The folks at Voices for Children have never met a government program they didn’t want to expand. They want higher taxes (especially on higher income New Mexicans) but their big-spending plans are their “bread and butter.”

But, like so many on the left they revile the industry that provides approximately 40% of New Mexico’s budget, oil and gas. Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino expounded on this point earlier in the year and recently James Jimenez of Voice for Children did the same.

And don’t forget, Gov. Lujan Grisham has also stated that she wants to “transition New Mexico out of fossil fuels.”

What you don’t hear from any of them is any detailed plans for replacing the jobs and tax revenues of oil and gas. The best you get from Jimenez is the following platitude, “Our legislators need to tap into our state’s well of ingenuity and knowledge and figure out how to accelerate the diversification of our economy and state revenue sources.”

Now that the weather has turned colder and drive-in movies are really not a thing in New Mexico, good luck watching movies outside the home. But, in an illustration of the political nature of the Gov.’s ongoing COVID 19 policy, New Mexico’s film industry will continue to work under their previously-negotiated agreement with the Gov.

For the time being, not much is happening in New Mexico’s film industry. And, while we definitely decry the massive subsidies given to this chosen industry by New Mexico taxpayers, we really have no issues with the Industry being allowed to operate under a separate set of restrictions and protocols.

One industry that is NOT being considered “essential” this time around is real estate. Despite the lockdowns, real estate in New Mexico (mostly residential) remains very hot as people from high cost states flee those places as they can now work remotely.

Golf courses which have operated safely (no known cases of COVID) since they were last shut down by the Gov. have also been shuttered.

The Gov.’s latest 2 week shutdown order again takes the “one-size-fits-all” approach that has gotten us to where we are now. As one local fitness facility owner told KRQE Channel 13, “As a small business owner, we’ve worked so unbelievably hard to keep our studios open, disinfected, socially distanced, so we are doing all the right things, the fitness industry takes [COVID] very, very seriously, and if you look at those [Rapid Response] watch lists, we’re not on it. I don’t care if you’re a big box gym [or] a teeny tiny Orangetheory. We’re not on it.”

On this week’s podcast interview Paul talks to Katharine Stevens, an early childhood expert with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.  Starting out, Paul and Katharine discuss the tragic impact of COVID 19 and the abandonment of in-person learning on children. Also, Katharine shares details on her recent report Still left behind: How America’s schools keep failing our children in which she details on a state-by-state basis how America’s public schools are failing to move the needle on results.

Finally, Katharine has written about New Mexico’s plans for universal pre-K and, with the results of the recent election, Paul notes that there can be no doubt that the Legislature will tap the permanent fund and institute such a program. Katharine shares why this will not solve the State’s educational attainment challenges.

• “Why expanding New Mexico state pre-K won’t help the children who need help the most”
  
• Joe Biden’s plan for universal preschool forgets key to children’s success: Parents.
  
• Parent coaching advances young children’s language development: Summary and Study
• Children who start school early more likely to get ADHD diagnosis — even if they don’t have it (original Harvard study here)

With cases spiraling out of control in New Mexico (despite a mask mandate and many businesses STILL closed since March) New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham has imposed a strict lock down (supposedly for just two weeks).

Despite the supposedly critical nature of this new crackdown it doesn’t start until Monday. Restaurants and recreational facilities are among the long list of businesses being shut down for the two week period although it is hard to believe the restrictions will actually be lifted by then.

Will the new restrictions positively impact the spread of COVID 19? With the spread having increased pretty consistently since early October the exponential spread is both far worse than ever and happening at a rate that would be hard to keep up.

Whether the latest lockdown is effective or not there is no doubt that another lockdown will be painful for New Mexico’s economy and businesses.

In today’s paper we are notified that Santa Fe and Rio Rancho schools will be abandoning any in-person learning for the time-being. We also know that this “forced-virtual” model is not working for a majority of students and that leading health bodies like the CDC have recommended in-person learning.

