetti has a detailed education plan as well. It doesn’t focus as much as we’d like on choice, but it has lots of worthy ideas)

Virtually alone among public policy organizations (only the radical left wing New Energy Economy (for differing reasons) opposed it at the time the Rio Grande Foundation stood against the Energy Transition Act which passed the New Mexico Legislature in 2019.

We are now just FOUR DAYS from the (likely permanent) shuttering of San Juan Generating Station which means PNM loses 26 percent of base load (24/7) electricity and will lose another 5% when the utility exits its Palo Verde (nuclear plant) lease in 2023.

The media has regularly reported on PNM’s comments (here, here, and here) about not being able to keep the lights on next summer. The only question not being discussed or even mentioned in the articles is “why is this happening?” The 2019 Energy Transition Act championed by Gov. Lujan Grisham is directly responsible, but it goes unmentioned in the media coverage.

There are no easy solutions at this point, but New Mexico is going to find out what it’s like to not have enough power to keep the lights on.

The following appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News on Sunday, September 25, 2022 (and in several other papers).

With just a few weeks before early voting, what issues will motivate how New Mexicans vote? According to one recent poll the top issue this fall is inflation/the economy (at 59%). Crime was right behind at 58% followed by immigration and health care. Abortion was down the list at just 29%.

Surprisingly, the poll (done by KOB-TV) fails to even ask about education. In a state that consistently ranks at the very bottom in the nation on numerous (and bipartisan) education reports, serious education reforms should be at least on the radar. This is especially true as education is an inherently state issue (unlike immigration or inflation).

But, if you follow Gov. Lujan Grisham’s campaign’s public messaging you might believe abortion is the only important issue facing New Mexicans. Because we believe the New Mexico economy and education system are two critically important issues, the Rio Grande Foundation looked carefully at both candidates’ websites for details on their plans.

Lujan Grisham’s campaign website is: michellefornewmexico.com. There she touts policies she and the Democrat Legislature have enacted. And, she does have some significant economic policy accomplishments. These include a slight gross receipts tax reduction as well as Social Security and military pension tax reductions passed earlier this year.

In terms of education policy, she focuses her attention on various new programs, teacher raises, and generally spending more money. But recently released state test scores were abysmal. The “moon shot” simply hasn’t moved the needle, and what data we have indicate that New Mexico students suffered greatly during the year of lost in-person learning of the pandemic. New Mexico was one of the states that lost the most classroom time thanks to Lujan Grisham’s COVID policies.

More importantly, the governor offers no specific policies moving forward in either area. How, for example, will she use the $2.5 billion budget surplus the state is expected to have when the Legislature convenes next January? With state spending having already risen by 30% under this governor and voters likely to provide permanent fund dollars to pre-K, is the governor planning to push for long-overdue gross receipts tax reform, more spending, or something else entirely?

We know New Mexico still faces significant economic challenges. The state lost thousands of businesses thanks to the pandemic lockdowns and there are fewer employed New Mexicans today than before the pandemic. New Mexico also remains among the most impoverished states in the union and one that is heavily dependent on the volatile oil and gas industry.

Mark Ronchetti, on the other hand, has released detailed and thorough plans (available at markronchetti.com) explaining exactly what he would like to do on both the economy and education. At the Rio Grande Foundation we agree with him on eliminating “pyramiding” of the gross receipts tax and providing stipends for low-income families to help students catch up to COVID learning loss. He plans to reduce income taxes for middle- and low-income New Mexicans. He also wants to emphasize school leadership and vocational learning along with apprenticeships. He has very detailed plans that are worth considering. We’d do some things differently, but it stands in stark comparison to Lujan Grisham’s non-plan.

We are less than a month away from the start of early voting. Hopefully by then voters will have more information on what Gov. Lujan Grisham plans to do in a second term so they can compare that plan to what Mark Ronchetti has already put forth.

Abortion is an important issue to many people, but the economy and our struggling education system impact us all and on a daily basis. They form the basis of what state policymaking is all about and will be the most important issues discussed in the upcoming 60-day session. Voters need to be able to make an informed decision.

While Gov. Lujan Grisham continues to campaign as if abortion is the only issue on the ballot this November, there are numerous important issues that voters should consider as they head to the polls. One of those is the Gov.’s handling of COVID.

