At the Rio Grande Foundation we believe that taxpayers should get the best possible government service for our tax dollar. New Mexico’s failure to do that is one reason Wallethub ranked the State 2nd from the bottom in terms of the Return on Investment (ROI) for those tax dollars.

Alas, Albuquerque Mayor Keller apparently believes that local roads and public buildings should be made even more expensive by requiring union labor. Flanked by union members, he just vetoed repeal of the City’s Project Labor Agreement legislation which will give unions control over major public works projects, thus padding their bottom lines.

As the Albuquerque Journal article points out, “Unions contributed heavily to the political action committee backing Keller’s successful 2021 reelection bid.”

National report gives MLG poor marks on pandemic performance. You can find the report here. The Wall Street Journal also covered the report here.

MLG extended the health order until April 15. Arizona and even Oregon have allowed their emergencies to expire.

The recent special session of the New Mexico Legislature resulted in tax “rebates.” Taxpayers will receive checks of $250/$500 by June 30 depending on single/couple filing status with a second check coming in August. These are “refundable” credits. The rebates will reduce state revenues by $220 million with $20 million of that going to illegal immigrants, seniors, and others who do not file income taxes to the State. This legislation also creates a logistical challenge for the Tax and Revenue Department.

Is Richard Branson abandoning Virgin Galactic (that’s according to the investing website Motley Fool)?  

NM’s unemployment rate remains the worst in the nation in February, but our workforce participation rate remains low as well. 

According to Wallethub NM’s ROI for tax dollars is 2^nd worst in the nation. 

An RGF email survey controversy generates controversy with the Public Regulation Commission.

RGF submits comments and encourages the public to submit their own comments on new Biden Administration charter school regulations. Comments are due by April 13, 2022 (this Wednesday).

The following is a Twitter thread from a crop scientist who also describes herself as an ex-farmworker and lists her pronouns in her Twitter bio (not likely conservative).

It is relevant because there are some very real issues going on in the global economy with regard to fertilizer and fuel prices. The statements below are relevant for multiple reasons.

1. The Biden Administration JUST announced that it is allowing an INCREASE in ethanol usage in an attempt to bring gas prices down. Ironically, as the article points out, ethanol, which is supposedly used because it is “clean” is “usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures.”
2. The Legislature for two years running has narrowly defeated a “clean fuel standard” bill which would mandate increased usage of ethanol  as touted in this opinion piece by several leaders in the Lujan Grisham Administration.

It is time to abolish the federal ethanol program and STOP any new mandates like the ones being discussed in New Mexico.

No matter what metric is used, New Mexico’s pandemic performance under Gov. Lujan Grisham has been poor. The Rio Grande Foundation has been saying this for over a year now we are getting some academic studies to back our points up.

The latest study which is discussed at some length in the Wall Street Journal uses three basic metrics: economy, education, and mortality. With the nation’s worst unemployment rate, arguably the nation’s most negatively impactful education response, and a high COVID death rate (currently 13th-highest), Lujan Grisham’s response looks quite bad.

And, according to the analysis, it is indeed 3rd worst among US states as seen below.

The latest Wallethub report which ranks states by the return on investment their taxpayers receive for the tax dollars paid. Sadly, but not surprisingly, New Mexico’s return on investment on those tax dollars is terrible (49th overall as the map below shows).

While the following chart comes straight from Wallethub’s report, it is impossible to fully include below. You can clearly see that New Mexico’s overall rank (not ROI) is 50th in education, 50th in safety, and 50th in economy. Health and Infrastructure/Pollution are somewhat better.

Interestingly, New Mexico’s tax burden is ranked a relatively low 34th in this report because it is calculated on a per-capita basis. When Wallethub calculates tax burden they do so as a percent of income and New Mexico ranks 12th-highest.

That’ not OUR speculation, that’s from the folks at the prominent investing site Motley Fool. According to the article, speculation is driven in part because Branson revealed in a CNBC interview that he’s planning to hitch a ride on a craft operated by Virgin Galactic’s rival, SpaceX.

