While the 2022 legislative session was noteworthy for the lack of BIG, BAD left-wing agenda items falling by the wayside and for actual tax cuts being enacted.

However, a relatively successful session still had its share of warts. One of those warts came in the form of SB 134, the so-called “affordable housing trust fund.” Senate Bill 134 dedicates 2.5% of the annual severance tax bond capacity for the New Mexico Housing Trust Fund.

Affordable housing is a serious issue in New Mexico. In the past year, rent has increased 13.7 percent nationwide and 18.5 percent in Albuquerque. But, as I note in this article from The Center Square, the problems with affordable housing will not be solved by pumping tax dollars into housing. In fact, economics 101 would dictate that more money in housing would increase prices.

In fact, the fundamental current problem is housing is the broader inflation issue due to overspending and money printing in Washington. But, as noted in the article, there are numerous tools for state and local government in New Mexico and around the nation to bring down housing prices.

It’s a very SHORT list of taxes we “like” and there are ways for New Mexico to get more bang for its infrastructure buck, but considering the State’s ongoing budgetary boom (thanks largely to oil and gas production and prices), there are worse things to do in a special session than suspending New Mexico’s 17 cent/gallon gas tax (and diesel fuel tax).

On an annual basis suspending the tax would result in $240 million in savings for New Mexico motorists (p.77). Any lost revenues could easily be made up for using surplus revenues.

As Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland manages the Federal government’s onshore subsurface mineral estate – about 700 million acres (30% of the United States) held by the Bureau of Land Management. According to their website: For fiscal year (FY) 2018, sales of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids produced from the Federal and Tribal mineral estate accounted for approximately 8 percent of all oil, 9 percent of all natural gas, and 6 percent of all natural gas liquids produced in the United States.

That number could be even higher if energy production were encouraged rather than being discouraged. But Deb Haaland made her political way by opposing traditional energy and that is an inconvenient fact for the Biden Administration right now with skyrocketing energy prices.

Here are a few ways in which Secretary Haaland is nowhere to be found:

• Her calendar hasn’t been updated in nearly a year (since March of 2021);
• 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 Sec. Haaland on the issue of increasing energy production on federal lands;
• When she DOES focus on energy issues as she did in a visit to Ohio, the focus was on infrastructure — cleaning up orphan wells, legacy pollution from extractive industries and moving toward renewables.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is at least publicly calling for ramping up production. Previously the White House was “quietly” calling for more production. But again, the head of the federal mineral estate where the feds have control over leasing and permitting is silent? Do they not want her talking about it? If not, why? Maybe because she put so much political capital into calling for a fracking ban and the Green New Deal?

Hot on the heels of Rio Grande Foundation’s analysis of the Albuquerque Public Schools’ budget, the Albuquerque Journal ran this article in which the district bemoaned the loss of students and Superintendent Elder discussed the possibility of eliminating some 300 positions.

No government agency wants to have to reduce staffing, but wasn’t it WAY back in October of 2021, the District was saying that it had too few teachers and staff? With fewer students to educate, it is incumbent on the District to reduce staffing or at least “rightsize.”

Additionally (and not mentioned in the article) is the fact that a plummeting student population (with little sign of a long-term trend in the opposite direction) SHOULD allow the District to shed some outdated buildings and other infrastructure. APS has long been a building/infrastructure-heavy district. It is time to make those decisions and free up necessary resources as well.

As seen below, on a per-pupil basis APS is spending more than ever per student. With the Legislature’s actions this year that number will go even higher in the next budget. It is time for APS to do better.

New Mexico’s US Senator Martin Heinrich’s Twitter feed is a strange place. Heinrich has carved out a bit of a niche, such as it is, by criticizing natural gas use in the home and pushing for “electrification” despite the already-high cost of electrical heat relative to gas.

Were electricity to become dominant in home heating AND vehicle “fuel” as Heinrich wishes AND for that electricity to be generated from wind and solar, you can bet that the price tag would be even higher. Nonetheless, here’s Heinrich making a bizarre point about cooking on a natural gas stove being equivalent to having a babysitter smoke in your house.

Unemployment rates for US states in January of 2022 just came out and, again, New Mexico’s unemployment rate remains at 5.9%, the nation’s highest rate.

Data for New Mexico’s more economically-robust neighbors can be found below:

According to news reports, Gov. Lujan Grisham vetoed a “pork” bill that would have included $50 million in legislative projects. The bill was passed in the 2022 session and according to news reports the move upset legislators on both sides of the aisle with Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, a Republican from Belen, Rep. Patty Lundstrom, a Gallup Democrat who chairs the influential House Appropriations and Finance Committee, and Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo all speaking out in opposition to the Gov.’s move.

