Errors of Enchantment

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Kids Count Report: little to celebrate especially w/ COVID impact unaccounted for

06.22.2021

The Kids Count Report co-released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Voices for Children has at least partially been released (we had trouble accessing the full report). The Albuquerque Journal had a story and the most relevant chart (below). New Mexico has moved up slightly to 49th overall from 50th in the previous report. Of course, Gov. Lujan Grisham proclaimed this a “success.”

As we’ve stated in the past, the report itself is reasonably sound, but as with most such reports, but interpretations vary based on the political inclinations of those looking at the data. It is no surprise that the Gov. and Voices embraced even a tiny uptick. And, with the COVID 19 pandemic looming in next year’s data and New Mexico students suffering massive educational losses, it will be interesting to see what happens with the report itself and especially New Mexico’s results.

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RGF discusses hotel tax lien/lodgers tax w/ KOAT 7

06.22.2021

Recently, RGF’s president was walking downtown and noticed the Hyatt Hotel downtown was completely closed to the public. Physical entry to the property was impossible and his phone calls were not returned.

Ultimately, it came to light thanks to an Albuquerque Journal article that the hotel was closed due to a lack of convention business AND that the City of Albuquerque had filed tax liens against several properties for lack of payment of lodgers taxes. The Rio Grande Foundation has expressed concerns in the recent past about lodgers taxes and agrees that reform is needed, BUT if the business is collecting the tax from its customers, they should be remitted.

Check out the story here and by clicking the image below:

 

 

It’s hot, we’re in a drought, but IF CO2 is the issue the US can’t solve it alone

06.21.2021

It has been hot and mostly dry throughout New Mexico this June. After a pleasant and relatively cool (at least in Albuquerque) Memorial Day weekend, the heat has been on and the rain has been scarce. This is a longer-term (and more complex) issue for Elephant Butte Lake and agricultural users, but you can bet that environmentalists and many New Mexico policymakers will push for even faster government-driven efforts to address “global warming.”

But, as noted in several media articles including this one from the BBC, China’s CO2 emissions now exceed ALL other developed nations combined.

And, while the US has continued to reduce CO2 emissions, especially in the pandemic year of 2020, China continues to move in the opposite direction. Point being that the US (and certainly not New Mexico) can and should move to be more efficient (including the adoption of nuclear energy), but cannot reduce CO2 emissions without dramatic action by China.

Of course, most supposedly “green” politicians here in New Mexico would rather enact destructive economic policies here at home than push China to reduce CO2 emissions.

Downtown Albuquerque Hyatt currently closed

06.18.2021

We at the Rio Grande Foundation try to stay on top of the numerous economic changes and issues taking place around both the Albuquerque metro and the State. Recently, on a walk through downtown Albuquerque, the Foundation’s president noticed that the Hyatt Hotel downtown was closed. No bellhop out front, no one at the reservations desks, no lights on, and the doors are closed. Check here for yourself. 

We also called them and attempted to contact Heritage Hotels which apparently manages the property now.

With downtown Albuquerque struggling mightily STILL post- COVID and post-riots, the future of this hotel is of great interest.

UPDATE: Per the Albuquerque Journal, the Hyatt downtown is one of several hotels that has a lien against it from the City of Albuquerque. It has been shut down due to the lack of convention traffic in downtown Albuquerque.

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque Albuquerque, New Mexico, US - Reservations.com

Secretary Stewart’s delusional sense of “accomplishment” on COVID 19 in NM schools

06.18.2021

We have often disagreed with New Mexico’s “powers that be” regarding their handling of COVID, but this recent opinion piece by Education Secretary Ryan Stewart is particularly shocking.

The gist of the piece involves Stewart celebrating his Department’s “accomplishments” during the era of COVID 19. Whether it means “keeping people safe” or training staff in COVID-safe practices, Stewart’s article is basically one big pat on his own back.

Of course, New Mexico students lost more classroom time than students in all but 5 other states due to policies imposed by Gov. MLG and his Department. He doesn’t even mention educational outcomes or results, partially because the Administration has eliminated most testing.