On her campaign website (below) Lujan Grisham claims that New Mexico had “lower case numbers and fewer deaths than Arizona and Texas.” She is correct about Arizona which (according to the World o Meters COVID tracking site) has the 2nd-highest COVID death rate. New Mexico has the 5th-highest rate. Texas, on the other hand, has the 29th-highest death rate (and a lower infection rate as well), see chart below.

Is MLG lying? Is she simply relying on the fact that New Mexico has a MUCH smaller population than Texas and thus has a smaller number of infections? It is hard to say for sure, but clearly New Mexico did not perform as well as Texas on COVID or particularly well in general under her leadership.

Whatever you think of electric vehicles, politicians including most prominent Democrats (and our Gov.) believe that EV’s are worth heavy taxpayer subsidies and mandates for their use. A recent Yahoo News article quotes mining experts (including CEO of a lithium mining company) as saying:

“There’s going to be a real crunch to get the material. We don’t have enough in the world to turn that much [lithium] production in the world by 2035.”

Whatever the year, the challenge is a big one and it will require dramatic increases in mining in the US and around the globe. By 2050 it is estimated that 5X more lithium will be needed. Cobalt and graphite production will also have to ramp up dramatically.

Below is what a lithium extraction field looks like (from this article). Will the Biden Administration or some future Democrat really allow widespread development of these?

The Rio Grande Foundation recently drew attention to New Mexico’s shortage of medical providers. One of the ongoing trends that will make this situation more challenging to deal with is the State’s aging population.

According to the webite USA Facts, New Mexico was one of five states that saw the fastest increase in its share of residents aged 65+. The state’s youthful population is not only not growing. It is shrinking.

America is aging, but New Mexico in particular has made itself more attractive to older people (Social Security tax reduction) while remaining unattractive to younger people (crime, lack of economic diversity, bad schools).

On this week’s conversation Paul and Wally take a look at the forward looking agendas of gubernatorial candidates Mark Ronchetti and Michelle Lujan Grisham for New Mexico’s education system, MLG doesn’t have any (she literally doesn’t lay out ANY priorities):

 You can compare Ronchetti’s education plan with MLG’s  

Furthermore, MLG claims she is “a product of New Mexico’s public school system” when she actually graduated from St. Michael’s in Santa Fe.

Paul and Wally discuss the Heritage Foundation’s new report on education choice. 

New Mexico outpaces the nation on welfare recipients (and it’s not even close). 

It’s almost as if New Mexico government is ineffective or something.

The Washington, DC-based Heritage Foundation has released its first-ever “Education Freedom Report Card.”

While New Mexico does better than dead-last in educational freedom due to the existence of charter schools and the freedom of parents to home school, New Mexico’s overall ranking is 38th in educational freedom. As is usually the case New Mexico trails its neighbors including:

Arizona: ranked #2
Utah ranked #11
Texas ranked #12
Oklahoma ranked #18
Colorado ranked #33

Click on the link above to see the report, but you can see how states shake out overall below. New Mexico’s ranking page is below that and then we use a neat tool within the study to compare Arizona (one of the nation’s true leaders on education choice) vs. New Mexico (which is modest to mediocre).

Two stories in Albuquerque Journal, one from Sunday, the other from Monday.

On Sunday the ABQ Journal editorialized that New Mexico’s “education moonshot” has not shown academic results. Then, on Monday a story shows that after 7 years of collecting a new gross receipts tax Bernalillo County’s effort has suffered from “disorganization, waning engagement with the community and a lack of clear cut performance standards.

It is hard for New Mexico’s big-government-addled politicians to understand, but government tends to do a poor job no matter how much money is poured into the next “solution.” So, we’ll be right back here in a few years when the pre-K constitutional amendment passes and (again) fails to move the needle on education outcomes.

Wallethub ranks New Mexico 49th on “ROI” per taxpayer dollar invested. Is this any surprise?

The following chart was recently published in the Wall Street Journal.  While Biden (and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland) hasn’t completely banned oil and gas leases on federal lands as he pledged during the campaign, he certainly has been excessively stingy.

Gas prices have come down from their early summer highs, but the Biden Administration has done nothing to help the cause. As I wrote when the leasing moratorium was first announced, the lack of federal leasing will impact New Mexico more than any other state (over time).

On this week’s interview Paul talks to Albuquerque area ophthalmologist Kenneth Adams about New Mexico’s doctor shortage. We discuss what attracted him to New Mexico from Texas in the first place. What keeps him here? What are some things that make New Mexico an unattractive state to practice medicine in? What could make things better? Don’t miss this timely conversation!