As seen below in a meme put out by the Republican Party, these local priorities run the gamut. And, as we’ve critiqued this spending in the past, there is really no process for ensuring that these tax dollars are allocated in any rational way for the betterment of our State.

So, are we “marching in the streets” in support of Lujan Grisham’s veto? Not really. Simply put, the overall budget grows State spending by more than $1 billion in a single year (way too much).

We’re also NOT joining some prominent members of the GOP (or Democratic Party) for a special or even an “extraordinary” session as candidates would have to put their campaigns on hold and there is simply too much mischief that could happen on a variety of issues in such a session, especially when one Party, the Democrats, controls all the levers of power.

So, the Gov. has made her vetoes upsetting legislators of both parties in an election year. The capital outlay process remains broken. Another session would be a mistake.

According to the most recent report from Wallethub (March 10, 2022), after two years of COVID 19 New Mexico’s unemployment rate has suffered the largest increase of any state in the nation. You can see a graphic from the report below, but also according to the report, New Mexico’s unemployment claims have jumped by an astounding 234.71 percent since the Pandemic began.

While businesses continue to post “help wanted” signs throughout New Mexico, something is very wrong with the Lujan Grisham economy. What’s really surprising is that this sad unemployment picture references an INCREASE over New Mexico’s typically-high unemployment rate.

Sen. Martin Heinrich’s Twitter feed you might believe that natural gas is the dirtiest fuel known to humankind, not one of the cleanest.

Heinrich (and AG Hector Balderas) both oppose natural gas for home heating and cooking on environmental grounds. Heinrich even attempts to claim that electricity is a cheaper means of heating your home.

But, the US Department of Energy just released a new report stating that natural gas IS indeed MUCH cheaper than electricity for heating one’s home. As seen below, natural gas at $12.09 per million Btu is more than three times cheaper than electricity at $41.79 per million Btu.

This is obvious to anyone who has lived with both types of heat, but it is good to see Heinrich’s misinformation refuted by none other than the federal Department of Energy (yet again).

Albuquerque City Council eliminated the plastic bag ban on a 6-3 vote. That’s veto-proof. Will the majority hold and override a mayoral veto?

Biden hasn’t held an onshore lease sale and is the only President in at least two decades not to have done so in a given year. Approvals for new liquefied natural gas terminals and expansions are also sitting at the Department of Energy and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the numerous ways in which the Biden Administration is hindering oil and gas.

Biden is considering getting oil from Venezuela?????

Defenders of the Biden Administration’s policies fall short.

APS spent $18,594 in FY 2020. By 2022 that number is $22,877.

New Mexico has the highest unemployment rate of ANY state in the nation as of December 2021.

Rail Runner ridership fell off a cliff during COVID. What’s the latest?

The Rio Grande Foundation does its best to track the budget for large government agencies. One of the very largest in New Mexico is Albuquerque Public Schools.

We have always taken the simple approach when calculating the District’s budget: divide dollars spent by the number of students. As expected, particularly given the abandonment of APS by families with school-aged children, the District is receiving more and more money to educate fewer and fewer students.

In FY 2020, the District spent $1,475,755,646 to educate 79,366 students. That comes to $18,594.31 per student.

In FY 2022, the District spent $1,658,589,579 to educate just 72,500 students. That comes to a mind-blowing $22,877.10.

By comparison, tuition at Sandia Prep, one of the top private schools in the State cost $23,410. St. Pius X, the City of Albuquerque’s largest Catholic High School cost “just” $12,900 per student.

With more money than ever flowing into New Mexico’s government schools (and more families than ever fleeing them), it is very likely that APS’ per-pupil costs will skyrocket for years to come.

According to the latest (December 2021 data) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, New Mexico has the highest unemployment rate among US states (5.9%). While  that rate continues to drop even here in New Mexico from pandemic highs, the State lags dramatically behind its neighbors (despite rising oil revenues and production).

See the chart below for details:

Late on Monday night in a City Council meeting that lasted late into the night, a 6-3 majority of Albuquerque’s City Council voted to end the City’s plastic bag ban. The ban will next go to Mayor Keller who will likely veto it and then send it back to City Council. Assuming that these six councilors hold together for a veto override, the ban will be repealed.

Despite many impassioned pleas by supporters of the ban (many from children seemingly pumped full of fear over climate change), this is the right move by Albuquerque’s City Council. Albuquerque could be a lot cleaner, but that involves eliminating “homeless” encampments and street side beggars as well as just urging people to do a better job of throwing their trash away or preventing it from flying away in our numerous windstorms.