Remember, according to the “progressive” New Mexico Voices for Children, New Mexico ranked 50th on education BEFORE the pandemic.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/n2Q4AWqv8sjpufqJpU6lOocc0Fi66Tb8trcKG3loPF07HSnwjR1_X1H1B3RpsYp3apLiwHO87EeWj0JCvLX7sHF_NjK9rWzkzqQ=s0

Tipping Point New Mexico episode 310: Gubernatorial Candidate Jay Block

06.18.2021

On this week’s interview, Paul sits down with Sandoval County Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Jay Block.

Paul and Jay have worked on a number of pro-freedom issues, notably local “right to work” ordinances that were ultimately adopted in 10 of New Mexico’s 33 counties (including Block’s home County of Sandoval which adopted the ordinance first). Paul queries Jay on a number of other issues relating to his priorities for New Mexico, its economy, and the track record of current Gov. Lujan Grisham.

Did a judge just unleash a new era of energy prosperity in New Mexico?

06.17.2021

This week a federal judge (much to the consternation of radical environmentalists) voided the Biden Administration’s moratorium on oil and gas permitting on federal lands. The news so far in 2021 for New Mexico and the oil and gas industry had been mixed, but this decision, if it holds, could make 2021 a watershed moment for New Mexico’s most important industry.

  • Prices had rebounded to above $70/barrel from below-zero in April of 2020 and with the economy expected to rebound from the artificial COVID shutdown, prices show no signs of coming down;
  • New Mexico’s oil production continued to grow (and revenues jumped by $350 million) despite a reduction in the number of drilling rigs active in the state (from 114 down to 71);
  • The Biden moratorium loomed as the major threat to the Industry, but that threat COULD be receding depending on the Administration’s interest in appealing AND whether Deb Haaland’s agency “slow-rolls” the permitting process on federal lands. This is of course the most notable immediate threat.

So, as long as Gov. Lujan Grisham continues her unstated policy of placating her environmental supporters through the Energy Transition Act and pushing for a “clean fuel standard” while not attacking the Industry directly, New Mexico’s oil and gas industry could be a growth industry both in terms of jobs AND in terms of tax revenues for the State for the foreseeable future.

Advantages and risks for oil and gas investments - Financial Money Tips

MLG’s poor COVID 19 performance

06.16.2021

Gov. Lujan Grisham claims that based on its relatively high vaccination rate, she is doing a good job of battling COVID 19.

The Rio Grande Foundation on the other hand has long held that Gov. Lujan Grisham has done a poor job of handling COVID 19.

In fact, we laid out an alternative approach to the Virus back in April of 2020 that was entirely ignored by the Administration. And, MLG continues to engage in absurd policies like forcing student-athletes to wear masks. New Mexico is the ONLY state to currently do that.

A new report from Emily Burns at The Smile Project places New Mexico 7th-worst overall. The data used are below and include death rates, unemployment, and lost schooling. There are other ways to rate overall COVID performance, but the chart below does a solid job.

By those standards, New Mexico’s Gov. is hardly doing a good job on COVID 19.

Rio Grande Foundation Files Complaint with New Mexico Attorney General

06.16.2021

The United States Federal Government mandates retention rules for private sector entities. This is prevalent in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Section 164.316(b)(1) HIPAA requires that organizations:

“(i) Maintain the policies and procedures implemented to comply with this subpart in written (which may be electronic) form; and (ii) if an action, activity or assessment is required by this subpart to be documented, maintain a written (which may be electronic) record of the action, activity, or assessment.”

Section 164.316(b)(2)(i) also says:

“Retain the documentation required by paragraph (b)(1) of this section for 6 years from the date of its creation or the date when it last was in effect, whichever is later.”

Even the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires retention of individual tax returns and related documents for 3 years:

“Keep records for 3 years if situations (4), (5), and (6) below do not apply to you.”

If the government has the authority to mandate records retention requirements for private entities, we the people ought to invoke our authority to require reasonable records retention periods from our government.

Is 24 hours reasonable? The Rio Grande Foundation does not agree.

As such, the Foundation has filed a complaint with New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas after recent discovery of the executive retention policy of Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration. In January of 2021, the executive branch issued a directive mandating automatic records deletion of all instant messages sent through the state’s messaging platform after 24 hours.

