The recent Legislative Finance Committee report on Albuquerque Public Schools has too much useful information for one post. We commented on some of the broader budgetary findings here.  Here is a chart from the report which illustrates the decline in test results thanks to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s policy of keeping students out of classrooms from March 2020 through March 2021. The test is given at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year in order to track student improvement.

While reading scores (on the left) were somewhat impacted by the lost year math scores (on the right) saw major declines

The following is also worth noting. While many parents and certainly the unions tend to push for smaller class sizes as a goal. The LFC report DOES focus attention on ways to improve student outcomes via coaching and increased use of data for instruction in the classroom. See below:

In the first of what will be a handful of “special” episodes of Tipping Point NM, Paul sits down with congressional candidate Louie Sanchez. Louie is a Republican businessman and entrepreneur running in New Mexico’s revised 1st District with a primary battle to be decided by voters on June 7. Based on recently redrawn maps, this district could be highly competitive for Republicans looking to unseat Democrat Rep. Melanie Stansbury.

While coaxing action from one of the largest bureaucracies in the State of New Mexico will undoubtedly prove to be a challenge for the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) just as it has for us, it is good to see the Legislature’s own analysts coming to some of the same conclusions as we have regarding Albuquerque Public Schools. Their full report is here.

A KRQE Channel 13 report has the highlights with the headline, “State report suggests Albuquerque Public Schools cut costs, combine classes.” But there is A LOT in this report which also notes that “APS has increased spending, despite a decrease in enrolled students. From the fiscal year 2012 to the fiscal year 2021, enrollment declined by 12% while actual spending increased by 23%.” This reflects what we have been saying about the District’s ballooning budget.

Curiously, while THIS report notes that APS “has more teachers than it needs. According to the LFC’s calculations, APS hired 492 too many kindergartens through 12th-grade teachers.” As recently as August of 2021 APS was saying there was a teacher shortage.

There is a lot to unpack in this report, so we will break things up into multiple components.

RGF is now hiring. Find out more.

The media failed to include some important details on a recent CNM story. RGF Paul and Wally correct the record on CNM “cutting” programs.

Speaking of the media getting things wrong, a Politico story gets numerous facts wrong in its attempt to praise New Mexico Democrats on energy.

Friday was Earth Day. Paul and Wally celebrate the very real progress we’ve made on the environment:

Here’s how NM’s K-12 spending compares to our neighbors. Unfortunately results and spending are two very different things.

Her last health order was confusing. As it turns out MLG did extended the health emergency yet again, but until May 16.

A recent court victory on UNM Foundation transparency is a victory for good, open government.

A new study says NM is the most dependent US state on the federal government.

RGF recently had an opinion piece that ran regarding New Mexico’s economy and the unique opportunity the State has to put its economy on track. Even with an income tax Colorado’s economy performs very well thanks in large part to its Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Paul and Wally discuss how Colorado’s recently-announced rebates rival New Mexico’s, but are far superior overall because of TABOR’s systemic approach.

The Albuquerque Journal is half right in its recent editorial that IF they lead to the removal of unsanctioned camps, sanctioned encampments are worth a pilot project. Of course, the problem is that there is absolutely no reason to believe that sanctioned encampments will lead to an improvement in the overall “homeless” situation in the City.

Shockingly a City Council committee has advanced an amendment to the zoning code permitting up to 45 encampments throughout the City.

Based on a combination of logic and past experience, large numbers of encampments will lead to more so-called “homeless” flocking to Albuquerque and an even worse situation than before. Here and Here are a few authors who have written in detail about the issue and its impact on businesses and various parts of the City.

Incentives matter in human behavior (that’s the underlying principle of economics). Solving homelessness is likely beyond the capabilities of government, but unoccupied “tiny homes” continue to sit unused.

As the following video explains, helping those who want help, families, and others who are temporarily unable to find housing is important, but that is not the majority of the problem. Enforcement of property rights, not further erosion of our public spaces is necessary.

Don’t look now, but an increasing number of news stories are predicting rapidly-rising natural gas prices. Natural gas generates approximately 20% of New Mexico’s electricity and remains one of the best options for inexpensive, reliable, rather green (and New Mexico-produced) electricity.

That doesn’t include home heating and cooking.

According to the article linked above and here from Yahoo News natural gas prices are rising due in part to “green” policies.

