With Congress on the verge of passing yet another massive (and this one completely unnecessary) “stimulus,” Americans are being lulled into the belief that America is simply a few more printed dollars away from economic prosperity. Obviously, sooner or later the bill will come due for all of this debt.

Ironically, recently the Americans (unbeknown to most of them) actually “celebrated” 40 years of successful deregulation of America’s freight railroad system via the Staggers Rail Act. The Act, passed in 1980 and signed by President Jimmy Carter, removed the federal government from setting freight rates.

Deregulation worked and latest are now 43 percent lower today than 1981. The Rio Grande Foundation recently signed a letter in support of the Staggers Act and acknowledging its success.

Some day Americans and their elected officials will again realize that printing money is not the path to prosperity. Rather, it is the combination of innovation, hard work, and sound public policy that we achieve greater prosperity.

Two Senate committees will consider bad legislation this afternoon. The Senate Finance Committee will hear SB 11, the Clean Fuel Standard Act, in a meeting starting at 1 P.M. or half an hour after the end of the Senate floor session. The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee will hear HB 20, a paid sick leave mandate, in a meeting also starting half an hour after the floor session.

You can find the meeting webcasts here.

The Rio Grande Foundation submitted testimony in opposition to SB 11 and HB 20.

On this week’s conversation, Paul sits down with New Mexico Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Rob Black and economic consultant Ted Abernathy who runs the firm Economic Leadership.

Ted recently worked with the Chamber to develop various economic policy recommendations for New Mexico based on numerous conversations with business leaders. The information has been shared with elected officials and economic development experts throughout the State. You can find out details on those recommendations here.

The Rio Grande Foundation is not and never has been “anti-mask,” but we support states that have chosen to move towards reopening. While President Biden called states like Texas which have recently reopened and dropped its mask requirement, “neanderthals” and Gov. Lujan Grisham stated that New Mexico would not be dropping its mask mandate anytime soon, the reality is that like so many aspects of COVID 19, it is hard to connect government containment policies with success.

Here is a map of states that do NOT require masks. According to WorldoMeters’ COVID tracking site, most of them have performed BETTER than New Mexico (15th-worst in the nation) on the virus (deaths per population).

Of the non-mandate states only Arizona, South Dakota, and North Dakota have higher death rates than New Mexico.

Every other state (a total of 12 of them) that lacks a mask mandate has a lower COVID death rate than does New Mexico.

Whether you wear a mask in public or not, it should be a personal decision, not a governmental one.

RGF president Paul Gessing recently sat down to discuss the Biden Administration’s moratorium on oil and gas with Shelton Dodson of CBS 4 in El Paso.

Unfortunately the link cannot be embedded here, but here is a screen shot with a link to the story and video.

In 2019 the New Mexico Legislature passed a big tax hike despite the existence of a large budget surplus. Since the 2019 session and despite the COVID 19 pandemic, New Mexico government spending has continued grow.

And, as we push beyond the pandemic and the 2021 legislative session, New Mexico’s budget is again growing as are revenues. The House-passed budget would, if adopted, increase annual spending by nearly 5% while giving pay raises to government employees.

Now, HB 291 has passed the House largely along partisan lines although a few Democrats joined Republicans in opposition. The bill is ANOTHER income tax increase which would take the top rate from 5.9% (where it was after HB 6 increased it from 4.9%) to 6.5%.

Perhaps most troubling is the bill would allow the assessments used in property tax calculations to climb up to a mind-blowing 10% a year – rather than the usual 3% limit – for homes that aren’t the owner’s principal residence, beginning in 2024. It is questionable whether this kind of tax discrimination is even legal (especially since 2nd homes use FEWER services than homes that are occupied full-time), but this Democrat-dominated Legislature doesn’t seem to care much for details.

The bill now moves to the Senate where we will keep a close eye on it.

After starting off on the right foot by passing HB 177, legislative committees have more work to do this afternoon. The Senate Finance Committee has plenty on its plate, with the excellent SB 234 and the bad SB 130 on the schedule. Rolled over from a previous meeting, SB 234 would allow home schooled students access to the legislature’s lottery scholarship. SB 130 requires the state government’s vehicle fleet to be 75% electric by 2030. Although it has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, keep an eye on this committee for the terrible SB 11, the Clean Fuel Standards Act. The Senate Finance Committee will meet beginning at 1 this afternoon or half an hour after the floor session.

