Earlier this week while most of us were sleeping, the House passed HB 132, a cap on loan rates. As I’ve written before it wasn’t just another bill getting passed, it was a “no holds barred” push by Speaker Egolf and Representative Herrara for a legislative win. Whether you like the bill or not, the process that has been used to pass this bill makes New Mexico look like a banana republic.

During the debate the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep Herrera (D-41), conceded that lenders cannot make a profit – or even breakeven – on small dollar unsecured loans under the terms of her bill.

We couldn’t agree more.

HB 132 Matters Because Every Citizen of New Mexico Deserves Access to Some Form of Credit

Unexpected expenses and financial challenges are a part of life. When an unplanned medical bill or home repair pops up, small dollar loans can be a lifesaver. For many families, these loans provide a critical lifeline. 

New Mexico Legislators Must Protect Access to Credit for New Mexico Workers and Families

If passed it would make it harder – sometimes even impossible – for low-income New Mexicans to access the credit options they need.

Consumer credit rate caps will drive responsible loan providers out of the market, and will deny tens of thousands of New Mexicans with less than perfect credit access to the only form of credit they may have.

It’s essential that all New Mexicans have access to resources like credit to survive and thrive.

Contact Your Senator and Tell Them Vote NO on HB 132 to Preserve Access to Credit and Consumer Choice

Call the Roundhouse switchboard at 505-986-4600 and ask for your Senator’s office.

The New Mexico Legislature is a mess. There are too many reasons to fully flesh out in a short blog post, but while governors come and go the Legislature has remained under one-party control for decades.

Even prior to the pandemic the system the ability for an average person to testify on a given bill was limited. Constant scheduling changes, lengthy hearings and floor sessions, and committee chairs that accept or reject public comment on a whim are among the most serious problems.

Now, during the pandemic, we have Zoom. Last session was exclusively online. This session is mostly Zoom depending on the Committee.  On the good side, Zoom DOES open the process up somewhat. With large numbers of people living a long distance from Santa Fe and unable to give up a day or two of work to attend committee meetings, Zoom is a godsend (and we hope it will continue to be used in the future even when the Legislature returns to totally in-person meetings.

But, as occurred in a few committees yesterday, the process remains deeply problematic and, dare we say “undemocratic.” For starters, RGF has been following HB 132 which places an arbitrary cap on loan interest rates. It was heard Wednesday evening in Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee with Jerry Ortiz y Pino chairing. RGF’s president was “in the Zoom room” throughout and “raised his Zoom hand” to present public comment only to be completely ignored by the Chair. This was a disappointing end to approximately 6 hours of waiting for other bills to be hear and other comments on HB 132.

Another bill of concern to many New Mexicans (and RGF) is SB 8 which dramatically-rewrites New Mexico’s election laws (opening them up to all kinds of issues). In Senate Judiciary Committee, Chair Joseph Cervantes, apparently in an effort to ram the bill through more quickly, simply dispensed altogether with public comment. 

On top of all of that, the Legislature’s website has been extremely slow to be updated which makes finding information about bills as they move through the session especially hard.

The Legislature is New Mexico’s leading obstacle to economic growth. It is no surprise that its own processes are poorly managed and lacking in openness. Some combination of internal process reform AND competitive shift is needed.

This picture of the Capitol in Santa Fe was taken when the public was totally locked out of the building during the “virtual” 2021 session.

UPDATE:

The latest list of statewide mask mandates is here. As it stands now, New Mexico is one of 8 states with a universal indoor mask mandate.

A total of 13 states (according to this site) mandate students wear masks in schools.

EVERY state that has a mask mandate of either type would be considered a “deep blue” state with a Democrat Governor. But, things are changing quickly and suddenly Democrat governors are deciding to eliminate such mandates. Here’s the latest from the New York Times.

• • • Massachusetts will end its statewide school mask mandate on Feb. 28;

    • Connecticut will drop its mandate by no later than Feb. 28.

    • New Jersey will drop its mandate for students and school employees in the second week of March.

    • Delaware will end mandates by March 31.

    • Oregon will lift restrictions for schools on March 31.

    • Nevada announced a total end to its mask mandate (including in schools) on Thursday.

   

• Stupidly (as children are less susceptible to COVID), California and New York  are dropping their indoor mask mandates for the general population, but will keep forced-masking in schools in place. Illinois has just announced that it will ALSO be eliminating its indoor mask mandate, but like CA and NY are keeping the school mandate in place as well for the time being.