In the past, when natural gas became too expensive, power-plant owners would just dial down some of their gas-fired generators and turn up those burning coal, effectively putting a ceiling on demand and preventing prices from skyrocketing. But utilities’ move away from coal is shrinking inventories and drastically reducing their ability to pivot from gas, leaving the market more vulnerable to wild moves. “There is a path to some crazy prices,” said Paul Phillips, senior strategist at Uplift Energy Strategy in Denver.

See the chart below. As is the case when energy prices rise, the State’s budget will benefit, but energy consumers in New Mexico and beyond will suffer.

The Rio Grande Foundation has long advocated for legislation along the lines of Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights. The gist of the law is that it constitutionally limits government spending to the combined rates of inflation and population growth AT ALL LEVELS of government. Anything above that must be approved by the voters as must any tax or fee increase.

Finally, if revenues come in at a higher rate than approved under TABOR, the money must be refunded to taxpayers. A few years ago we at RGF analyzed the law based on how a similar one might impact New Mexico. We found that every man, woman, and child would have received an astonishing $786 back in 2019.

Given New Mexico’s massive budget surplus (driven largely by record oil production AND prices), spending went up more than $1 billion in the most recent budget. New Mexicans also saw tax reductions and rebates passed in the special session. Those are all good things, but Colorado’s law provides predictable, steady spending growth so spending and taxes don’t get out of control.

The following data shows how personal incomes in Colorado have far outpaced those in New Mexico in recent years. More information about details of TABOR can be found here. The law came into effect in 1992.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, even prior to the most recent spending boost (taking effect in FY 23), New Mexico government was MUCH larger than Colorado’s.

An important decision just came down from a three-judge New Mexico Court of Appeals panel with the opinion written by Judge Megan Duffy in a case the Rio Grande Foundation has been tracking for several years.

The judge ruled that records generated by UNM’s Foundation are indeed public. This is an interesting case for Rio Grande Foundation because:

1) We strongly believe in donor privacy; but

2) UNM’s Foundation operates as an arm of a publicly-funded university. The ability to shift activities from a public to a private wing of the University is an attractive tool for keeping information that SHOULD be public, private instead.

3) There is nothing wrong with UNM having a foundation arm, but when you are dealing with a combination of public and private money, you can’t skirt the law by hiding it within the Foundation;

4) The Rio Grande Foundation does not accept taxpayer funding.

You can listen to an interview RGF’s president did with Daniel Libit, the man behind the lawsuit here.

Despite all the doom and gloom from the media and radical environmentalists, the environment is in fact improving in many significant ways. Some of the data is below from Alex Epstein.

And, regardless of the CO2 emission issue (Epstein shows a vast increase over a longer term), the chart below that highlights the reduction in US CO2 emissions in recent years. Yes, the chart ends in 2020 which was a massive drop, but while emissions rebounded slightly in 2021  from pandemic lows (Biden’s first year in office) the trend continues downward.

On this week’s interview Paul sits down with Rodney Scott, a retired chief of the US Border Patrol and Luna County rancher Russell Johnson.

Although the Rio Grande Foundation does not work directly on border policy issues, there is no question that what happens at the border impacts New Mexicans and is also newsworthy nowadays. This conversation separates border security from immigration policy while diving into several of the important issues facing the United States (and especially those living along the border) when it comes to border policy.

New Mexico is widely-recognized in study after study as among the very most federally-dependent states in the nation. A recent Wallethub report puts us at 6th, but an interesting report from Smart Asset ranks New Mexico at the VERY top in terms of overall federal dependence.

You can see that while not at the top in ALL categories, New Mexico’s percent of workforce employed by the Feds is higher than any state besides Hawaii or Virginia/Maryland which naturally have numerous federal employees. Not surprisingly New Mexico’s federal employee wages are also considerably higher than local private sector dollars.

To many the federal jobs and money flowing into New Mexico are an unmitigated positive, but it certainly hasn’t led to the broad-based wealth and prosperity one might expect or hope for. And, every federal dollar spent no matter how important is either taxed away from the private sector or added to the massive, fast-growing federal debt.

In a story that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal recently the reporter made it sound like Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) was going to be “eliminating” their trucker and jewelry training programs.