That’s like the President of Ford announcing to the press that he’s just purchased a Chevy pick up.

The Fool article goes on to note that “his related entity Virgin Investments remains a major company shareholder, it’s sold off a much larger stake in a series of divestments.”

The Rio Grande Foundation has been a prominent critic of the taxpayer-funded Spaceport America at which Virgin Galactic is the primary tenant. And, while Branson DID launch with a crew out of the Spaceport last summer, there have been zero paying customers launched out of Spaceport America which has been open for over a decade.

Losing Branson’s involvement or loyalty is by no means a death blow to Virgin Galactic’s hopes to get viable space tourism flights going at Spaceport America, but it can’t help and it isn’t a vote of confidence in the company or its technology.

As RGF has previously reported, New Mexico has the highest unemployment rate in the United States. Unfortunately, New Mexico also has a very low workforce participation rate as seen below. The BLS data are available here.

In addition to having the lowest workforce participation rate New Mexico’s rate has dropped by more than any of our neighboring states since the month prior to the Pandemic. NM’s rate is 2 percentage points lower today. Texas, the worst performing state beside NM dropped 0.8 percentage points.

Any car-owning American who has taken a recent trip to the pump will be able to tell you one thing: Gas is expensive. Really expensive. Indeed, as of last week, a gallon costs $4.231 — up $1.379, from a year ago. (The same trend is true for natural gas.) The crisis has evidently lasted longer — and proved more economically serious — than the Biden administration suggested.

Curiously, the cabinet official best equipped to address it has remained completely mum on the issue. I’m referring to former New Mexico political activist, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and current secretary of the Department of the Interior, Deb Haaland.

Secretary Deb Haaland manages the federal government’s onshore subsurface mineral estate — about 700 million acres (30 percent of the United States) held by the Bureau of Land Management alone. There are, of course, additional oil and gas resources to be found on tribal lands, in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and on the outer continental shelf.

According to the website operated by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, in fiscal year 2018 (which is unfortunately the most recent data available), sales of oil, natural gas, and natural-gas liquids produced from the federal and tribal mineral estate accounted for only a small fraction of total sales in the U.S. (8 percent of all oil, 9 percent of all natural gas, and 6 percent of all natural-gas liquids).

These numbers could be much higher. In the best of times, the federal government might be a more difficult partner for oil and gas companies than private landowners or even state land offices that have a much stronger financial incentive to approve permits than does Washington. Now, with the avowedly anti-fossil-fuels Biden administration and anti-oil-and-gas activist Deb Haaland in control of the Interior Department, the permitting situation is much worse.

And that’s the point of this critique. If the Biden administration really wanted to address rising gas prices, it could do so most readily by encouraging drilling on federal lands — especially on onshore resources in Deb Haaland’s home state of New Mexico.

Yet rather than pursuing that fairly simple solution, the administration would rather plead with such hostile nations as Venezuela and Iran to expand their production.

Whether it is Deb Haaland calling the shots within the administration on energy policy or whether she is just one of many decision-makers, the Biden administration’s embrace of anti-energy environmental groups and their policies appears to be the root cause. Not surprisingly, Haaland herself rose to some level of prominence by opposing traditional energy, calling for a fracking ban, and promoting the Green New Deal. “I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands,” Haaland said in an interview with the Guardian in May 2019.

Haaland is unlikely to moderate her views, even as skyrocketing energy prices have become a major problem. Instead, she avoids dealing with the issue entirely. Consider just a few examples:

• The Interior Department and its associated agencies have not issued a single press release on the energy-crisis situation, much less about increasing production on federal lands.
• There have been no tweets from Secretary Haaland on the issue of increasing energy production on federal lands.
• When the secretary does focus on energy issues, as she did in a visit to Ohio, the focus is on infrastructure — cleaning up orphan wells, legacy pollution from extractive industries, and moving toward renewables.
• Oddly, even Haaland’s calendar hasn’t been updated in nearly a year (since March 2021).