We find this to be an egregious assault on openness and transparency in government and implore the Attorney General to take immediate action.

You can find a copy of the original complaint here.

Scenes near Albuquerque’s Coronado Park

06.16.2021

Albuquerque’s homeless situation continues to spiral out of control while some “leaders” want to institutionalize “homeless” encampments around the City in yet another effort to make homelessness an even greater problem. Mayor Keller has also proven himself to be woefully unprepared to address the problem.

Driving from I-40 to Downtown is one of the “best” ways to see what is happening for yourself although almost every intersection in town has people asking for money. These photos were taken on the afternoon of June 15, 2021.

Catnap under the I-40 bridge:

Would YOU take your family to Coronado Park? 

Close-up of part of Coronado Park

Tipping Point episode 309: Media Mistakes, Oil & Gas Moratorium, Censorship, Space Race and more

06.16.2021

On this week’s conversation, Paul and Wally discuss several important news items that the media got wrong in advance of the 2020 election.

Sen. Joe Manchin opposes ending the filibuster and the passage of the awful HR 1 through Congress.

24 New Mexico Democrats support Biden’s moratorium on federal oil and gas permitting. At the same time, New Mexico’s revenues are up $350 million thanks largely to oil and gas and the price being over $70 a barrel. The industry continues to thrive despite the number of drilling rigs being down. Biden is also opposed to oil and gas in Alaska and the Keystone XL pipeline is dead. Paul and Wally discuss the issues w/ oil and gas.

RGF was recently censored by Youtube.

Richard Branson wants to launch out of Spaceport America as soon as Independence Day weekend to beat Jeff Bezos to space.

Is inflation back? Free buses in Albuquerque and Enchant Energy will experience delays as it moves to implement carbon capture technology to keep San Juan Generating Station open.

Finally, Paul was recently in Idaho to meet with occasional Tipping Point guest Grover Norquist.

The Biden Administration wants your kids

06.15.2021

The following (below the image) is the text of an email received today from President Biden’s US Department of Education. Regardless of your position on the vaccines themselves, pressuring children as young as 12 years old to get a vaccine for an illness that really doesn’t impact healthy children is absurd.

Our children should NOT be forced to wear masks RIGHT NOW as they play sports in 100 degree heat. They shouldn’t be masked when they return to school this fall. Furthermore, the creation of a COVID19 Student Corps is an insidious effort to push an unnecessary vaccine on our children.

                                         Us Dept of Ed Logo

As we move toward reopening our schools in the fall, we need all hands on deck to ensure students 12 years old and older across the country are vaccinated before they go back to school in the fall. Our best path out of the COVID-19 pandemic is for every American to get a COVID-19 vaccination as soon as it’s available to them. The Biden-Harris Administration is excited to announce the launch of COVID19 Student Corps, a program within COVID19 Community Corps specifically focused on students.

As a member of Student Corps, you’ll get resources to help you build vaccine confidence in your community, including:

  • Biweekly calls to learn best practices and hear from other students how they are talking to their friends, families, and other community members about getting the vaccine
  • Fact sheets on vaccine safety and hints for planning and attending community events
  • Social media content to share with your followers
  • Regular email updates with the latest vaccine news and resources to share

MLG wants to “get in” your gas tank (and make you pay for it)

06.15.2021

In her ongoing effort to placate radical environmentalists while not directly attacking New Mexico’s oil and gas industry, Gov. Lujan Grisham announced yesterday that she would be putting the “Clean Fuel Standard” legislation on the “call” for the 30-day session that kicks off in January of 2022.

RGF’s Paul Gessing was quoted in the Santa Fe New Mexican as saying that, of course this mandate will increase costs to consumers because “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The Administration would like New Mexicans to think that somehow passing a new mandate to use less carbon-intensive fuel will be an economic boon to the State.

In reality, according to the State of Oregon’s own analysis, the “clean fuel standard” in that state cost approximately 4 cents per gallon. Of course, that analysis is from the State AND the program is not fully-implemented (which could increase costs). And, one of the prime “replacements” for gasoline is likely to be ethanol, the environmental and technological track record of which is spotty at best. 