So, with so few school districts serving those who desire in-person education, what choice do parents have? Gov. MLG and the union-dominated political power structure of the State has been implacably opposed to helping parents and families as they face dire challenges in educating their children thanks to the pandemic and the shutdown of in-person teaching.

In fact, New Mexico sued the Trump Administration to stop ANY CARES Act funding from being directed to non-public schools, other states (including two of New Mexico’s neighbors) have found creative ways to directly help families impacted by the shutdown of in-person learning in many school districts.

• Oklahoma is providing $30 million from the CARES Act to support families impacted by the Virus-induced shutdowns.  “These programs will allow for students and families of diverse backgrounds to access the quality resources they need in order to continue their education journey amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Gov. Stitt.
• Idaho has created a $50 million program  using CARES Act dollars to spent on eligible educational materials, devices and services. Parents can apply for benefits totaling $1,500 per eligible student and a maximum award of $3,500 per family.
• Texas used $30 million to help special needs students whose families have been forced to deal with a difficult situation in the pandemic. Families of some students with disabilities may be eligible for $1,500 per child in aid to use toward services including tutoring, therapy and digital resources.

It would be great if New Mexico came up with something similar to these other states. Alas, you don’t get to 50th in education by making good decisions.

On this week’s podcast, Paul and Wally go through this past Tuesday’s election results at the federal and state levels. How did Paul and Wally do in their predictions? Trump is not giving up. Georgia will have two runoff elections that could determine partisan control of the Senate. Here in New Mexico Wally and Paul note the high turnout and the challenges that creates for conservatives here in NM. Mark Ronchetti acquitted himself well, Yvette Herrell won her CD 2 race, but Speaker Egolf says he’ll redistrict CD 2. Can he do it?

Also, if the results hold in the presidential race, will Gov. Lujan Grisham leave New Mexico to work for the Biden Administration? Paul and Wally discuss the upcoming 2021 New Mexico Legislature and some of their likely priorities which could include marijuana legalization, tapping the Land Grant Permanent fund, and tax hikes?

Might they pass a statewide sick leave mandate? Will they directly hit the oil and gas industry? Finally, what will the 60-day Legislature look like? Will it be in-person or virtual and how will that work for a 60-day session?

Gov. MLG’s latest COVID 19 update included no new restrictions. UNM and NMSU athletics are heading toward conflict w/Gov. as they are the ONLY two men’s Division 1 basketball teams in the nation that cannot currently practice?

Albuquerque City Council will be taking up yet another mandatory paid sick leave proposal. As currently drafted it will apply to 10 or more employees starting in January 2021 and 3 or more employees starting in January 2022.

Finally, RGF attempts to get ahold of 40-day enrollment numbers from the Public Education Department.

Recently, RGF president Paul Gessing had the opportunity to discuss the 2020 election results with Bob Clark on 770 KKOB radio. Then he sat down with Bob Gore of the East Mountain Conservatives also to discussing the results.

Links to both are posted below:

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The Rio Grande Foundation signed this opinion piece along with numerous other business groups. The Sick leave ordinance is being introduced at the ABQ City Council meeting on Monday, November 9, 2020.

Back in July, Darin Sand, vice president for development at Goodman Realty, told the Albuquerque Journal “We are diversifying and looking to other cities and states in terms of future investments, and I think that’s smart … because of the political environment here.”

He was one of several local business owners who expressed concerns about their ability to do business in Albuquerque in the article, “ABQ businesses manifest financial ruin.” The story highlighted in stark detail the impacts of the economic lockdown. It also showed ways in which state and local economic policies make life difficult for local businesses.

Yet the Albuquerque City Council will be bringing up the issue of a paid sick leave mandate. This comes on top of a minimum wage increase passed in 2019 by the N.M. Legislature that will take the city’s lowest wage from $9.35 an hour to $10.50 an hour starting in January. That’s a 12% increase.