While the Interior Department and Deb Haaland have been completely missing in action during the ongoing energy crisis, Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm is at least publicly calling for ramping up production. Previously the White House was “quietly” calling for more production, but you can look far and wide for specific Biden-administration policies to increase supply. The best you’ll get is the recently announced release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Unfortunately for hard-pressed motorists and, more generally, American consumers being throttled by high inflation, the Department of Energy can’t really do anything directly to address America’s energy crisis. The department that can, though, is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the administration simply doesn’t want Haaland front and center because she has such a long track record of opposing the very energy resources necessary to solve the current crisis.

Will Haaland come out of “hiding” to lead the charge on behalf of increasing American supplies of oil and gas? I’m not holding my breath. This administration remains more beholden to radical environmental groups than any in history. Prices may come down a bit if the war in Ukraine ends, but high gas prices and constrained American production are a feature, not a bug, for the Biden administration and its interior secretary.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation.

There are several important issues on tap for Albuquerque City Council’s meeting tonight. You can sign up to speak or submit written comments to the Council on any of these issues here. For the first time in more than two years, in-person testimony will be allowed, but Zoom remains an option as well.

The top issues being discussed tonight are:

Final action on: O-22-1 This legislation, introduced by Council Dan Lewis, would reduce Albuquerque’s gross receipts tax by one eighth of One Percent (.125%);

Final action on: O-22-8 would rescind legislation passed after the November election that mandated the Use Of Project Labor Agreements On Certain Public Works Construction Projects In The City Of Albuquerque. It is sponsored by Bassan, Jones, Lewis, Grout; and

EC-22-51 would override Mayor Keller’s veto of the Council’s repeal of Albuquerque’s plastic bag ban.

New Mexico’s House Minority Leader wrote an excellent column in the Albuquerque Journal recently in which he touted the myriad benefits of school choice.

Oddly, but not surprisingly, this drew a hostile response from a Gallup teacher. It will come as a surprise to absolutely no-one reading this that the responding author has a Twitter account and the posts there are the kind that would make me as a parent look elsewhere if this guy were teaching my kids.

Aside from that issue, here are the two main critiques of school choice:

(School choice) does not actually address the core issues in education. We know from other states that have open enrollment, vouchers for private schools and charter schools, that they do not inherently increase student outcomes.

The second reason why school choice does not solve any of our issues is that, unless the representative plans on opening multiple private schools and charters in every town and village in New Mexico, there simply are not enough of these schools to be effective.

On the student outcomes issue there is ample evidence that school choice DOES improve students’ academic success as this meta-analysis (an analysis of numerous academic studies on school choice) shows.

The second complaint about choice is just silly. If parents and families had the ability to take their education funding dollars to the schools of THEIR choosing, would there not be any entrepreneurs and education leaders willing to open and operate new schools?

Clearly, New Mexico has a lot of work to do to improve education outcomes. Rep. Townsend is on the right path, but the system and the politicians currently in charge are going to put up a fight.

As the number of COVID cases continues to drop in New Mexico and across the nation, a number of states have ended their emergency orders.

Yesterday, Arizona Gov. Ducey announced that the State’s emergency would end immediately. But the trend is not limited to relatively “red” states. Deep blue Oregon will end its emergency on April 1, 2022. Missouri’s emergency will ALSO end on Friday (there seems to be some conflict over whether they have a mandate in place or not).

New Mexico’s latest emergency order ALSO expires on April 1, 2022. We will find out very soon what Gov. Lujan Grisham plans to do.

According to Wallethub’s latest report (addressed in the chart below) New Mexico’s total tax burden is 9.37 percent, 12th-HIGHEST in the nation. Not surprisingly, that is higher than ANY of the states below. Interestingly, New Mexico ranks 48th on “Best Places to Live” which is worse than any of the states lacking personal income taxes.