The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee will hear the misguided HB 352, a moratorium on contractor-operated prisons. This bill would devastate several local economies and ignore the good that these systems have done for New Mexico communities. This meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 today.

The Rio Grande Foundation has submitted testimony in favor of SB 234 and in opposition to SB 130, SB 11, and HB 352.

In a meeting scheduled for 8:30 this morning, the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee will hear HB 177, the Homemade Food Act. This bill would bring New Mexico in line with 49 other states in allowing homemade food to be sold outside of farmers markets and roadside stands. It would also make the permitting procedure far less burdensome and expensive. There are no food safety concerns with this bill, and it would allow a long-prohibited economic lifeline that has become especially important in the current economic downturn.

You can watch the committee webcast here, or join the Zoom meeting for public comment here.

The Rio Grande Foundation submitted testimony in favor of HB 177.

In a meeting scheduled for 1:30 or after the Senate floor session this afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee will hear a great bill from Senator Pirtle. SB 234 would allow home school students to access the legislative scholarship lottery on par with students in public and private schools.

You can watch the meeting webcast here.

The Rio Grande Foundation submitted testimony in favor of SB 234.

In a meeting beginning tomorrow morning at 8 A.M., the House State Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee will hear one good idea and another bad bill. HJR 6, the Termination of Emergency Declarations resolution, would limit the amount of time the governor could keep the state under an emergency declaration without legislative approval. This great piece of bipartisan legislation has already passed its first committee. The same committee will also consider HB 154, the Prescription Drug Affordability Act. Unfortunately, the bill proposes to create a new bureaucracy to review and cap drug prices, which is

You can find the webcast here, or join the Zoom meeting for public comment here.

The Rio Grande Foundation has submitted testimony in favor of HJR 6, and in opposition to HB 154.

The latest Wallethub report (out today) ranks states based on Coronavirus restrictions. New Mexico remains relatively shuttered (44th most open). Worse than that, as can be seen below, New Mexico is in the unenviable position of having MANY COVID restrictions AND a high death rate. 

Furthermore (according to the bottom chart), New Mexico also has a high unemployment rate which, not surprisingly accompanies those economic restrictions.

The Gov. shifts the goalposts on COVID-19 again. Most of this is good news as NM reopens further including Hinkle, Cliffs, and (presumably ABQ Isotopes) can open right now.  Bars and clubs: can reopen indoors in the newly-created Turquoise level. Sports fields, concert venues, movie theaters, entertainment centers: can reopen indoor activities at 25% capacity in green level. New Mexico is the only state in which movie theaters cannot open.

Gov. continues mask mandate. No end in sight for Gov. emergency orders.

Gov. says she’d veto any restrictions on her authority. HJR 6 is the path forward.

Doña Ana, Eddy, McKinley, and Otero county are all in the Red Level. DA slipped back from Yellow to Red.

A new website is tracking school reopening throughout the US by State. You can access their information here. 

Paul has a brief conversation with Steve Dodson about little league and youth sports and the fact that they can’t compete still.

UNM fires ANOTHER basketball coach, Paul Weir. The athletic department is running a $12.4 million and $13.8 million deficit and is now going to pay for yet another coaching buyout ($500,000). UNM will pay $100,000 of the $275,000 Weir still owes New Mexico State University for breaking his contract there four years ago to take the Lobos job in 2017.

HB 4 Civil Rights Act passed the House (Egolf conflict of interest);

HB 20 Mandatory Paid Sick Leave passed House;

HB 12 Marijuana Legalization passed House;

House passes budget (HB2) passes the House with pay hikes for gov’t employees (also missed opportunity to hold teachers accountable).

Keep on top of things at ErrorsofEnchantment.com AND Freedom Index.