Recycling bags is not likely a real solution, but using the bags for purposes from pet waste to trash can liners is and is actually superior to recycling. As the chart below from Our World in Data shows, the global plastic problem is NOT a result of mismanaged plastics here in the US or in North America.

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express (like many transit systems) had been losing ridership for many years before the Pandemic, but the rise of COVID 19 in March of 2020 drastically reduced the number of people who take the train.

And, while (as the chart below shows) the number of riders rose slightly in 2021 relative to the nadir of 2020, the fact is that many transportation analysts believe that “mass” transit has been fundamentally and even permanently impacted in a very negative way by the Pandemic.

After all, the train was primarily used by government workers to commute up to Santa Fe. If a large fraction of them no longer have to make the commute, they get the benefit of 3 or more hours back that they’d otherwise spend commuting AND they have a more flexible schedule.

WILL transit ever come back? Who knows? What we do know is that New Mexico continues to shovel tens of millions of dollars into a  train system with a vanishingly small number of riders.

On this week’s podcast conversation Paul and Wally begin by discussing the PRC acting quickly to keep the lights on. Does it solve New Mexico’s electrical grid issues?

According to Wally and Paul the United States can best help Ukraine by “drill baby drill,” but Sen. Martin Heinrich says we should double down on “green” policies.

Now, oil prices have soared to over $100 a barrel. Paul and Wally discuss this at length and offer some specific solutions that President Biden should consider, but likely won’t.

NM spent big on ads related to scaring New Mexicans about COVID 19. We have the receipts including exactly how much was spent. 

A prominent New Mexico political columnist took Florida’s Ron DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem to task for their approach to COVID, but now it is clear that “America’s Laziest Governors” had the right approach.  Good news as NM’s COVID rate has continued to drop since MLG ended New Mexico’s mask mandate.

Rep. Georgene Louis decides not to run again after DUI arrest.

Biden picks a liberal for SCOTUS, no surprise there as Paul and Wally discuss a few of the specifics. Masks are now optional for Biden’s SOTU address.

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A recent post on this site address some ways in which, if he wanted to, President Biden COULD put additional economic pressure on Russia. People like New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich seem to believe that doubling down on unreliable energy sources is the solution to limiting Russia’s power.

Germany is constantly lauded for its “green” energy, and it has spent big to get there, but supposedly “cheap” renewables have resulted in Germany having the highest  electricity prices among major nations as seen below according to Statista. As seen below, electricity in Germany costs about 2.5 times what it does in the US.

And, when Heinrich and others make the argument that Germany’s efforts to “electrify” their grid will be enough to abandon fossil fuels, it is worth remembering that gasoline is not easily replaced in a car. Again, according to Statista, electric vehicles make up just over 1 percent of German vehicles.

One positive side-effect of the Russian invasion is that Germany is reconsidering its abandonment of fossil fuels. New Mexico would be well-served to do the same with regard to the Energy Transition Act.

The Rio Grande Foundation uses its “Freedom Index” vote tracking site to  hold New Mexico legislators accountable for their stances on individual freedom and personal liberty. We have rated all bills that impact individual freedom that received floor votes for the 2022 session and thus the current Index results are “final.”

Every bill receiving a score is rated on a scale from -8 through +8 depending on its overall impact on YOUR personal freedom. In the 2022 session the most impactful vote (-8) was on SB 14, the Clean Fuel Standard. A full analysis of that bill can be found here.

The BEST bill voted on this session was HB 163, that is the bill which includes several tax cuts (RGF analysis of that bill here). It received a +4 rating in the Index.

Rep. Stefani Lord (R) who represents parts of the East Mountains of Albuquerque scored a 45 which was the highest rating of the session.

Rep. Randall Pettigrew (R) who represents Lea County scored a 43 which was good for the 2nd-highest rating of the session.

Sen. Craig Brandt (R) who represents Rio Rancho scored 33 which was the highest rating for any senator (the Senate and House vote on different bills and the House typically takes more votes and thus has higher and lower scores).

Sen. Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez (D) who represents parts of Albuquerque scored -66 which was the lowest rating for any member of the Legislature.

Preface: I do not have cable television. According to global market research and public opinion specialist Ipsos, only 1 in 5 Millennials (19%) use cable TV, compared to nearly half of all Baby Boomers (49%). I fit right in with the rest of my generation. Because of this, I was oblivious to the New Mexico Department of Health’s reckless commercial spending until I received an anonymous tip.

Last week, a Rio Grande Foundation supporter expressed concerns that the NMDOH was running commercials on local television stations encouraging New Mexicans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jane Doe” explicitly pointed to the repetitive nature of the commercials: sometimes they ran twice or more during the same commercial break.