  What about New Mexico? MLG JUST extended the universal indoor mask mandate which also includes schools. So far there has been no movement on the issue in the Land of Enchantment.  

  

PNM’s newfound concerns about blackouts and brownouts coming this summer has spurred the local print media outlets to report on the high likelihood that, upon closure of the San Juan Generating Station Coal-fired power plant, New Mexicans could be sweltering in the heat and dark come July and August (this summer) upon closure of the coal plant. You can read recent articles here and here.

This is a VERY serious issue that could have deadly consequences for New Mexicans and could inflict serious harm on our economy. Unfortunately, you’ll have to search long and hard through these articles to find the ACTUAL cause of PNM’s problem: the 2019 Energy Transition Act. The bill forces PNM and others to transition to so-called “clean” electricity.

In practice that means shutting down coal and even nuclear and replacing it with some combination of batteries and wind/solar. The articles DO offer details on the challenges PNM is having in finding those energy sources, but they abjectly fail to pin the blame on Gov. Lujan Grisham and the supporters of this terrible legislation.

And the Rio Grande Foundation has been THE MOST VOCAL opponent of the law when it passed in 2019. Here’s a podcast from March 2019. We rated the ETA (SB 489) as one of the very worst bills of the 2019 session. We testified on the bill in a key Senate committee during the session. And, we highlighted the issue at public meetings shortly after the 2019 session.

Sadly, the New Mexico media seem to be working on MLG’s behalf to deflect blame from her awful policies in an election year.

Is PNM looking for last-minute legislation to keep San Juan Generating Station open?

Senator Ben Ray Lujan’s stroke (at age 49, no less) creates issues for Washington Democrats.

MLG extends New Mexico’s health order to March 4, by which time we’ll have been in a COVID “emergency” for 2 years (technically March 11).

Unfortunately, bills limiting the Governor’s powers in an emergency have gone nowhere.

Several “blue” states have taken major steps towards ending mask mandates for adults and children. In addition to Delaware, New Jersey, and Connecticut, Oregon and California have changed course.

A John Hopkins. working paper says “COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by a variety of governments worldwide had “little to no effect” on COVID-19 mortality. But, they “imposed enormous economic and social costs.”

Georgia Governor candidate Stacey Abrams disregards Georgia mask mandate as masked school kids look on.

Here are some of the worst bills moving in Santa Fe. Unfortunately only “progressive” bills are seeing the light of day with the Gov.’s move to the center having failed (so far) to move the needle.

Egolf mangles process in search of a legislative win.

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HB 132 is one of the worst bills in the New Mexico Legislature this session. It sets the Legislature up with the power to place arbitrary caps on interest rates. The Rio Grande Foundation has previously written about it here.

As noted HERE, Speaker Egolf engaged in numerous questionable tactics in order to get the bill introduced and through the House Judiciary Committee.

On the merits, well-off legislators and others MAY not find a high-interest-rate loan attractive, but unlike many working class and poor people they have collateral available.

This legislation is being heard on Saturday, January 28, 2022, in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 9.

Every Citizen of New Mexico Deserves Access to Some Form of Credit

Unexpected expenses and financial challenges are a part of life. When an unplanned medical bill or home repair pops up, small dollar loans can be a lifesaver. For many families, these loans provide a critical lifeline. 

New Mexico Legislators Must Protect Access to Credit for New Mexico Workers and Families

The COVID-19 pandemic (and the Governor’s response to it) hit New Mexico hard. Thousands of businesses closed forever, and many of our fellow citizens are struggling to pay bills.

Now, some state politicians in Sante Fe could make things worse by placing an arbitrary cap on interest rates on small dollar loans.  If passed it would make it harder – sometimes even impossible – for low-income New Mexicans to access the credit options they need.

Consumer credit rate caps will drive responsible loan providers out of the market, and will deny tens of thousands of New Mexicans with less than perfect credit access to the only form of credit they may have.

As we work to recover from the pandemic, it’s essential that all New Mexicans have access to resources like credit to survive and thrive.

Normally RGF doesn’t dabble in rumors, but THIS is an exception. We have written extensively about how Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2019 Energy Transition Act will likely cause outages this summer when the San Juan Generating Station coal plant closes.