Virgin Galactic delays test flight to May to take care of technical issues, according to SpaceNews. The delay will push the company’s first space tourist flights to 2022. That means the facility which opened on October 18, 2011 will not have tourist flights in its first decade after opening:

Deb Haaland heard in the US Senate. Manchin’s support means she will be confirmed;

Footage of event w/ Kevin Hassett National Review Institute event is available online and will appear in podcast feed. Paul’s article at National Review:

Whatever happened to the RailRunner?

New Mexico children have long suffered from high rates of food insecurity. According to a recent report from the group, Feeding America, in 2018, 23.8% of the State’s children  were considered “food insecure.”

As the chart below shows, in 2020 as the impact of COVID 19 and the lockdowns imposed by Gov. Lujan Grisham have dragged on, New Mexico’s rate will have risen to 30.8%. That is a nearly 30% increase in food insecurity under Gov. Lujan Grisham who took over in 2019.

Certainly, COVID 19 has had negative impacts on food insecurity issues across the nation, but Lujan Grisham’s continued aggressive lockdown policies have not helped here in New Mexico where large numbers of children already face serious food insecurity challenges.

This afternoon, several legislative committees will hear bills harmful to our state’s economy. In a meeting starting at 1:30, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee will hear HB 38, a paid sick leave mandate; HB 122, an added tax on top of health insurance premiums; and HB 236, a proposal to create a state-run bank. Also meeting at 1:30, the Senate Tax, Business, and Transportation Committee will hear SB 89, which would create a new top income tax bracket. Meeting at 2, the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, will consider HB 297. This bill, the Workforce and Economic Prosperity Act, proposes to create a new bureaucracy to direct and manage the transition to a “clean energy economy.”

You can find the committee hearing webcasts here. If you would like to give public comment on any of the House bills, the Zoom meeting for the House Appropriations and Finance Committee is here, and the meeting for the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee is here.

The Rio Grande Foundation submitted testimony in opposition to HB 38, HB 122, HB 236, HB 297, and SB 89.

Tomorrow afternoon, the House Labor, Veterans’, and Military Affairs Committee will hear HB 237, the Workforce and Economic Prosperity Act. Contrary to its title, this bill would greatly hinder the advancement of prosperity. By creating a new bureaucracy to direct and manage the economy in favor of the clean energy sector, HB 237 would harm our economy’s growth and recovery from the Covid-19 downturn.

The committee meeting starts at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, and you can watch the webcast here or join the Zoom meeting for public comment here.

The Rio Grande Foundation submitted testimony in opposition to HB 237.

House committees will hear three important bills this afternoon: HB 40, HB 102, HB 134. The House Appropriations and Finance Committee will hear HB 40, a moratorium on private prisons. If passed, this bad idea would cripple several local economies in New Mexico.  In addition, that same committee will hear HB 102, and anti-gun bill. The House Commerce and Economic Development Committee will consider HB 134, the Family-Friendly Workplaces Incentive Program. This bill would help subsidize employers’ provision of programs deemed to be family-friendly.

Both committee meetings are scheduled to begin at 1:30 this afternoon. You can watch the webcasts here. If you would like to give public comment on either bill, you can access the Zoom meeting for HB 40 and 102 here and for HB 134 here.

The Rio Grande Foundation has submitted testimony in opposition to HB 40, in favor of HB 134, and will speak in opposition to HB 102.

Government transparency is an essential part of holding public servants accountable. To that end, the Rio Grande Foundation has submitted Inspection of Public Records Act requests to hundreds of public bodies in New Mexico over the past several months. We have collected 2020 payroll records from colleges, counties, school districts, and municipalities across the state. More records will be added as they become available.

With the back and forth over Gov. Lujan Grisham’s lockdown policies and ongoing concern over certain industries and activities (sports, school, indoor recreation) that remain shuttered or unavailable, there has been VERY little talk about ONE very expensive project that has been shut down for just under a year: the New Mexico Rail Runner Express.

According to a Downtown Albuquerque News for which Rio Grande Foundation was quoted, the commuter train has been shut down since March 15, 2020 when the COVID 19 pandemic was in its early stages. This is unusual because both Albuquerque’s bus system AND the national rail service Amtrak have continued operations.