Not many local businesses have achieved 12% growth this year. In fact, the list of local business closures in recent months, due mostly to COVID-19, is long and growing fast. Does the City Council really want to hasten the demise of even more of the stores and restaurants that make our city and state unique?

Albuquerque voters rejected a paid sick leave mandate in 2017. And the City Council rightly decided to put off the issue back in June of this year. It is hard to see what has changed that would merit the imposition of yet another increase in the costs of doing business.

If anything, with the state’s economic lockdown dragging on and Albuquerque’s unemployment rate elevated, the state of most small businesses is even more precarious than it was this summer. A widely-acknowledged trend to arise from the COVID 19 pandemic is that many big corporations are doing fine or even better than before, while small businesses are struggling. Numerous local businesses have yet to reopen at all since March, and yet the City Council is considering imposing additional costs and regulations on them.

The ongoing COVID situation should not be an excuse to impose more costs on local businesses. At the beginning of the outbreak Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which requires employers with less than 500 employees to provide paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. This paid leave is then paid back to the employer by the federal government. This is effective through Dec. 31 and likely to be extended with the next federal relief package.

It is, of course, small, family businesses that will be most negatively impacted by another costly policy. That’s because unlike big corporations, each new mandate makes doing business incrementally harder as they have less cushion and are not diversified in numerous areas of the country.

Valuing small business is why we’ll all celebrate Small Business Saturday later this month. While many of us have enjoyed the ability to have products and services delivered during this pandemic, it is also worth noting that Amazon doesn’t sponsor many youth baseball and soccer teams around town.

While businesses in Albuquerque face numerous difficulties, we do value our workers and want them to be healthy. In fact, workers often stick with small businesses because they more resemble a family. We know COVID-19 has impacted all of us, not just our bottom lines, but our friends, families and employees. We’ve heard “We’re all in this together.” If that is truly the case, now is definitely not the time for Albuquerque’s City Council to put more regulations on struggling local businesses.

On this week’s podcast, Paul interviews James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute. Based in Chicago, IL, Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems, but it is most known for its work on energy and climate issues.

Taylor joins the podcast to discuss Joe Biden’s energy policies and specifically his attacks on “fracking” and the oil and gas industries in general and how those policies would actually harm the environment. Taylor and Gessing discuss Biden’s version of the “Green New Deal” as well as efforts in California and New Mexico to move away from gasoline-powered vehicles.

As I write this the dust STILL has not settled from the 2020 election, but here are a few thoughts:

• Regardless of who ultimately prevails in the presidential election, the fact that Republicans held onto the US Senate (UPDATE: this is pending the results of two runoffs in Georgia) means that there will be no court packing or addition of new states for at least two years.
• Voter turnout in New Mexico was over 68 percent which set a record. Normally this bodes extremely poorly for the GOP in New Mexico which is outnumbered by Democrats in this State. But, 2020 WAS NOT a “bloodbath” for the GOP. In fact, Yvette Herrell won her race handily and Mark Ronchetti had a very strong performance against Ben Ray Lujan in the Senate race. Ronchetti has a bright future in New Mexico politics.
• The GOP had a more coherent election strategy than in years’ past with its “Respect New Mexico” effort and other GOTV efforts. Turnout was good on the GOP side, but Democrats also turned out and in New Mexico the GOP simply can’t compete purely on turnout.
• Albuquerque has gone far to the left. Whether it is just the growing urban/rural divide, an influx of more liberal voters, or voters not responding to the GOP message, by all measures the GOP was wiped out in Albuquerque. Of four GOP state senators that came into 2020 with districts largely in city limits, only Mark Moores remains.
•   The New Mexico Legislature will be very “progressive” moving forward. In years’ past the GOP had at least “some” influence with moderate Democrats like John Arthur Smith. Those days are done and not only did the GOP NOT pick up seats, it lost one. Marijuana legalization is likely. So is tapping the permanent fund and so are tax hikes.
• Finally, with a “progressive” New Mexico Legislature in place, it is unlikely that Gov. Lujan Grisham will face challenges to her near-dictatorial powers on COVID 19, but it is also quite possible that she could leave New Mexico if Biden is declared the winner. Only time will tell if the “progressives” running the Legislature will demand separation of powers and whether MLG or Lt. Gov. Howie Morales will be running the show.