We are now hearing that PNM is offering to keep that station open for a few months which would avoid rolling blackouts THIS summer AND avoid them in the runup to the election for Gov. Thus, MLG would likely be inclined towards support.

The GOP (which doesn’t have much say-so in Santa Fe these days) would understandably like to keep the coal-fired plant open a bit longer. We understand they would like 4 more years.

Democrats run things in Santa Fe, but the “progressive”/radical environmental wing of the Party may not care if we are sitting in the dark (and hot) this July or August. This could give the GOP some influence. Four months is nothing but an election-year ploy to push the problems beyond this year, but a few years’ delay could help PNM cope with what is shaping up to be a serious problem keeping the lights on.

STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS!

On this week’s podcast Paul interviews Fred Nathan. Fred is the founder of Think New Mexico which describes itself as a “results oriented think tank.”

Rio Grande Foundation and Think New Mexico are both working on Social Security tax elimination this session. Fred’s organization is working on several other issues that the Rio Grande Foundation is generally in alignment with, but we disagree on the issue of state regulations on loan interest rates. If you care about what is happening in the Legislature, be sure to check this conversation out.

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During several hours of testimony from both sides on SB 8 (full write-up of the latest version here) numerous supporters of the legislation cited “Jim Crow” and voter suppression and numerous other reasons for the legislation which, among other provisions, would allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote.

Now, setting aside the fact that record numbers of New Mexicans turned out to vote in 2020, we at the Rio Grande Foundation fail to see the further loosening of New Mexico’s already-loose election laws as a solution to what seems like a nonexistent problem.

But, “democracy” is more than just casting votes. It is also about accountability for our political leaders. So, it is frankly bizarre that after two full sessions and a few special sessions, the Legislature STILL has not seriously-considered limiting the power of one person, our Gov., in a so-called emergency. The current situation is NOT democratic or even befitting of a democratic-republic.

Unfortunately, when it comes to voting and allowing 16-17 year olds to vote in local elections, age is an arbitrary number. But, why not a well-informed 9 year old or a 12 year old? Should we require some kind of test of the basic workings of our government in order to vote? The truth is that most ill-informed 16 and 17 year olds turn into ill-informed 18 year olds, but at least at 18 you are legally responsible for yourself and you can get a full-time job to support yourself.

There are numerous problems with the push for expanded voting and the fact that SB 8 went through three iterations before its first committee illustrates that point.

On this week’s podcast Paul interviews Fred Nathan. Fred is the founder of Think New Mexico which describes itself as a “results oriented think tank.”

Rio Grande Foundation and Think New Mexico are both working on Social Security tax elimination this session. Fred’s organization is working on several other issues that the Rio Grande Foundation is generally in alignment with, but we disagree on the issue of state regulations on loan interest rates. If you care about what is happening in the Legislature, be sure to check this conversation out.

UPDATE:

In a sign that even the Democrats are struggling to come to agreement on their “voting rights” power grab, SB 8 has been revised yet again.

As originally described in the Albuquerque Journal the bill was awful.

As introduced SB 8 was stripped of some of the worst provisions, but a NEW committee substitute has its own serious problems. This substitute will be heard Friday morning in Senate Rules Committee.

The first major provision of concern is expanding voting to 16 and 17 year olds.

Here are some of the major points of the bill  in bold.

• Automatic voter registration at MVD;

• Allowing 3rd party groups to register voters through a Secretary of State-provided portal;

• Tells Human Services Department register welfare recipients to vote;

• Creates “permanent” absentee voter list;

• Removal of statement regarding perjury from the vote-by-mail envelopes.

When you spend enough time in New Mexico politics, it is easy to be jaded by what is shocking to folks who ALSO deal in politics, but across the country.

So, when the House Judiciary Committee passed HB 132, a cap on loan rates, on Wednesday, Feb. 2nd, it wasn’t just another bill getting passed, it was a “no holds barred” push by Speaker Egolf. Whether you like the bill or not, the process makes New Mexico look like a banana republic.

RGF testified on the bill and watched the process (as described by the ABQ Journal’s Dan Boyd here), but (absent a message from the Governor), Egolf attached an appropriation to the bill. That appropriation was then removed from the bill, but not before it began moving through the process. One might expect the Gov. to veto the legislation on the principle of executive power alone, but we will have to wait on that.