The MLG COVID response “defense” that isn’t

06.14.2021

At the Rio Grande Foundation we LOVE it when we appear in media outlets thanks to writings of others. It means that we’ve hit a nerve and that people are paying attention. Unfortunately, papers don’t always give us an opportunity to respond, so we respond HERE.

The latest is a piece by “democracy activist” John House and it is in the Santa Fe New Mexican. The author calls it “A defense of the Gov’s pandemic actions,” but it really is no such thing. The author mostly wishes to discount the content of a deposition by Health Secretary Tracie Collins that we published online, but he doesn’t actually make any salient points. Instead he makes the red-herring argument that Sen. Cliff Pirtle and RGF believe that absent the Gov.’s lockdown policies, the economy would be “just fine.”

In reality, there would have been impacts from the Virus alone, but with locked-down New Mexico and other “blue” states having the highest unemployment rates and more open “red” states having the lowest, he clearly glosses over the impact of the Gov.’s policies. Just to be clear, New Mexico now has the 13th-highest death rate from COVID, so MLG’s lockdown policies haven’t exactly succeeded.

Way back in April of 2020, the Rio Grande Foundation outlined an alternative approach to fighting COVID 19 in New Mexico. We called it “Fairly Open.” It involved being fair with businesses and allowing them to innovate. It meant being open and transparent about the data being used and working to explain her decisions to the people of New Mexico. If House REALLY believes MLG did a good job on COVID he didn’t do a very good job of defending her.

Is inflation back? The trend (and the big spend) are not our friend

06.11.2021

Americans have not suffered from really high inflation rates for a generation. Notably, there is widespread agreement among economists across the political spectrum that inflation harms the poor disproportionately.

According to the following chart from the New York Times, inflation hit 5% in May. The annual rate hasn’t been 5% since 1990. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but there is no doubt that the kind of spending we’ve seen from the Biden Administration is largely to blame and unsustainable.

Current U.S. Inflation Rate, May 2021 | Finance Reference

308 Jeffrey Smith of New Mexico Copper Company discusses the importance and challenges of mining in NM

06.11.2021

On this week’s conversation, Paul sits down with Jeffrey Smith of New Mexico Copper Company. After over 300 episodes of the show, this is the first time Paul has had a chance to interview someone from the non-oil-and-gas mining industry.

Jeff and Paul discuss the copper industry, the proposed Copper Flat mine that his company is working to get permitted, environmental issues in mining, and the particular importance of mining in Biden’s push for electric vehicles and “renewable energy.”

“Free” buses another futile attempt to push unpopular transit in Albuquerque

06.11.2021

Government is really good at using copious quantities of taxpayer dollars to produce undesirable “products” at a high cost and having those products in turn rejected by the supposed “customers” they are meant to serve.

The City of Albuquerque has chosen to spend $3 million (above and beyond massive existing subsidies) to completely eliminate bus fares on the City bus system.

Albuquerque’s buses are deeply unpopular and have always been so, but ridership truly plummeted during the pandemic. Of course, despite massive government spending, transit ridership had been declining nationwide for years. The pandemic caused ridership to plummet. 

The question is not whether “free” bus service will goose ridership (it won’t). Rather, the questions is whether transit will ever recover from new “virtual” and hybrid work patterns (and the emptying of Americans from urban centers).

The concept was concisely summarized by President Reagan in the quote below many years ago.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan

RGF podcast censored by Youtube

06.10.2021

During a recent Tipping Point New Mexico podcast (still available in audio format and on Facebook) the hosts discussed the usual list of political news and events impacting New Mexicans. Among the topics discuss were mask requirements imposed upon student athletes, Gov. Lujan Grisham’s emails (and contrasting their deletion with the recent “dump” of Dr. Fauci’s emails), and we also discussed the unfortunate withdrawal of professional golfer Jon Rahm due to a positive COVID test.

Which of these (or other) topics caused Youtube to pull our video down? Hard to say. See the notice below. What is definitely of concern is the censorship practices of our big tech companies. That’s why we at RGF have been a proud member of the Free Speech Alliance which is organized and led by the Media Research Center.