Since November of 2021 when Gov. Lujan Grisham went over to Scotland for the big COP 26 conference on climate change, we’ve been wondering who specifically paid for her trip and how the Gov. and her staff got there.

While the best we could get on who paid for the trip is something called “Climate Registry,” a non-profit that grew out of the California Climate Action Registry, which is discussed (along with the Gov.’s entourage) in this article, we FINALLY have the details on the Gov.’s travel.

In summary, MLG flew coach from Albuquerque to Dallas, “premium economy” to London,  and the equivalent of business class (known as Club Europe) from London to Gatwick in Scotland. The total cost of her flights was $1,808.97.

You can find details on the Gov.’s plane ticket here.

The graphic below IS NOT the Gov.’s itinerary, rather it was pulled off the British Airways site today to give an understanding of the differences between the various flight classes.

We don’t begrudge the Gov. for not flying coach or for even flying in the first place and her hypocrisy is not as bad as those who flew their private jets over to Europe for the conference. We just wish the Gov. would acknowledge the tremendous benefits offered by oil and gas as she flew off to work against them and the industry that does so much for the State she governs.

On this week’s conversation Paul and Wally discuss the upcoming special session of the Legislature. Both agree that the proposed rebates are nice (really), but it is time for New Mexico to really address its poorly-designed tax code. Paul believes that GRT reform is the “low-hanging-fruit” and that it must happen first, but he has the personal income tax in his sights as well.

Data highlights the tragedy of MLG’s school shutdowns.

The problem with Ketanji Brown Jackson’s answer on “women.”

The US and EU have reached a deal on LNG exports, but will it actually do anything if production isn’t ramped up and new facilities aren’t green-lighted?

Hot on the heels of the new “Opportunity Scholarship” program (free college) becoming law, UNM and NMSU increase tuition. To be totally fair, the rate of increase is below the current, out-of-control inflation rate;

The  City of Albuquerque under the Keller Administration has paid out more than $337K regarding open records requests/IPRA violations including $15,000 to the Rio Grande Foundation. 

Mayor Keller has vetoed repeal of the City’s plastic bag ban. What’s next?

ABQ City Council is still discussing reducing GRT. Paul discusses the status of that issue.

The following opinion piece recently appeared in several New Mexico media outlets including the Eastern New Mexico News.

There are many things that make New Mexico unique, but one of the most noteworthy political nuances is the State’s deep and unusual relationship with energy. New Mexico’s Democratic politicians love the money and jobs generated by the traditional energy industry, but also wish to be seen as pushing back against it to placate their environmentalist base.

Nonetheless, New Mexico, a state blessed with all sorts of energy resources (both traditional as well as wind and solar) has continued to embrace Democrat politicians despite the Party’s leftward shift on energy in recent years. With oil prices skyrocketing and electricity reliability in question, it is time for voters to demand sensible energy policies from politicians.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused gasoline prices to jump dramatically after having risen throughout Joe Biden’s time in the White House (due in part to his anti-energy policies and rhetoric). And, while there are limited things to be done in the short term, in the intermediate and longer term, former New Mexican and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland should be a pivotal figure in addressing America’s energy issues. Instead, she is nowhere to be found.

Haaland manages the sprawling federal estate including the Bureau of Land Management. Immediately upon taking office the Biden Administration instituted a permitting moratorium on federal lands. Rather than changing directions and opening the leasing process as prices rose, under Haaland’s direction, new oil and gas lease auctions have remained on hold.

Expediting new drilling on federal lands is just one of many ways Haaland could get serious about reducing gas prices (and at least partially defanging Russia which relies heavily on oil and gas exports to Europe) but remains silent on the issue, even on her official Twitter account.

Speaking of natural gas which often takes a back seat to oil in New Mexicans’ minds, New Mexico leaders could and should be advocating for natural gas as a cleaner energy solution relative to coal and others. New Mexico is one of the leading natural gas producing states in the nation.