Like everyone else out there we at the Rio Grande Foundation remain keenly interested in the results of the election. We too are disappointed that so many New Mexicans looked at the policies that have been in place in New Mexico for 90 years (to awful effect) and said, “More please!”

It has not always been thus, or, at least some prominent New Mexico business people took VERY principled free market positions. I know after reading the excellent recent Albuquerque Journal story about home builder Dale Bellamah (whose name lives on in street names across the City of Albuquerque) that I’ll take note when I see his name on street signs around town.

Here are some great quotes from the story about him which illustrate the values that helped Mr. Bellamah achieve great things.

He scoffed at government interference when it came to business. He opposed putting a cap on the price of goods and enacting rations proposed by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. He argued the measures were “contrary to the American way of living and destroys free enterprise.”

Two years later he fought against a proposed bill that would establish a low-cost housing program in response to a shortage of homes. He said it was a step toward “breeding a nation of irresponsibles” and the bureaucratic fumbling would end up costing taxpayers more money.

But Bellamah did care about the working man and the plight of the poor. He left his entire estate, estimated between $30 million and $50 million, to a charity foundation he established a few years before his death.

Notably, Bellamah wasn’t born with a “silver spoon” in his mouth. In fact, according to the Journal article”His mother died when he was 12. By then his father was invalid and could not work, so Bellamah was forced to find employment.”

There are plenty of great business leaders in New Mexico and Albuquerque today, but the political winds and social pressure cause them to keep quiet.

How many students were enrolled in New Mexico’s public education system after the first 40 days of the 2020-2021 school year? That is a critical number for determining funding for New Mexico’s public school funding. Also, in the midst of dramatic changes due to the COVID 19 pandemic, this information is especially relevant for understanding how families are reacting to “virtual” and “hybrid” learning policies that are being imposed statewide.

Schools completed the 40 day threshhold back in mid/early October, but, when RGF requested the information from the Public Education Department we received the following letter which basically said, “wait until mid-December.”

The virus continues to spread in New Mexico. Paul and Wally look at the numbers. Gov. MLG doesn’t attend the pre-election press conference. Paul and Wally assume a big lockdown is coming post-election. Paul shares details on his family’s Halloween celebrations.

Paul has a conversation about the election with Al Jazeera. 

Paul talks about the Gov.’s COVID response in ABQ Journal. 

Paul and Wally offer their pre-election predictions for President, Senate, House, overall control of the US Senate, and NM Legislature.

Gov. MLG proposes a tourism stimulus package for the upcoming session. What could this involve?

National economic data show strong rebound. Will those numbers continue to improve or decline with the spike in the virus?

ABQ City Council (again) to consider mandatory paid sick leave. ABQ Chamber Terri Cole has some strong and welcome words on the issue.

PNM to get out of Four Corners coal plant as well as San Juan. Now “coal free” by 2024. Navajo Nation will purchase the plant and may frustrate environmentalist efforts to shutter the facility.

While everyone is focused on the election we at the Rio Grande Foundation are (yet again) gearing up to fight the issue that simply will not die: mandatory paid sick leave. Read about the latest plan here. 

The plan has been put forth by Councilors Lan Sena and Pat Davis. At first it would apply to employers with 10 or more employees.  Smaller companies would face the mandate starting in 2022.

At the Rio Grande Foundation we have long been critical of such mandates and their negative impact on small businesses, but it is truly mind-boggling that this idea is being pushed at a time when many businesses remain shuttered entirely (and have been since March). Other businesses remain partially open or open at only 25%.