The train “isn’t going anywhere ” both literally and figuratively. With the State and Federal governments having added “Positive Train Control”  at a  cost of $60 million and no employees of the system having been laid off during the past year (while empty trains occasionally did run up and down the tracks) there are no indicators that the train (which costs taxpayers about $30 million annually to operate) is going to be taken out of service anytime soon.

Of course, of all the things that New Mexicans have expressed dismay at not having over the past year, the Rail Runner isn’t very high on the list.

On this week’s conversation, Paul and Wally begin by discussing Rep. Deb Haaland’s nomination and the start of her hearing process to become Secretary of Interior. Paul recently wrote about her here. The Lujan Grisham Administration recently said that oil/gas drilling companies are moving out of NM to Texas thanks to Biden ban. Oil prices have been tracking above $60/barrel and prices at the pump are up as well.

RGF will be co-hosting a virtual/free event w/ National Review Institute and former Chair of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors Kevin Hassett. Find out more here. 

Let them Play! And, let them go to school! The Gov. and APS have failed our students, but the problem is systemic. APS in particular is a problem.  RGF has been tracking district reopening. 

Facebook asks for an IRB to expand its data center in Los Lunas. Facebook is NOT 100% renewable, but the real problem is the subsidy.

New Mexico “virtual” session halfway home. How are things going so far?

On Wednesday Feb. 24, the Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation and Kevin Hassett of the National Review Institute discussed the impact of the Biden Administration’s energy policies on New Mexico. You can watch the discussion which lasts about an hour below:

The two-tiered nature of New Mexico’s economy is displayed in stark relief in the budget being voted on today in the New Mexico House. While many private sector workers, especially low wage workers have lost their jobs thanks to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s COVID-induced lockdown, State workers in New Mexico are in line for a nice bump in pay in their already-secure jobs.

Aside from the absurd nature of “across the board” raises for government employees at a time of high private sector unemployment , the Legislature is missing an opportunity to tie those pay hikes for teachers to getting back into the classroom. Budget documents are a critical way in which legislators can and do push for desired policies. If the Democrat-controlled Legislature wants New Mexico’s students back in their classrooms (as is widely recommended by health experts) they can and should add a requirement to that effect to the budget.

Even Gov. Lujan Grisham has expressed dismay that Albuquerque Public Schools has decided to remain “virtual” for the duration of the school year (we don’t know about the fall yet). If she wants in-person learning, she could push the Legislature to require it.

This week, President Biden’s nominee for secretary of the Interior, New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland, is up for confirmation in the Senate. Haaland, a self-described “progressive,” and a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, would, if confirmed, become the first Native American to head Interior. The Department manages approximately 500 million acres of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States.

The agency’s work is of interest to all Americans because it oversees more than 400 National Parks, from Yellowstone to White Sands. However, the department is of particular importance to Westerners, as more than 90 percent of the lands it manages are located in the Western United States.

The nomination of Haaland makes a certain amount of political sense for President Biden, allowing him to place a Native American in a position of leadership over Interior’s vast network of Native reservations. These reservations, including the Navajo Reservation in Northwest New Mexico, remain among the deepest pockets of poverty in the country. The fact that no Native American has ever managed those reservations is indeed worth remedying.

But Interior is a large department with many lands of varying purposes, and Western resource-intensive states including New Mexico have already seen the Biden administration act in ways that will do significant harm to their economies.

At Interior, Deb Haaland would be a cheerleader for Biden’s early anti-energy policies and would likely look for opportunities to expand upon them. She has taken radically anti-fossil-fuel positions throughout her political career. In 2016, prior to being elected to Congress, Haaland traveled to North Dakota to cook food for the protesters demonstrating against the Dakota Access Pipeline. She stayed in the camps for four days that September.

In May 2019, the newly minted congresswoman told The Guardian, “I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public land.”

Are Haaland’s positions and opinions based on sound science and history? In a 2019 Los Alamos Monitor story, Haaland claimed that “climate change in the U.S. started when Europeans arrived and started killing the buffalo.” Considering the numerous, dramatic changes that were a feature of the climate in prehistoric North America (and everywhere else on this planet), Haaland’s understanding of environmental forces is a bit off.