The Free Speech Alliance

 

New Mexico’s “progressive” legislators pen bizarre and conflicted letter to Biden on energy setting themselves in conflict with Gov. MLG, party leaders

06.08.2021

New Mexico’s most far-left “progressives” on June 8 sent an “interesting” letter to President Biden in support of his Administration’s anti-energy policies. The letter largely disregards the profoundly negative impacts Biden’s permit moratorium is having on New Mexico in terms of lost jobs and revenues (impacts publicly acknowledged by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham).

Notably, these elected Democrats are acting counter to their OWN STATE as well as THEIR OWN Gov. and legislative leaders. Also the letter linked above is illogical .

The letter states the legislators’ support for the Biden Administration’s moratorium on oil and gas leases and calls for a “transition” away from oil and gas. So, naturally in the next paragraph it argues for raising taxes on oil and gas through a royalty increase. All of this is of course for the supposed benefit of “the children” who they say are receiving inadequate revenues from the very oil and gas they support Biden by “keeping it in the ground.”

Notably, more Democrats DID not sign the letter (24 signed, but 46 of them DID not), so support for the Biden Administration’s moratorium remains a MINORITY position even among New Mexico’s increasingly-progressive Democrats. Shots fired.

Tipping Point 307: CD 1 Election Results Analysis, NM All Turquoise, MLG Announces for Reelection, Student Athletes and Masks

06.08.2021

On this week’s podcasts discussion, Wally and Paul talk about Mark Moores getting clobbered 63% to 33% in the Congressional District 1 race; What went wrong? What does it mean? What does it mean for redistricting?

Paul gives “props” to Mayor Tim Keller for vetoing Albuquerque’s gas tax;

On COVID 19, all New Mexico counties are now in turquoise.

An Albuquerque Journal sports reporter had an important article over the weekend on Gov. Lujan Grisham’s ongoing policy of demanding athletes wear masks in New Mexico.

In continuing the sports theme, golfer Jon Rahm was forced to withdraw from the Memorial golf tournament over the weekend due to a positive COVID test and despite having no symptoms. Rahm was leading by a robust 6 strokes.

Paul provides a brief update on the ongoing CYFD story; Thankfully Fauci didn’t delete emails like MLG has been.

With half of all US states (all of them GOP-led) rejecting “$300 supplemental” unemployment benefits, the Federal Reserve indicates the policy is likely to get people back to work.

The La Luz trail race is forced to cease. This makes radical environmentalists happy.

Craziness ensues at two local campaign events. Mayoral candidate Manny Gonzales’ event was disrupted by a drone outfitted with a sex toy followed by a physical attack. Gov. MLG (at her campaign launch) suffered taunts and protests. She then called her opponents lizard people & Q’Anon.

UPDATE: The Youtube video of the following podcast was removed by Youtube. We are unsure WHAT precipitated this action, but we believe it MAY have been the result of our discussion of Dr. Fauci’s changing views on masks during the pandemic OR it could be something else. Thus, the audio is below:

Do not tread on us

06.07.2021

On Thursday June 3rd, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham held her reelection announcement at the Albuquerque Museum. She was met by protesters fed up with her extreme agenda.

Acknowledging the presence of the protestors she said, “I just have to say I’m sorry that we picked the same location that the QAnon lizard people meeting was at.”

In response, the Rio Grande Foundation has the following statement for the governor: “Do not tread on us.”

Masking of young people, the final big COVID battle?

06.07.2021

James Yodice the sports reporter from the Albuquerque Journal has done all New Mexicans a favor with his recent article on the ongoing State mandate that young people, especially student athletes, must wear masks during competition.

Ironically, while Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails from early in the pandemic question the very effectiveness of masks (while Fauci has changed his position, the scientific evidence on masks remains mixed at best). When asked for comment by Yodice, the Lujan Grisham Administration’s spokesperson fell back on vaccination rates (as they have done repeatedly with state reopening overall).

“In the Department of Health’s view, not enough kids are vaccinated yet,” said spokesman Tripp Stelnicki. “We’re certainly making progress. But we’re not at the point where they feel comfortable removing that requirement.”

Stelnicki  went on to say that “The DOH and the governor’s office are working on a plan to tie vaccinations, vaccination rates among teens and schools or districts to a (change) that would remove the mask requirement before the season ends.”