We were extremely pleased to see the following comments from Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce in the aforementioned Albuquerque Journal article,  “Many businesses are barely clinging to life as it is due to the pandemic, and a new mandate could be devastating.

“Small businesses need help, not regulation and relief, not higher costs.” Finally, Cole argued that, “Using the pandemic as a reason to mandate paid sick leave is ‘grasping, unserious and disappointing.’”

RGF has been critical of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s big-government economic policies from day one. What we never planned on was a global pandemic that has resulted in unprecedented power being concentrated in New Mexico’s executive office OR the use of that power to pick winners and losers in the State’s economy.

Needless to say, we have been critical of the Gov.’s approach to the Virus AND her willingness to shut down or drastically limit entire industries. The New Mexico media (along with the courts and Legislature) have given the Gov. tremendous leeway in her actions. The Albuquerque Journal article by Dan Boyd in which I am quoted at least DOES give critics a platform and asks some important questions, but the article both labels the Gov.’s response “science based” AND (in the print story) allows the Gov. to claim “I’m going to continue to be a truth-teller).

The fact is that the Virus is NOW spreading out of control while New Mexico remains economically and socially closed (and has been for nearly 8 months) to an extent not found in many other states at this time. My quotes from the Journal article are as follows:

Paul Gessing, president of the Albuquerque-based Rio Grande Foundation, a think tank that favors limited government and open markets, said he believes many New Mexicans have started to tune out the governor’s message.

“The economy has not been as much of a focus for the governor as I think it should have been,” said Gessing.

He also said it’s not realistic to ask New Mexicans to stay home for an extended period.

“I think people are reasonable and are doing their best,” said Gessing, who acknowledged the danger posed by the virus while arguing most people infected make a full recovery.

And, while Halloween was definitely different this year, as the parent of young children, we were not going to miss out on trick-or-treating. So, as you can see from the first photo (taken at an indoor church-sponsored event prior to Halloween) the Gessings are NOT anti-mask. And, we (like many) rejected the Gov.’s “stay home” approach and came up with innovative, COVID-safe ways to embrace Trick or Treating in a safe manner. 

In this unique and timely episode, Paul sits down with two experts on utilities to discuss the purchase of PNM by Avangrid and the impact the push for “renewables” is having on electricity prices and grid stability in New Mexico.

Larry Behrens runs Power the Future NM which advocates for pro-energy policies. Larry’s group has been critical of the Energy Transition Act.

Dax Contreras was an energy trader for five years working for PNM. Dax’s job was to keep the lights on for PNM customers across New Mexico by purchasing (and selling) power to customers across the Western United States.

The following are charts directly from New Mexico’s state page on the New York Times COVID 19 tracking page on October 28. The main takeaways are that New Mexico is in the worst position it has been in terms of the spread of the virus, but, at least so far the number of deaths has not spiraled upward (there has been an uptick to be sure). We will see if that continues or if the situation deteriorates even further.

What is plain to see is that the Gov.’s strategy for stopping the spread has either failed to stop the spread of the Virus OR enough people are tired of them to the point that they are disregarding them (and thus spreading the Virus). Perhaps both are true.

Interestingly and somewhat surprisingly given the her recent statement that this is “the most serious emergency that New Mexico has ever faced,” Gov. Lujan Grisham who has had regular updates will apparently NOT do so this week. Instead David Scrase will be joined by a few other medical professionals on Thursday afternoon.

Just in time for the election, the Rio Grande Foundation’s Tipping Point New Mexico is now available in yet another format: television!In addition to the audio podcast, the show is available in Albuquerque on Saturdays from 1:15pm to 2pm on Saturdays on the Rock of Talk AM 1600 or FM 93.7.

Also, the show is available Thursdays at 5:00 PM on HII 88-9 FM Cloudcroft, 100.5 FM Alamogordo, and KEDU 102.3 FM Ruidoso.

