Whatever your take on the Trump tax cuts or the economy under his watch, it is hard to see how ANYONE can blame the President for the current economic situation. Of course leave it to New Mexico’s leftist advocates like Bill Jordan to do that.

And, whether you think tax cuts are the key to economic growth or merely one component of a broad-based economic reform strategy, not many economists take the position that “tax cuts HURT the economy.” Bill really needs to read “Economics in One Lesson.”

On this week’s Tipping Point discussion Paul and Wally discuss the fact that electors in the nation’s Electoral College were casting their votes for president. The Electoral College is an important safeguard of our democratic-republic.

Good news for New Mexico and the US as the Pfizer COVID 19 vaccine has begun shipping across the USA including to New Mexico. President Trump and his Administration deserve great credit for this achievement as do the scientists at Pfizer and other companies.

New Mexico hospitals authorized to “ration” care. What does this mean?

ABQ City Council pushes sick leave vote back to February 1.

NM’s PED secretary says “I think we’re going to be back in person in the fall of 2021.” 

NM’s jobs situation remains among the nation’s worst according to Wallethub. 

Another failure to launch at Spaceport America. Saturday morning’s test flight was aborted because its rocket engine failed to ignite, but the crew made it back to the spaceport safely.

In a true case of “burying the lede” as they say in journalism (yes, it is lede), this story from the Albuquerque Journal discusses the State’s education budget proposal for the upcoming legislative session being “near-flat.”

But, if you read the full article there is this gem from Secretary Ryan Stewart, “I think we’re going to be back in person in the fall of 2021. It all depends on the course of the virus and what the risks are going forward.”

Many New Mexico parents hold out hope of restarting in-person learning sometime this spring (and if you are in a conservative rural community or another area that has done in-person learning this year like Rio Rancho) that may be true, but Stewart seems to be referring to big districts like Albuquerque and Las Cruces which have NOT had in-person learning for a vast majority of students this year.

This article appeared in the Roswell Daily-Record on December 15, 2020 and in several other New Mexico newspapers.

New Mexico remains among the most locked down states in the nation when it comes to the CoronaVirus. In October the State’s unemployment rate was among the highest in the nation at 8.1%. This difficult economic news combined with the election of a more “progressive” Legislature in November mean that tax increases (and even spending cuts) are likely in store for the upcoming 2021 legislative session. With New Mexico relying heavily on oil and gas revenues, the State’s economic pain will last beyond the coming year.

A new deal announced by Gov. Lujan Grisham with the well-known streaming service Netflix is being touted as good news for New Mexico’s economy. In announcing the deal the Gov. claimed, “My administration has expanded our state’s competitive film incentives, facilitating higher-wage employment for New Mexicans all across the state.” Under the terms of the deal, Netflix will dramatically-expand their footprint in the State spending $1 billion over the next decade.

Unfortunately, despite all the hype and big-sounding numbers, the Netflix deal is just another example of New Mexico’s economically-ignorant political leadership “buying” jobs and economic activity with taxpayer money. The reality is that New Mexico’s already strapped budgets will be drained even more in the years ahead by this new plan to subsidize Hollywood.

Something that too few in the media do is look closely at the particulars of the deal itself. For example: the State offers a 25% film “tax credit” which is really a rebate of 25% of the costs of production. Netflix is able to boost that rebate by another 5% since they are considered a “qualified” production facility.  That means taxpayers will reimburse Netflix for 30% of their spending in NM. According to a new report from the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) states that film subsidy payouts could increase annual tax credit payouts by $25 million beginning next fiscal year.

Lest there be any doubt that film subsidies actually cost the State and its taxpayers money, a separate 2019 LFC report  noted, “Because film tax credit payouts are booked to Corporate Income Tax (CIT), actual CIT receipts are higher than the final amounts distributed to the general fund.” These subsidies take corporate tax dollars right out of the State Treasury and hand them to film companies.

“Tax credits” are just the starting point. Additionally, the State is providing $17 million in LEDA incentives; the City of Albuquerque is providing another $7 million in LEDA, and they will also provide an industrial revenue bond to abate some or all property taxes over a 20-year term for the first $500 million investment to build out the facility.

In total Netflix will receive $300 million + $17 million + $7 million + the IRB tax abatement to eliminate their property taxes.

Finally, even though NM has an annual cap on film tax rebate expenditures, the legislation exempted companies that purchase or sign a 10-year lease for a qualified production facility: this means the cap does not apply to Netflix.