As if that wasn’t shady enough, knowing that Judiciary was a tough committee, the Speaker added a new member to the Committee (Democrat Rep. Deborah Armstrong), just in time for the hearing in order to tilt the balance in favor of Democrats.

It is perhaps not surprising that a member of Egolf’s own party (Democrat Rep. Miguel Garcia) had some strong words for Egolf recently.

There are often studies that come out from national researches that address critical issues the Rio Grande Foundation is working on.

This fall, New Mexico voters will have an opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment You can read the full study here which is based on the findings of a randomized controlled experiment that looked at nearly 3,000 children in Tennessee. Reason Magazine discusses the article here.

On the contrary, a recently published study of a state-run pre-K program in Tennessee found that not only did the program not produce any long-term educational gains, by sixth grade, the children who attended the state’s pre-K program were actually performing worse on both educational attainment and behavioral metrics relative to their peers. State-run pre-K appears to have entirely negative effects for children enrolled.

A second, unrelated new working paper from Johns Hopkins University’s “Studies in Applied Economics” found that:

COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by a variety of governments worldwide had “little to no effect” on COVID-19 mortality. The study, conducted by three professors from around the world, also found that lockdowns “imposed enormous economic and social costs” and are “ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

Both of these studies are no surprise to the Rio Grande Foundation which has been critical of the case for government-funded pre-K AND has been critical of Michelle Lujan Grisham’s failed COVID policies which had a heavy emphasis on lockdowns.

The media is saying it has been a tough start for MLG this session (hydrogen hub, GRT bill, Social Security tax).  

NM’s current public health order expires on February 4. We know it will be renewed which will take us to the 2 year anniversary of COVID.  Gov. Newsom and numerous Hollywood stars attended the LA Rams game mask free. The Super Bowl which is ALSO in Los Angeles is a masked event. Canadian truckers are having a massive convoy to protest vaccine mandates.

One bill restraining the Gov. ‘s emergency powers stalled in committee, but a new bill, SB 196 limiting those powers in an emergency has been introduced in the Senate. HB 75, the public banking act was tabled, SB 8 voting bill is bad and a top priority of MLG and the Legislature. Here’s what it would do.

PNM is now saying it expects power outages this summer.  

A new study attacks natural gas appliances in homes, but we have an article debunking it. 

Another new study finds pre-K programs can actually have a negative impact on children. 

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In the wake of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address, Republican House Minority Leader State Rep. Jim Townsend, said that during the speech he thought the governor “almost became a Republican.” He’s not wrong.

After three full years and legislative sessions (not to mention multiple special sessions and the constant invocation of her “emergency” powers) of governing as a hard left “progressive,” the Gov. seems to be tacking to the center in advance of her reelection bid this fall. This may be both good policy as well as good politics.

Specifically, in her State of the State address Lujan Grisham announced that she wants New Mexico to stop taxing Social Security. New Mexico is one of just 13 states in the nation to do this and bi-partisan efforts have been made in recent years to eliminate or vastly reduce the tax.

Her support for repeal is welcome, but many “progressives” in her own party seem skeptical. As of this writing one Social Security tax repeal failed on a tie vote in the House Labor Committee. Only one Democrat and three Republicans endorsed the idea. So, Social Security tax repeal is by no means a “done deal.”

This is true even though the state has plenty of money, as evidenced by the Gov.’s ambitious budget which contains a 13.5% spending increase over last year. The $80 million or so in “lost” revenue from ending the tax is a drop in the bucket when compared with the flood of new revenues. This is a flood that seems likely to continue with high oil prices and record production in the Permian Basin. So, New Mexico has plenty of money to cut taxes. In fact, the Gov. and Legislature should be looking for ways to use this flood of new money to both cut and reform taxes in ways that help diversify the economy.

While the decision to eliminate the Social Security tax is welcome, this is not the first time the Gov. has had a large surplus (or budget increase) available. In her first year in office (2019) the budget grew by 11 percent while increasing several taxes including taxes on car sales and hospitals. Bipartisan Social Security tax elimination bills have repeatedly been proposed since then. It certainly seems like the Gov.’s decision has a heavy dose of election year politics. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is worth noting.

To her credit, the Gov. seems inclined to eliminate the Social Security tax without raising other taxes as one bill introduced this session would do. With the kind of money available, it is hard to justify raising taxes to make up for the small loss of revenue. Worse, a “revenue neutral” bill, introduced by Sen. Bill Tallman, would increase regressive tobacco taxes to make up for “lost” revenue.