Given her radical views, it is not surprising that Haaland has been a strong supporter of the Green New Deal. The ambitious plan put forth by Represenative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and others would cost trillions in subsidies and lost economic activity. Among the plan’s radical proposals is a mandated shift to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and an increase in the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent.

On day one, the Biden administration pulled the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. While this pipeline won’t directly affect energy-producing states, the cavalier approach to the permit raised red flags. Shortly thereafter, the Biden administration placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands. If confirmed, Haaland would be a staunch defender of such policies.

Haaland’s home state, New Mexico, is particularly impacted by what happens at Interior. The state has the third-highest Native American population in the U.S. and also happens to be the state most financially dependent on energy produced on federally managed lands within its borders.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, a ban on federal oil and gas leases could cost New Mexico 62,000 jobs, reduce state revenues by $1.1 billion, and reduce oil and gas production within the state by nearly 50 percent.

With Haaland’s nomination up this week and Biden already taking an aggressive anti-energy stance, it is ironic Haaland wasn’t Biden’s first choice for the job.

In fact, according to several New Mexico media outlets, Biden initially offered the position to New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. On December 2, media outlets reported that Lujan Grisham had been offered the top job at Interior but turned it down. Lujan Grisham has never stated publicly why she refused the job, although she is just halfway through her first term in a “blue” New Mexico where she likely expects to be reelected in 2022.

As has been the case since the early days of Biden’s run for the White House, identity politics loom large for him. The president seemingly had the Interior secretary set aside to be filled by a Western, female, minority Democrat. A few weeks after Lujan Grisham turned him down, Biden settled on Haaland for the post.

The case for the slot at Interior being based purely on demography is buttressed by the fact that Lujan Grisham and Haaland have very different views regarding federal-land management. While both are New Mexican females (one Hispanic and one Native American), they exemplify opposite wings of the Democratic Party on energy.

From 2013 to 2019, Lujan Grisham represented the same Albuquerque-area congressional district as Haaland does now (Haaland will relinquish the seat if confirmed), and took a practical, moderate view on energy. This moderation is notably reflected in her 2015 vote to repeal the ban on crude-oil exports. She was one of just 26 Democrats in the House voting to repeal, with 153 of them voting to keep the ban in place.

Lujan Grisham continued to express moderation on energy issues when she moved into New Mexico’s Governor’s Mansion in 2019. During her time in office, she has expressed strong support for the state’s oil and gas industry and even said she’d consider asking for a waiver in case of a federal leasing ban.

As a governor concerned about her state’s economic and financial interests (and one who enjoys having oil and gas generate anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of her state’s budget), Lujan Grisham has attempted to placate environmentalists in her political base without doing serious harm to the state’s most important industry. Based on President Biden’s early energy policies, Haaland seems to make a better fit for the administration.

Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.) has announced his opposition to Haaland’s nomination. Montana’s junior senator signaled he would not only vote against her confirmation, but also attempt to block her nomination from advancing.

“I’m deeply concerned with the Congresswoman’s support on several radical issues that will hurt Montana, our way of life, our jobs and rural America, including her support for the Green New Deal and President Biden’s oil and gas moratorium, as well as her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline,” Daines said in a statement. Is that enough to stop Haaland from taking her radical policies to Department of the Interior? We should all hope so.

As if New Mexico students didn’t already face serious challenges, see this quote from the New York Times (which, to their credit has been pushing for schools to reopen). 

Unfortunately, you can’t embed the map here, but as of Feb. 22, New  Mexico schools are among the least reopened in the entire nation, a situation that is problematic for our State and its future. According to the Burbio data:

New Mexico schools are 21.3% open;
Arizona is 68.6%;
Utah is 90.2%;
Colorado is 77.1%;
Oklahoma is 67.5%;
Texas is 90.8%.

Whether these states spend more or less than New Mexico on K-12 and whether or not they have expensive pre-K programs, every other state in the region is blowing the doors off New Mexico. Of course, our State’s largest school district, Albuquerque Public Schools, has already punted on the entire 2020-2021 school year.