After some digging, this version of the advertisement on NMDOH’s official YouTube channel was found. Confirming with Jane that this ad was indeed the same ad she had seen, an official request to inspect public records was submitted to DOH: how much money was spent on the production of the commercial and how much was spent on buying airtime?

“I am seeking to inspect each and every receipt for payments made by the New Mexico Department of Health for placement of these advertisements on any television network between January 1, 2021 and February 22, 2022.”

During the 14 month period from January 2021 to February 2022, NMDOH spent $20,074,331.01 on production and distribution of the commercial. 100% of these payments were made to Real Time Solutions, a self-described web based business solutions provider in Albuquerque.

13 separate invoices ranging from $319,473.48 to $3,372,899.06 were paid by NMDOH. All of the original invoices have been made available for you to inspect yourself.

A revised request was submitted this morning to include all spending between January 2020 and February 2022.

According to Investopedia, Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60% of Russia’s exports and provide more than 30% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). That’s a lot.

How can the US best push back against what amounts to a petro-state? Radical environmentalists seem to think that pushing EVEN harder toward “green” energy is realistic and will loosen Russia’s grip. Of course, countries like Germany that have gone down that path suffer from some of the highest electricity prices on the planet and even if 100% of electricity generation in Europe was “renewable” or even nuclear, McKibben fails to realize that oil is primarily used in transportation, not electricity generation. 

An alternative would be to bring down the price of Russia’s leading source of revenue to put pressure on their economy. This idea has the additional benefit of having worked in the past.

Here are some specific ideas that would have two salutary benefits: 1) Boosting the US economy/Relationship w/ Europe and 2) reducing global energy prices.

1. Move aggressively to open the Keystone XL pipeline;
2. Reopen federal lands to drilling and oil/natural gas exploration, including ANWR. Revoke Biden’s order banning oil/gas leases in the Outer Continental Shelf;
3. Aggressively work to eliminate unnecessary regulations on the US energy industry producers and refiners;
4. Work to bring new energy sources to Europe in an effort to replace Russian sources.

Of course, all of this has the ADDITIONAL benefit of benefiting New Mexico’s economy. As New Mexico Congresswoman Yvette Herrell recently wrote, the Biden Administration has dramatically slowed leasing on federal lands (an issue of special interest to New Mexico) in the wake of a judge’s ruling tossing out the moratorium on such leases.

HT: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

The following appeared in several newspapers in the wake of New Mexico’s 2022 legislative session including the Carlsbad Current-Argus on February 23, 2022.

The 2022 30-day legislative session could have been much worse. It is no secret that we at the Rio Grande Foundation have disagreed with most of Michelle Lujan Grisham’s major efforts as Governor. She surprised many of us in her State of the State speech when she proposed elimination of the Social Security tax in New Mexico.

After three years of ruling as a hard left “progressive,” the Governor’s change of tune heading into the 2022 session was notable. Is her move solely due to her impending reelection? We’ll never know, but it is a welcome shift.

The most notable good legislation that passed this session was the tax cuts (HB 163). Unfortunately, the Social Security tax was not completely eliminated, but it will no longer apply to a vast majority of taxpayers. As a bonus, military pensioners received a break on their pensions for at least the next 5 years.

The State gross receipts tax rate will be cut under the tax reform package (barring a drop in state revenues) and a small child tax credit was added. Finally, the Legislature acknowledged that gross receipts tax pyramiding on business-to-business service inputs is a problem, but they only addressed the issue for manufacturers.

These tax cuts, if fully enacted, will reduce tax revenues by $400 million or so annually, are dwarfed by the massive increase in government spending. Spending rose by $1 billion this year alone.

All of this is thanks (mostly) to the booming oil and gas industry which shows no sign of slowing down, but money being printed up in Washington also played a role. Of course, while the Gov. will tout the raises for government employees in general and teachers specifically, with the current rate of inflation, those raises won’t be as helpful to families’ bottom lines.

Numerous bad bills were considered during the session that (thankfully) died. Most notable among these was SB 14 the “Clean Fuel Standard.” While rising gas prices have contributed to the State’s budget surplus, for average New Mexicans high gas prices are just another sign of inflation. Given those high prices it was a shock that Lujan Grisham made it her mission to pass this legislation, which would have increased gas prices at the pump by 35 cents/gallon.

The bill became even more confusing when, in the waning days of the session, an amendment was added to keep the San Juan Generating Station coal fired plant in Farmington open through next summer. PNM which owns the plant is nervous that it won’t have enough electricity to keep the lights on when the plant closes in June to comply with Lujan Grisham’s 2019 “green new deal” legislation.