On October 26 and 27 of 2020 New Mexico (including RGF’s home town Albuquerque) received a big snow storm which dumped about 10 inches of snow on the area. Snow is one of many weather phenomena that impact electricity demand (and production, especially when so-called “renewables” are involved).

And, while PNM is currently required to achieve a 20% renewable standard (a requirement that we estimate will cost the State economy $444 million this year alone) and has plans to achieve 100% by 2045, the real-time tracker available on PNM’s website shows that PNM is a long way from relying on unreliable energy sources.

As of 4:30pm on the 27th (several hours after the snow stopped falling) PNM was getting just 9% of its electricity from “renewable” sources. Results vary depending on demand and weather, but 9% is a paltry number.

The Gov. has some new COVID orders. While Paul and Wally both acknowledge that these are more focused on problem areas than her previous orders were, the Gov. has backed herself into a corner in addressing the Virus. Spread is FAR worse than it has been at any other time of this crisis.

To that end, the Catholic Church (Archdiocese of Santa Fe) canceled services moving forward on its own. As we near Halloween what about other important events including Christmas and the State Legislature? The good news is Virus deaths haven’t jumped at least yet.

Avangrid has reached a deal to purchase PNM. Paul and Wally discuss and note that Thursday’s podcast will discuss this in-depth.

According to Wallethub New Mexico’s unemployment rate remains among the least recovered among US states. New Mexico’s September unemployment rate was also higher than any of the State’s neighbors.

In the final presidential debate, Joe Biden said “We are going to transition away from oil and gas. Stop subsidizing the industry.” Wally and Paul discuss the second part of that statement.

Finally, Paul and Wally both voted this past week. They discuss how they avoided the long lines some experienced and who they voted for in the presidential election.

We truly do feel for UNM (and NMSU’s) sports programs, especially those (like UNM football) who have been living in limbo because of the Gov.’s orders. Of course, that “limbo” (and the likely loss of fan attendance revenues for Lobo basketball) isn’t going to do much for the athletics budget looking forward.

But, UNM is generally both too powerful and too unaccountable and the decision to essentially forgive the debts incurred by the athletics department by folding them into the overall UNM budget is unfortunate.

Amazingly, the University has (according to the Journal) “At the end of the 2020 fiscal year, the university had about $346 million in plant fund reserves.” This is the fund out of which the deficit will be paid.

While reducing athletics isn’t enough to make UNM a “lean and mean” entity, folding money-losing “extras” into the overall budget is a way to undermine accountability, a point that we made when a similar move was made with the City of Albuquerque’s golf courses.

The following appeared in the Sun News on October 25 and several other papers and media outlets.

A recent report from the Pew Center determined that New Mexico had the fourth highest volatility in tax revenue collection over the past 20 years. Unsurprisingly, the study cited reliance on oil and gas revenues as the likely cause of this volatility. What the study didn’t consider was the fact that New Mexico’s misguided economic policies actually reinforce our reliance on oil revenues.

Over the years New Mexico has developed mechanisms like the “rainy day fund” and permanent funds (these are two different things) to help smooth the ups and downs inherently associated with rising and falling oil and gas prices and production.

It has been well-documented that New Mexico has risen to be the 3^rd-largest oil producing state in the nation. We often forget that Texas remains the largest oil producer at more than six times the amount produced here in New Mexico, yet Texas, as the report noted, “ranked close to the middle of states for overall revenue volatility.”

Why is that? Simply put, Texas is less reliant on oil and gas than is New Mexico as a percentage of its overall budget. Again, according to Pew, “severance tax accounted for 7.5% of Texas’ total tax collections over the past decade.” That is a far more comfortable position to be in than New Mexico’s reliance for 40% of its budget from oil and gas.

These are all pretty widely-agreed upon facts among New Mexico policymakers and thought leaders. This is where things get tricky.