In interviews and other discussions, we at the Rio Grande Foundation expressed concern that while the State pushes for “free” college CNM was eliminating basic vocational programs. After doing some research and meeting with someone knowledgeable about the situation at CNM, it turns out that the “elimination” of these programs is simply spin being applied (and readily picked up by the media) pushed by the CNM union.

CNM is simply proposing to reduce costs by ending these two programs as college courses receiving credits through the College and replacing them with noncredit programs focused solely on job skills development, licensing and certification in a cost effective time frame. It strikes us as unnecessary to have EVER had in place college credit programs for these two industries as trucking companies care about commercial drivers licenses and jewelers care about skills, not college credits.

At RGF we have long considered CNM and its focus on vocational learning as one of the bright spots in New Mexico’s otherwise mediocre and bloated higher education system. We are glad the media and by extension WE were wrong.

In the first of what will be a handful of “special” episodes of Tipping Point NM, Paul sits down with congressional candidate Louie Sanchez. Louie is a Republican businessman and entrepreneur running in New Mexico’s revised 1st District with a primary battle to be decided by voters on June 7. Based on recently redrawn maps, this district could be highly competitive for Republicans looking to unseat Democrat Rep. Melanie Stansbury.

College is “free” but CNM is pushing to eliminate trade education for truck drivers and jewelry. Paul and Wally wonder if this means a shift away from vocational learning at New Mexico’s “free” institutes of higher education.

The Biden Administration has decided to increase royalties and scaled back leases on federal lands including an 80% reduction in leases in New Mexico.  The federal and state pushes for ethanol are the wrong way to address gas prices.

The Legislature denied funding for it, but MLG announced a plan to spend $500,000 for fare reduction on the Rail Runner anyway. Paul and Wally briefly comment on the fact that at least Rail Runner riders won’t need to wear masks thanks to a Trump-appointed federal judge. Nonetheless, MLG extended New Mexico’s health emergency yet again to April 30.

RGF president Paul Gessing recently spoke to KOAT for a story on RGF’s successful public records suit and the constant flow of tax dollar payments for denied public records.

Union backed Albuquerque Mayor Keller has vetoed a bill that would have restored market forces to public works projects.

RGF has an upcoming luncheon speaker who will discuss vaccine mandates.

When New Mexico is not being ignored entirely by the national media, they usually just get things completely wrong. This is often the case with what “conservative” outlets like Fox News, but since most media are liberal, it happens more often from the left. Take this Politico piece.

The gist of the article is that New Mexico Democrats have somehow figured out that supporting an “all of the above” energy strategy is a key to political success. But even New Mexico Democrats praised in the article have to be shaking their heads at some of the statements contained within. Here are a few of the worst:

1) The entire premise: while MLG has not attacked New Mexico’s revenue source head-on, she is hardly takes an “all of the above” position on energy and routinely attacks the industry through absurd policies like the Clean Fuel Standard, Methane rules, and electric vehicle mandates (to name a few).

2) Rep. Angelica Rubio, “represents an oil patch district in the Permian Basin.” FALSE!!! Rubio, among the most left-wing members of the New Mexico Legislature, represents Las Cruces. Everyone in New Mexico knows that liberal Las Cruces is well outside the Permian Basin.

3) Far from working to “find middle ground” as Rubio claims, she signed a letter from anti-oil-and-gas liberal legislators in SUPPORT of the Biden Administration’s permitting moratorium despite its impact on New Mexico.

4) Sen. Martin Heinrich who takes a backseat to no one in his environmental radicalism is quoted downplaying solar jobs. The story quotes him as saying, “Now, I love those jobs, but to be honest, those rooftop jobs, they’re not in my view a benefit because they’re going to replace a job for an [oil company] operating engineer. They’re not.” This IS a robustly sane statement, but Heinrich is NOT some kind of moderate. He’s pushing very hard to eliminate natural gas in home cooking and heating for example.

The article DOES go on to have some useful quotes from NMOGA and Gov. candidate Mark Ronchetti along with some anti-energy statements from environmental groups. It is interesting for some of the things it gets right as well as the big things it gets wrong.

The biggest thing it ignores is how long Democrats have controlled the New Mexico Legislature and the fact that under their “leadership” New Mexico is dead last in numerous rankings of well-being. Dependency on oil and gas absent a thriving private sector economy should hardly result in praise for Democrats’ willingness to tolerate the industry.