Thanks to a fracking-driven production boom, natural gas has been used to replace coal in electricity generation. This has been one of the primary tools in reducing US CO2 emissions in recent years, a fact recognized by former President Barack Obama. Furthermore, exports of US-produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) have created home-grown American jobs, narrowed the trade deficit, and helped foreign countries like China reduce their CO2 emissions.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provides the United States (and by extension New Mexico) an ideal opportunity to expand production of natural gas. Unfortunately, our State’s senior Senator Martin Heinrich remains obsessed with eliminating natural gas in favor of “electrification.”

Rather than focusing on alleviating the pain of high energy costs (driven both by the Russian invasion and Biden Administration policies) Heinrich is pushing to replace natural gas in home heating and cooking. He remains uninterested in transitioning Western Europe away from Russian energy to New Mexico-produced natural gas.

Electrification is a fool’s errand. According to new Department of Energy data, electricity costs $41.79 per million BTU’s. Natural gas costs $12.09 per million BTU’s. And that’s in today’s numbers. Electrification would increase US electricity consumption by 40 percent. Public Service Company of New Mexico was concerned about blackouts and brownouts this summer due to the shuttering of one coal fired power plant. A 40% increase in electricity consumption over current levels will increase prices well above today’s levels.

A greener and more affordable future can be had, and New Mexico can lead the way. With abundant nuclear resources, natural gas, and renewable power, New Mexico has a lot to offer the nation and the world. But first, our leaders including, but by no means limited to Secretary Haaland and Heinrich need to get serious about balancing economic and technological reality with their “green” aspirations.

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

With inflation continuing to hit record highs The New Mexico Legislature will soon head into a special session that COULD result in refunds of between $250 and $400 for all taxpayers OR some other approach to assisting New Mexicans hard-pressed by rising prices.

We applaud such efforts and encourage the Legislature to provide refunds/relief to ALL taxpayers rather than focusing those rebates based on income. The problem with rebates is that families and businesses can’t really plan on them and they are explicitly a “one-time” policy. None of this is to say that rebates shouldn’t happen, but with New Mexico oil production growing rapidly and prices at sustained, high levels (and New Mexico’s bloated budget), policymakers SHOULD be considering more profound tax policy changes.

For reasons previously stated, the most obvious thing to do is to reform the State’s gross receipts tax. But, it is ALSO time to consider long-term, gradually-implemented reductions to New Mexico’s personal income tax.

The personal income tax is expected to generate just over $2 billion in FY 2023. You can see how that stacks up relative to other General Fund revenue sources below. 

$2 billion is a lot of money even within the context of a nearly $9 billion general fund budget. But, New Mexico government is bloated by almost any standard as seen below (you can find the raw data here). A combination of high ongoing oil and gas prices, prospective gross receipts tax reform (which would further boost economic growth), and a need to diversify New Mexico’s economy should lead to careful consideration of income tax cuts.

Broader spending restraint and reduction in spending on programs like film subsidies could further free up revenues.

A recent report has devastating news for already struggling students in New Mexico schools. Most especially, the new report highlights how badly Gov. Lujan Grisham’s decision to shut down the schools to in-person learning for a year impacted learning.

The writeup comes from The UK Daily Mail and uses data from standardized test provider Renaissance Learning Inc. As seen below, New Mexico students (already behind their peers in other states) saw reading scores decline by 7%, the most among US states.

Sadly, reading is not the only area in which New Mexico students lost ground. According to the report New Mexico students saw declines exceeding those of any other state beside Virginia.

Paul visits with Robert McEntyre of the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association (NMOGA) about the state of the industry.  They discuss domestic oil and gas production issues against the backdrop of international energy price volatility. They address the impact gasoline prices are having in the United States and New Mexico and policy decisions that have hindered domestic oil and gas production.

Joe Biden’s nominee for the US Supreme Court raised eyebrows and generated thousands of internet memes when she claimed in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that she “couldn’t provide a definition for the word ‘woman.’”