Sometimes statistics on New Mexico just blow you away. A report from World Population Review highlights states based on welfare recipients per population for 2022. The surprising thing isn’t that New Mexico is at the top of the list. What’s amazing is how big it’s lead is relative to states.

In fact, based on the data below New Mexico’s rate of welfare receipt is 23% higher than the next highest state. Rarely do such massive differences exist when comparing the 50 states, let alone on a critical issue like welfare.

If there is one statistic that highlights the difficulty Republicans face in gaining traction here in New Mexico, this might be it. With such an outsized proportion of the population receiving government handouts, who wants limited government?

As the report notes, the United States has six major welfare programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income, Earned Income Tax Credit, Housing Assistance, and Medicaid. These six welfare programs are not to be confused with the four entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and worker’s compensation.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Mark Ronchetti is a policy wonk. His education plan spans six pages of detailed proposals. We’ll discuss some of it here in this post.

Incumbent Gov. Lujan Grisham apparently believes she can win another four years in office without telling people what she intends to do. She offers a bit of information on what she’s done in education but fails to account for the numerous challenges of the last four years or New Mexico’s pitiful performance in education.

Ronchetti on the other hand spends 1.5 pages discussing the importance of education, then he addresses learning loss during COVID and some ideas for making up that gap. He wants to cut administration so $$ flow to the classroom, he wants to tangibly increase parental involvement, he wants to enhance intra-district choice although limited to public and charter schools.

Ronchetti further focuses on vocational learning and apprenticeships, emphasizing recruitment and retention of school leaders. He addresses early reading preparation and even pre-K. In conclusion he discusses ways to improve school safety.

We’d like to see Ronchetti focus more attention on funding students directly rather than bureaucracies, but no matter what you think ideologically, Ronchetti and his team have clearly studied NM’s education issues and have put together a detailed plan. MLG offers no serious ideas for getting New Mexico out of 50th (or 51st) in education.

On this week’s conversation Paul and Wally discuss President Biden’s dark and disturbing speech against Trump and his supporters

Gov. MLG spends $10 million capital outlay dollars for a new abortion clinic in Southern NM:  Also, while Paul reiterates that RGF takes no position on abortion in New Mexico, he frames this move within the context of a new ABQ Journal poll on abortion.

Less than a week after banning gas powered cars California tells Californians NOT to charge their cars due to electricity shortages. As Wally and Paul have recently discussed, 2% of all vehicles on the road in CA are electric. Notably, New Mexico is following these policies, but California recently decided to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open. To date New Mexico appears to have no inclination to keep power flowing from the Palo Verde nuclear plant. 

Dismal education news this week came from two sources.

Lawmakers discuss NM Spaceport and the pipe dream of financial “self-sufficiency” at the facility while Las Cruces area Cervantes contrasts Spaceport w/ Rail Runner and asks the state of New Mexico to pick up the tab.

A new ABQ Journal poll highlights support for a pre-K amendment on the ballot this November, but this is hardly a surprise given the choices.

RGF is participating in an “open house” for the new Moms for Liberty chapter in Bernalillo County. Information can be found below:

Several weeks ago we took a detailed look at Mark Ronchetti’s economic plan. Overall it was very good although we had a few thoughts on improving it (like tackling New Mexico’s top income tax rate).

Admittedly, while we have spent a great deal of time talking about what the incumbent, Michelle Lujan Grisham has done and not done, we hadn’t really thought much about her plans for the economy for a second term. So, we checked out her website. You can click on the graphic below which is what you’ll see if you go to her site.

Alas, but not surprisingly, there’s no “there” there. Clicking on the “economy and jobs” and “money for families and business” gets you a cursory defense of a small sample of what she has done, but ZERO discussion of what she plans to do if re-elected. We have a $2.5 billion surplus, does she want to spend it all or cut taxes? Any plans to FINALLY address the GRT? How about the oil and gas industry that has provided those recent mega-surpluses?

As the campaign for governor heads into its home stretch, what is MLG’s forward-looking plan for New Mexico’s economy?

In this conversation Paul talks to Sarah Jane Allen. Sarah Jane is involved in the formation of a new Moms for Liberty chapter in Bernalillo County. We discuss what the organization is trying to do and some of the important policies they want to address.

Sarah Jane is also involved with New Mexico Alive which brings regular speakers from the State in order for them to share ways they are working to improve life in the Land of Enchantment.