How does New Mexico spending on public education stack up against its neighbors? While the Rio Grande Foundation has no love for the National Education Association union which attempts to thwart reform at every turn, they do have a useful report called “Rankings and Estimates.”

The data are not “brand new,” unfortunately as the latest available information is from 2019-2020, but as the data below highlight, New Mexico’s per-student spending (even before the recent influx of money) exceeds each of its neighbors. Alas, one cannot say the same for results.

Furthermore, according to the NEA report New Mexico’s per-pupil spending is 24th-highest nationally.

Rio Grande Foundation Job Opportunity

Director of Communications/Marketing

This position is ideal for young conservative/libertarian minded professionals who are looking to break into the world of state level free market policy work.

Must haves include: familiarity with WordPress design and site maintenance and MailChimp, basic graphic design knowledge, solid writing skills, and overall strong communications skills;

Must be willing to learn New Mexico public policy and learn new skills working in office located in Downtown Albuquerque.

Pay and benefits commensurate with skills but salary would start at $50,000 including health and retirement.

Send cover letter and resume to Paul Gessing, President, Rio Grande Foundation: info@riograndefoundation.org

For someone who claims to wish to “uphold democracy,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham certainly doesn’t do much to actually uphold the “will of the Legislature” when given the opportunity.

Case in point: as the Albuquerque Journal reported, in the recent special session of the Legislature, the Gov. pushed to get $1 million appropriated for Rail Runner fare reductions. She was denied in this attempt by a Legislature that is overwhelmingly controlled by her own Democratic party.

But, again as the article above references, the Gov. pulled together $500,000 from Rio Metro and NM DOT to nonetheless reduce train fares by 75% for the time period from April 18 through July 31 in a desperate attempt to revive flagging ridership in the commuter train which we are told is currently 60% of pre-pandemic levels (representing steep drops from the early days of the train.

Read the headline of this post again. That isn’t a Rio Grande Foundation effort to skew what the Biden Administration is doing to keep gas prices higher than they need to be. In fact, we “stole” the headline from this National Public Radio story.

We’ve been (justifiably) critical of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for her inaction, even muteness on the issue of energy prices. So, it is hardly a shock that she and the Biden Administration took this step on the Friday before the Easter Holiday. The “step” being taken involves increasing the royalty rate for new oil and gas leases to 18.75% from 12.5%. That’s the equivalent of a 50% tax hike.

Furthermore, according to NPR, while the Biden Administration is complying with court orders to resume onshore oil and gas leasing, the “Leases for 225 square miles (580 square kilometers) of federal lands primarily in the West will be offered for sale in a notice to be posted on Monday, officials said. The parcels represent about 30% less land than officials had proposed for sale in November and 80% less than what was originally nominated by the industry.”

The Administration’s decision will directly impact New Mexico with the number of oil and gas leases reduced by 80% from a total of 26 to just 5.

Secretary Haaland took the time to speak agains the oil and gas industry saying, “For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries. Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans’ resources.”

We are pleased to announce our next in-person event, which will be co-sponsored by The Federalist Society. We will be hosting one of the nation’s top legal experts on limited government and emergency power.

Daniel Suhr serves as Managing Attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, where he spends every day on the front lines of the fight to preserve our rights and liberties. Daniel holds a B.A. and J.D. from Marquette University, and master’s degrees from Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Missouri-Columbia. When he’s not pursuing major constitutional cases in court, he can be found writing about them on op-ed pages like the Wall Street Journal, discussing them on Fox News, speaking about them at places like Yale Law School, or arguing about them with equally nerdy friends over beers.

Event details:

• Topic: Limiting Government in an Emergency: Vaccine Mandates, Lockdowns, and the Next ‘Crisis’
• Speaker: Daniel Suhr
• Date and Time: Thursday, May 5th, 2022, 11:30am-1:30pm
• Location: Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North, 5151 San Francisco Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109-4641

KOAT Channel 7 recently did an excellent story about the propensity of cities throughout New Mexico to make big payouts to citizens who have been denied access to basic public records. The Rio Grande Foundation has won multiple lawsuits including one against the City of Albuquerque but we are not alone. The City of Albuquerque’s taxpayers have paid out more than $330,000 over the Keller Administration’s repeated denial of public records.

The KOAT story includes comments from the Foundation for Open Government, local attorney James Gover, and the Rio Grande Foundation. You can find the full story here or by clicking the image below:

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).