Thankfully, with only hours to go in the session, SB 14 died on a tie vote in the House.

Another bill that, thankfully, died was the so-called “election reform” bill. Starting out, this bill was SB 8 and it had straight party voting, a “permanent” absentee voter list, allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote, and, most outrageously, a provision allowing mailed ballots to be collected as late as the Friday after the Election Day.

Through a series of amendments and changes the election reform bill became SB 144. It was still problematic due to the unnecessary loosening of voting rules, but it died on the Senate floor as time expired.

Plenty of bills never received a floor vote. The Democrat-dominated Legislature (again) failed to restore a seat at the table for itself in emergencies. On the positive side of things, Las Cruces Sen. Bill Soules’ absurd SB 204 which would have appropriated $1 billion as part of a down payment on a high-speed train from the border with Mexico to Colorado, went nowhere as well.

This session could have been a lot worse. But, a moderately-successful 30-day session with November’s elections staring the Gov. in the face does not an ideological shift make.

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

On this week’s podcast discussion Paul sits down with Rep. Stefani Lord to discuss the recently-completed New Mexico legislative session.

Stefani, a Republican, represents the East Mountains outside Albuquerque. She was the top performer in the Foundation’s Freedom Index vote tracking site during the 2022 session. Paul and Stefani discuss why she ran for the Legislature in the first place, some of the big news stories (not just legislation) of the session, and then address the most important legislative successes and failures of the recently-completed session.

If you want to understand what just happened in Santa Fe and how it impacts you, don’t miss this conversation!

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With the failure of legislation that would keep the San Juan Generating Station open in order to prevent rolling blackouts next summer, the Public Regulation Commission acted quickly to make sure PNM knows it is allowed to keep the San Juan Generating Station open through the heat of next summer. PNM says it will now close the plant on September 30, 2022.

That is good news for utility customers concerned about electricity outages next summer and for Gov. Lujan Grisham’s reelection chances, but it doesn’t solve New Mexico’s long-term electricity problems as the Energy Transition Act is implemented.

As the Albuquerque Journal noted in a recent editorial (and we have as well), the electricity reliability issue does NOT go away assuming we get through the coming summer.

So, we SHOULD be okay for 2022 and that is good news. At least MLG won’t be dealing with blackouts as she runs for reelection!

In the dynamic world of COVID, many assertions, especially those made by members of the media and public health officials have been proven VERY wrong. Milan Simonich writes a political column for the Santa Fe New Mexican. He is NOT a reporter, rather he has axes to grind and is not shy about grinding them.

Here is a column Simonich wrote back in April of 2020. In it, he praises Michelle Lujan Grisham and rips Florida’s Ron DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, both of whom, far from being “lazy” actually worked VERY hard to keep their states open despite tremendous pressure to bow to the media narrative and that of Dr. Fauci and lock down and/or mask kids in schools etc.

As you can see below that in World O Meters COVID data downloaded on February 22nd, 2022 (a few days after MLG dropped New Mexico’s mask mandate), Florida and South Dakota have outperformed New Mexico in terms of COVID deaths as a percent of the population (4th column from the right led by Georgia at 3,287).

“Laziness” and “respect for individual freedom” may be easily mistaken by those who believe government has all the answers when in reality, the “laziest” politician usually just follows the media narrative or the politically-expedient approach.

At long last, New Mexico’s mask mandate has finally been lifted. Most, but not all schools and school districts have also ended their mandates although UNM and CNM have not. Here are some things that STILL need to be done to restore freedom in New Mexico. The unions have also changed their position on masks while ALSO acknowledging that masking kids had a negative impact on learning.

While she will tout the amount of money she and the Legislature will spend on education, no amount of money can save MLG’s awful education track record.

Another Democrat lawmaker behaved badly recently. Rep. Georgene Louis was arrested for DUI and also facing charges of speeding and failing to show her vehicle registration and proof of insurance, according to jail records. House Speaker Egolf announced after the session that he is leaving the Legislature. His chief of staff will run for his seat.

Paul offers his take on the most important bills that passed or did not pass in the recently-completed session. SB 14 Clean Fuel Standard, SB 8 (SB 144), HB 6 (Net-Zero), HB 163 (tax cuts), and HB 132 (interest rate limit). Track how your legislators performed on the Rio Grande Foundation’s Freedom Index.  How did your legislators vote?

Finally, Paul and Wally discuss the numerous bills and developments regarding utility reliability in New Mexico. What happened during the session and what’s next? Will we have electricity in July and August?