Clearly, she knows what a woman is. She is clearly intelligent. She clearly wishes NOT to define the term publicly for political reasons. And that’s the real problem. If she can’t or won’t define something very simple for clearly political reasons how will she interpret complicated laws that she may disagree with?

We recently saw liberal justices on SCOTUS who were simply unwilling to draw ANY line regarding executive power relating to vaccine mandates regardless of whether Congress had granted the Biden Administration such sweeping powers. If she can’t/won’t draw a firm line over the definition of male and female, will she really make tough/unpopular decisions restricting the power of government officials including (but by no means limited to) the one nominating her to the Nation’s highest Court?

Where’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland been hiding?

New Mexico Legislature to convene for special session on April 5. Some kind of “relief” for taxpayers and reconsideration of the vetoed “junior” bill will be on the agenda for the session beginning April 5. Looks like the controversial election bill will not be on the agenda (thankfully).

If the Legislature were to suspend New Mexico’s 17 cent gas tax, it would save motorists $240 million annually.

The ABQ Journal has a three part series on the oil and gas industry and the current energy crunch. They (and the media in general) miss some important points.

The “Affordable” Housing fund passed in the Legislature won’t make housing in New Mexico more affordable.

Albuquerque City Council passed a vaccine mandate ban and will soon discuss a GRT cut.

Paul and Wally discuss the passing of attorney Pat Rogers.

Oil and gas drilling is a crucial financial driver for the state of New Mexico. In 2021, the industry contributed over one-third, or $2.9 billion, to the state budget. This money goes towards funding hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and other essential services in our local communities and tribes.

These days, the geopolitical and economic realities have been as harsh as in recent memory. Across the country everyday Americans are feeling the pressure, and nowhere more noticeably so than at the gas pump. Here in New Mexico, the statewide average price per gallon sits at $4.14 – a far cry from the $2.87 a gallon just one year ago.

The Biden Administration has pointed the finger at the oil and gas industry, claiming that despite a drop in oil prices in recent days, gas prices continue to stay high due to “price gouging” by the industry.

The reality is that the federal government has in recent months taken actions to weaken our mighty domestic oil and gas industries in a time when we need them most. Placing a moratorium on new oil and gas leases is proving to be a costly decision. In a time when our country and the rest of the world are seeking to lessen our dependence on foreign energy, we need policies that favor more domestic production—not less.

The Administration continues to tout the statistic of 9,000 unused federal leases across the country that oil and gas companies are sitting on. The reality is the process of going from lease approval to drilling is bureaucratic and slow. Many previously issued leases are tied up in litigation or regulatory disputes. And the reality is that some of the leased lands do not have the resources to make drilling financially viable.

The leasing situation is particularly relevant to New Mexico which, despite record oil production, remains disproportionately impacted relative to other states.

The Rio Grande Foundation is New Mexico’s pro-freedom, free market think tank. We believe in limited government and the rule of law. As such, we have had serious concerns about legislation and the use of said laws which have empowered our Governor to declare an emergency during the recent pandemic and act unilaterally in ways that have had significant, negative impacts on ALL New Mexicans, especially small businesses and school children.

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in recent legislative sessions that would at least partially address the issue. Unfortunately those bills have received scant consideration in the Legislature. The Rio Grande Foundation holds the rule of law and separation of powers in high regard and believes that such concepts MUST be restored in New Mexico. Thus, we are asking candidates for the Legislature AND Governor to sign the following pledge that they will address the issue in substantive ways if they are elected.

The following is being circulated to candidates for the Legislature AND Governor:

“I commit to balancing power in future emergency declarations. This includes: restricting “emergencies” to a fixed period of time, clearly defining “emergency” in statute, and requiring majorities in both houses of the state legislature to approve extensions of any “emergency” declaration.”

Candidates can add their names here: http://rgfnm.com/pledge

We will be releasing the list of supporters well in advance of the June primary and then again before the November election.