Of course, this completely ignores individual choice on the matter, the fact that young people are not really susceptible to the Virus, the lack of outdoor spread of the Virus, and the potential negatives associated with wearing a mask during a strenuous workout.

Of course, while summer has just begun and most State-sponsored sports are nearing conclusion, this battle is going to arise again both in terms of classroom masking during the school day as well as in athletics which are right around the corner this fall.

Thankfully, Anthony Fauci didn’t delete his emails like Gov. Lujan Grisham

06.06.2021

This article first appeared in The Center Square on June 4th, 2021.

Anthony Fauci’s emails have been released, and they tell an interesting tale about the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. One particular email stood out to me from Fauci to Sylvia Burwell discussing masks.

Within the body of the email, Fauci asserts that the use of masks in a public setting is generally to prevent infected individuals from spreading a virus. More specifically, he writes that the “typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” This email was sent on February 5, 2020.

If the drug-store masks are ineffective, why were they forced on the general population for over a year? Did masks help contain the spread of COVID-19 at all? What else do we not know?

But I’m not here to argue about the efficacy of masks and Fauci’s handling of the pandemic. I’m here to emphasize the importance of why we are able to have this discussion today: open government and transparency.

Without access to these documents, the country might not have ever known to ask these questions. This is significant as we can analyze the events in early 2020 in a new light. Most importantly, we can hold individuals accountable if they recommended policies that were known not to be effective.

Here in New Mexico, we have a different ongoing dilemma, one that is also rooted in transparency. Thanks to the initial efforts of Searchlight New Mexico, the additional whistleblowers that have come forward since the initial Searchlight report, and some well-timed public records requests submitted by yours truly, we know that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and her administration are still actively depriving the people of New Mexico access to public documents through permanent and automatic deletion.

In January of this year, a directive from the governor’s office was implemented by the New Mexico Department of Information Technology: delete all messages after 24 hours. This directive came before the governor’s press secretary acknowledged the use of a creative new term: “transitory.”

The deleted messages were broadly considered “transitory” in nature, a definition that has already been debunked in the context of transparency and is not a qualified exception under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), New Mexico’s government transparency law.

“Transitory” messages have been unofficially described as “employee banter, routine check-ins between workers and other insignificant exchanges.” The rub is that they’re all public documents and subject to inspection requests, regardless of whatever “transitory” qualification they try to apply.

Fauci could have used the same term to describe his seemingly innocuous email to Burwell about masks. What if Fauci had deleted that email because it was “just transitory”?

All this and the responses from Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office that there are “no records responsive to your request” underlines a seriously dangerous trend and contemptuous attitude within the Governor’s administration. The widespread and systematic “paper shredder” policy is nothing short of criminal.

New Mexico’s Attorney General agrees: “public bodies acquiring information should keep in mind that the records they keep generally are subject to public inspection.”

The governor’s press secretary Nora Sackett said that the governor takes transparency and open government “very seriously.” If that’s true, then Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and all New Mexico state agencies should shed their cloaks of secrecy and immediately stop the destruction of public documents.

This is a clear assault on the people’s ability to keep a watchful eye on their elected government and should be alarming to everyone, especially those who care for our democracy.

And remember, democracy dies in darkness.

Federal study: states eliminating $300 unemployment boost can expect lower unemployment

06.04.2021

Since Republican Governor’s across the nation started to refuse the Biden (and Congressional Democrats’) over-generous unemployment benefits, many in the media have claimed that the efforts of GOP governors to get people back to work by ending that disincentive were merely “playing politics.”

You can see those states which (of course) do not include New Mexico below. Interestingly, I found the following nugget from the usually hyper-partisan Catherine Rampell at the Washington Post. To be fair, she actually quotes from a recent working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

They estimated that in “each month in early 2021, about seven out of 28 unemployed individuals receive job offers that they would normally accept, but one of the seven decides to decline the offer due to the availability of the extra $300 per week in [unemployment] payments.”

So,  if New Mexico were to reject the “Biden stimulus” and 1 of these 7 workers were to take a job they wouldn’t have EVERY MONTH, New Mexico would put a pretty good dent in its 3rd-highest-in-the-nation 8.2% unemployment rate.