Democrats, especially their more “progressive” wing (now dominant in the Legislature) seem ready to eliminate oil and gas entirely without much in the way of a plan for how to fund New Mexico government. Long-time “progressive” Albuquerque-based Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino argued in an op-ed this year that New Mexico should “go cold turkey” to stop our “addiction” to oil and gas. Gov. Lujan Grisham recently echoed those sentiments in a webcast with the US Climate Alliance, saying “New Mexico should transition out of fossil fuels.”

Those sound like nice goals to many environmentalists, but aside from raising taxes on a massive scale, how do you fund State government? That question is left unanswered.

According to NMSU professor Jim Peach, New Mexico faces not one, but two threats: 1) the short-term effects of reduced revenues and slower economic growth from the lockdown; 2) the longer-term challenge of replacing oil as a funding mechanism for state government.

Rather than killing the oil industry (or seeing revenues from it decline rapidly due to depressed demand) and then frantically looking to find a replacement, the Gov. and Legislature need to use the 2021 session to enact long-overdue reforms like GRT reform that CAN make us more competitive. Texas has no income tax and is a “right to work” state. It is known to be business-friendly and consistently scores well in state rankings on such issues. New Mexico, on the other hand, is rightly perceived as being rather hostile to business. And, the gross receipts tax is unfair and riddled with breaks for special-interests.

One issue that is sure to come up in 2021 is tax hikes. Professor Peach and others have mentioned them with an air of inevitability. Tempting as they may be, tax hikes will make us even less competitive with Texas and other states as a destination for jobs and economic growth. Given the gulf between New Mexico and Texas in terms of economic competitiveness it is no surprise that the Federation of Tax Administrators ranks New Mexico as having the 7^th-heaviest tax burden while Texas is among the lowest at 47^th.

Ironically, if New Mexico were to streamline government, truly make the state attractive for business, and thus diversify its economy, like Texas, New Mexico’s economy and tax revenues wouldn’t be as volatile. Unfortunately, we have a very long way to go to make that happen.

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

The latest Wallethub report on how state unemployment rates are recovering is out. New Mexico remains among the least-recovered states as the graphic below shows:

In other news, according to an October 16 report from the Legislative Finance Committee that we obtained, Gross receipts tax collections in New Mexico were down $31.6 million in August compared to the same month last year, according to preliminary data from the Taxation and Revenue Department.

Furthermore, total fiscal-year-to-date GRT collections through August were down $30.3 million from the same period a year ago, or 6.3 percent.

Basically, it appears that the combined effects of the Governors lockdowns, their increased intensity, and the lack another round of federal stimulus are having serious, negative impacts on New Mexico’s economy. How long will this last? We have no idea.

You may have heard by now that PNM (pending PRC approval) has been purchased by the Spanish utility Avangrid. According to the Albuquerque Journal article detailing the purchase, Avangrid paid 19.3% above the PNM share price.

The following “check” was used by RGF president Paul Gessing as a prop in a 2019 hearing on the Energy Transition Act. It remains relevant as ever, but perhaps should be paid to the order of Avangrid now. 

We don’t know exactly what this all means, but we DO know the following:

1. Gov. Lujan Grisham received a $2,500 donation for her campaign from the Spanish company last year.
2. While Avangrid MAY be able to bring some efficiencies of scale to the deployment of “renewables” in New Mexico, PNM pledged to REDUCE electricity prices.
3. The 19.3% premium (paid by Avangrid) HAS to come from somewhere and it is unlikely those efficiencies of scale will be enough to justify that premium price.
4. This adds another wrinkle to the PRC election and ballot measure on the ballot this fall (the PRC will have to approve or deny this purchase).
5. Arguably the damage to NM rate payers has already been done (or baked-in) by the ETA. The major impact New Mexicans see from this purchase is that one of the State’s only major publicly-traded companies will be no more. Corporate sponsorships, jobs, and other aspects of PNM’s presence could dry up over time.