September 1 was a big day for education data. For starters, the Lujan Grisham Administration released data based on its new assessment (which replaced Susana Martinez’s assessment and then was delayed due to COVID). The results are not pretty. A writeup from the Santa Fe New Mexican both highlights the way the test has evolved and the disappointing results.

APS does a decent breakdown by school here, but results are not easy to find on the Public Education Department website. The charts below WERE released by PED, but the full report was hard to find.

In MORE education news, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released  nationwide data for 9 year olds. Sadly, “Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics.” (see below NM data).

Though (sadly) not broken out by state the NAEP report highlights how COVID lockdowns and chaos impacted students across the country. Since New Mexico students were locked out of their schools by MLG for over a year (6th-most in the nation) there is no doubt that New Mexico students suffered disproportionately due to lost time in the classroom.

Recently (with potential implications for New Mexico), California’s unelected clean air board decided to ban gas powered cars by 2035 with a rapid ramp-up over the next decade or so.

Interestingly enough, while New Mexico continues to follow California on electric vehicles and a push to “renewables” on the power grid, it seems likely to ALSO follow California to having inadequate electrical power in the near future (especially next summer when the San Juan Generating Station will no longer be available).

August 24: California bans sale of new gasoline-powered cars

August 30: California asks Californians to avoid charging electric vehicles due to electricity shortages pic.twitter.com/OzE3Lw3Nqq

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) August 31, 2022

While the Rio Grande Foundation studiously avoids taking sides in the ongoing battle over abortion policy in New Mexico, it appears that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal New Mexico’s leftist politicians are going “all-in” on the issue by spending YOUR tax dollars in support of abortion.

We covered (and are considering action on) Albuquerque City Council’s $250,000 “donation” to Planned Parenthood earlier this year. Now, with a massive surplus available to her, Gov. Lujan Grisham has decided to allocate $10 million worth of capital outlay to build a state-run abortion clinic in Las Cruces. While full news stories are hard to come by at this point, numerous credible outlets have reported on it. Stay tuned for details on the latest abuse of your tax dollars….

.@GovMLG today signed an executive order that allocates $10 million to build a new clinic that would provide a "full spectrum" of reproductive health care, including #abortion, in Dona Ana County. "The work that we are doing saves women's lives," the governor said. #nmpol

— Daniel Chacon (@danieljchacon) August 31, 2022

The ABQ Journal came out with polling for numerous races including Gov. These polls (and here) with RGF analysis here point to New Mexicans continuing to embrace the same policies and people they have for years. Can Ronchetti and other candidates close the gap?

A new RGF opinion piece takes on NM’s self-inflicted doctor shortage. As bad as this shortage is now, it will get worse once MLG’s medical malpractice kicks in. 

California bans internal combustion engines.

Biden’s student loan boondoggle is awful on so many levels. 

NM’s state government spends the most of any state in the nation. 

As we have noted time and time again, New Mexico’s Spaceport has never lived up to expectations (it will have been open for 11 years this October). And, while the Legislature has generally accepted the continued failure of the promised manned space tourism industry to “take off,” hearings occasionally shed light on the topic.

In this story KOB Channel 4 cites Spaceport personnel claiming that 65% of the Spaceport’s operating expenses are generated by leases and customers. The same article notes that the “Legislature provided about $2 million in general fund dollar.”

So, in addition to the $250 million taxpayers fronted to build the facility, it continues to cost taxpayers millions more to operate annually. And (news flash) it’s not going to be “self sufficient” anytime soon.

And that brings us to Sen. Joe Cervantes’ wish that taxpayers statewide help pay down construction bonds on the white elephant near Truth or Consequences. A regional gross receipts tax, approved in 2009 is levied in Sierra County, but a vast majority of the funding comes from Doña Ana County. According to the New Mexican, “Half of the estimated $250 million investment in the facility came from the Legislature, and the other half is being covered by the (local) gross receipts tax.”

Cervantes took to Twitter to (aptly) compare funding of the two Bill Richardson-era projects the Spaceport and Rail Runner (both of which the Rio Grande Foundation has long-criticized as wasteful boondoggles).

Are you concerned about what is being taught in Albuquerque Public Schools classrooms? How about local private schools? Do you want more education choice? Or, are you interested in finding out more about the new Mom’s For Liberty chapter which will be engaging in education advocacy throughout Bernalillo County?  Perhaps you’d even want to start a chapter elsewhere?

You are invited to attend an education open house. Details and RSVP information on this free event below.

Or you can RSVP Here