Eliminating Social Security taxation should be a straight tax cut for the benefit of New Mexico seniors and those who might consider moving to New Mexico but see our State as “unwelcoming” for retirees due to our tax policies.

This legislative session is indeed an opportunity for the Legislature to “be bold” by enacting transformative policy changes. Reforming the broken gross receipts tax to eliminate taxation of services remains the very best way to do that. However, eliminating an unnecessary tax that makes New Mexico unattractive as a retirement destination is a worthwhile goal and we are hoping for the best and stand ready to support proponents of Social Security tax repeal this session.

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

Perhaps you saw a silly new study claiming your gas stove is leaking methane like a sieve and causing health problems in YOUR home. During 2021 the Rio Grande Foundation debated with New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich (in both national and state publications) the merits and considerable demerits of his plan to “electrify” homes in the USA by eliminating natural gas appliances.

Unfortunately, like so much that passes for “science” these days, reality could not be further from the truth. Energy In Depth just published a debunking of the study here.

• • The researchers told Energy & Environment News that these supposedly massive gas leaks could be happening in homes without residents knowing it because methane doesn’t have an odor. Except it does, because by law it is required to before it’s sent to consumers. Utilities add mercaptan to give it that rotten eggs smell, so people can get out of the house if they smell it. If these “experts” don’t know that natural gas in homes has a distinct odor, how can we trust what they’re saying about allegedly leaking natural gas in homes?
  • Their health claim is based on comparing a single reading over a few minutes to a 1-hour outdoor air quality standard (NAAQS). The NAAQS is an average, so doing that is inappropriate. A study released last year on this same topic called out a separate research team for doing that and making the same kind of dubious health claims against gas;
  • To get their results, the researchers encased the kitchen area in plastic. In other words, there was no ventilation whatsoever. No kitchen anywhere is set up like this! They had to purposely envelop the gases in order to suggest there are problems;
  • One of the study’s authors told NPR that to fix the leaks you should go electric, but if you can’t then you should “Pull the stove out from the wall and tighten the connectors to the stove and to the nearby pipes.” This is insane, and once again reflects a lack of knowledge of what they actually studied. Only a licensed professional should ever do this, unless you have a death wish.
    

Gov. Lujan Grisham has proposed a 13.5 percent increase this year. While ALL states have received massive bailouts in the form of printed money from Washington, New Mexico’s financial windfall is largely generated by the oil and (to a lesser extent) gas industry.

On this week’s interview, Paul sits down with Albuquerque Public Schools board member Peggy Muller Aragon. Peggy has been a lone conservative voice on the APS school board, but recently gained some support from a group of more conservative/parent-focused board members. Paul and Peggy talk mask mandates and the latest round of restrictions being imposed on students through the Public Education Department. They discuss what the Board can do about it and what Paul WANTS the Board to do which is to reject ALL forms of masks and “social distancing” immediately.

The two go on to discuss the Sheryl Williams Stapleton situation, new social studies standards, and the use of National Guard (and the Gov. herself) as substitute teachers at this time of need. You don’t want to miss this important conversation.

The Senate Tax, Business, and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing today on SB 14, the Clean Fuel Standard. If adopted, this legislation will result in significant increases in the price of gasoline (starting off at 35 cents per gallon). The hearing which is expected to start sometime around 1:30pm can be watched on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84895112616

But, NOW is the time to contact your legislators and tell them you oppose this awful bill which would dramatically increase gas prices at a time of already-high prices. Here is an RGF write-up on the issue.

Here are the members of the committee with email addresses (we have removed member names in order to make cut and paste easier):

UPDATE: The committee passed this bill. Stay tuned for more.

benny.shendo@nmlegis.gov

carrie.hamblen@nmlegis.gov

gay.kernan@nmlegis.gov

senatorbrandt@gmail.com

griggsholdings2@gmail.com

martin.hickey@nmlegis.gov

leo.jaramillo@nmlegis.gov

jas4nm@gmail.com

bill.tallman@nmlegis.gov

peter.wirth@nmlegis.gov

Normally we wouldn’t make an entire post about a single tweet, but when Gov. Lujan Grisham claims, as she did in her latest budget, that “This administration has created more jobs during the pandemic than the prior administration created in eight years – roughly 40,000 in the last year alone,” and you simply can’t find the same data, this kind of thing is interesting.

Notably, Susana Martinez was New Mexico’s Gov. from January of 2011 until December of 2018. For some reason Witmer arbitrarily omits the first two years of Martinez’s term. She is even more blatant in manipulating Lujan Grisham’s as she begins in April 2020 at the peak of the COVID panic. See the chart below her Tweet to see the FULL jobs picture.

For a few years the Rio Grande Foundation had hosted its web presence using the popular “GoDaddy” web hosting service. But in September of 2021 GoDaddy announced that it was going to be forcing the group Texas Right to Life off of its servers for the sin of collecting “tips” under Texas’ new abortion law.

The Rio Grande Foundation as an organization does not work on abortion issues and does not take a position on the Texas abortion law, but we DO have serious concerns about corporations and their newfound desire to “cancel” organizations and people with whom they may disagree. In fact, Rio Grande Foundation was recently censored by the video hosting platform Youtube. Thus, we have created a new channel on Rumble and will be putting our videos there as well.

The problems of “cancel culture” and censorship are by no means limited to “GoDaddy” (or Youtube) but we will push back wherever possible.  The Rio Grande Foundation often takes controversial stances on important public policy issues that could cause us to suddenly lose our web hosting service for some heretofore unforeseen reason.

Thankfully, we won’t have to worry about that in the future. As of today we have found another web hosting service and have removed our websites from GoDaddy.

On this week’s podcast interview Paul sits down with Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis. They discuss the big changes that happened last election and what it means for Albuquerque. They talk about some of the major issues facing New Mexico’s largest city including crime, homelessness, and the need to lower taxes and make the City a better place to do business.

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Despite there being A LOT of bad bills in the 2022 session even with only 30 days to consider them, there ARE some good bills. Here are some of the BEST bills introduced so far. We’ll also “handicap” the likelihood that each bill will pass:

HB 40/HJR 3: Reps. Greg Nibert (R), Daymon Ely (D), Randall T. Pettigrew (R), Stefani Lord (R), and Rachel A. Black (R). This bill/amendment would place limits on the Governor (whoever that may be) and give the Legislature a “seat at the table” in future emergencies. Unfortunately, while similar bills were introduced in the 2021 session which lasted 60 days and a recent special session, this worthwhile bill which has bipartisan sponsorship has a LOW chance of passage.

HB 48/HB 49/SB 108 These bills introduced by Reps. Gail Armstrong (R), Cathrynn N. Brown (R), Randall T. Pettigrew (R) , Candie G. Sweetser (D), Rebecca Dow (R), and Sen. Padilla (D) would end taxation of Social Security under New Mexico’s personal income tax. This issue has been around for a few years, but Gov. Lujan Grisham has said that she supports eliminating the tax. We don’t know EXACTLY what she means (like if she’ll raise other taxes to do it), but these bills DO NOT offset the tax with new taxes. MODERATE chance of passage.

HB 76/SB 85  Reps. Phelps Anderson (I),  Harry Garcia (D)
T. Ryan Lane (R), Joy Garratt (D), Jane E. Powdrell-Culbert (R), and Sen. Harold Pope (D) would give a $30,000 exemption for military pensions. This bill is a worthy follow-up to the Social Security discussion, especially with New Mexico’s large number of ex-military. But, it is unlikely to happen this year. 

HB 91: Reps. Rebecca Dow (R),  Luis M. Terrazas (R),  James G. Townsend (R),  Candy Spence Ezzell, (R), and  Randall T. Pettigrew would prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory in New Mexico schools. It is unlikely to pass this year.

HJR 11: Reps. James G. Townsend (R), Ryan Lane (R), Larry Scott (R), Rod Montoya, (R), and Stefani Lord (R) would amend New Mexico’s constitution to specifically allow school funding to flow to families to choose the education option that makes sense for them which may include private schools or home school. Zero Chance of Passage until the unions no longer control New Mexico’s Legislature and Gov.

SB 5: Sen. Bobby Gonzalez (D), reduces the Gross Receipts Tax rate imposed by the State of New Mexico from 5.125% to 4.875 percent. This WAS a top priority of the Gov. prior to the session, but when she asked the Legislature to eliminate the Social Security tax in her State of the State address she seemed to shift emphasis away from reducing GRT rates. We still believe this has a High Chance of Passage.