In other words, Netflix is definitely going to grow and appear to create more jobs in New Mexico (which will make a lot of headlines), but it will do so at taxpayer expense. That cost is not just in lost revenue, but in actual spending. Those costs, generated through the tax credit, really a rebate, are borne primarily by State taxpayers. This subsidy is both unfair AND unsustainable.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has now locked us in to paying Netflix outrageous sums of money over the next decade at a time of great uncertainty for New Mexico families and the state’s economic outlook.

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.

You may have heard the news by now that over the weekend Virgin Galactic aborted a launch at Spaceport America. The issue had to do with a failure to complete “The ignition sequence for the rocket motor.” Thankfully no deaths or injuries were involved, but it is likely that this will further delay any commercial space flights from Southern New Mexico.

As Doug Messier of commercial space flight website Parabolic Arc noted in a 2019 Tipping Point NM podcast (the engine/technology discussion starts at about the 36 minute mark below). The issue with the engines involves the motors which burn a combination of nitrous oxide and rubber.

You can also check Doug’s website Parabolic Arc for coverage of the attempted Virgin Galactic flight here. By the way, at the end of the podcast Doug says he would NOT fly with Virgin Galactic even if given a FREE ticket. 

On this very special interview episode, Paul sits down with his wife Krista and 10-year-old (5th-grade) daughter Grace. This isn’t just Paul showing off his family, rather, they have a serious conversation about homeschooling in New Mexico. With the onset of COVID-19, the Gessing family had some very serious questions to answer about educating their children. In the end, that meant homeschooling.

Krista outlines some of the important decisions the family made along with any requirements from the State of New Mexico. Grace shares her perspective on suddenly moving into a homeschool environment including her likes and dislikes about both types of schooling.

According to Wallethub’s latest report (released December 10, 2020), New Mexico remains mired in a deep hole when it comes to unemployment. Wallethub changed the data from previous reports to focus on those that have increased the most.

Only Kansas has performed worse than New Mexico, but Kansas had a lower unemployment rate beforehand. In other words, New Mexico is uniquely challenged.

New Mexicans, especially those who have never lived elsewhere, often fail to realize just how culturally AND geographically isolated they are. That seems to play into the hands of politicians like our Gov. whose policies fail (repeatedly) but those policy failures are often chalked up to some inherent challenge we face in New Mexico OR people are simply unaware of the issue because they don’t know any better.

The Gov.’s lockdown response to COVID 19 has been an abject failure both in terms of the Virus itself AND in economic terms. The Gessing family recently traveled to Arizona which, while it has a somewhat higher death rate than New Mexico, is also much more open and has been for the duration. Other neighboring states like Utah, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Utah are more OPEN than New Mexico and have fewer deaths as a percentage of the population. The fact is that no one has figured out a way to stop the spread.

Our travels took us to the Great Wolf Lodge which is basically an indoor water park with other kid-friendly activities including a small bowling alley, a ropes course, an arcade, and more.

Here’s what we saw:

1. We drove to Scottsdale, not for Virus reasons, but for convenience and cost. Scottsdale was much more open and busy which included dining indoors at an In & Out Burger;
2. Social distancing and masks were used in the lobby, but masks were NOT worn in water areas. The water areas were full of kids having fun, socializing, and exercising;
3. The water area was almost entirely indoors and included an area that is virtually identical to a similar area at Cliff’s Amusement Park in Albuquerque which is outdoors and has been shut down since March thanks to MLG.
4. All five of us were virus-free when we traveled to Scottsdale and I was tested after returning (for other reasons) and came back negative. No illness reported by any member of the family.

We were careful. I understand that the Virus impacts different people differently. My wife and I are grown ups who can make our own decisions. We’re NOT going to cower in fear for a year or more instilling such fear in our children. I know of no major outbreaks at this or other such Great Wolf Lodges across the country. Maybe it’s the chlorine?

In case you missed it, Albuquerque’s City Council recently punted on TWO big issues. RGF discussed both issues with KOB TV channel 4. You can watch the discussion relating to fines and even jail time for disobeying the public health order below.

And, RGF and the local business community has engaged in a the issue of mandatory paid sick leave. The Council (again) pushed the final vote to at least February 1, 2021.

The following appeared recently in several New Mexico newspapers including the Carlsbad Current-Argus:

As states near the election certification date it appears the exact contours of the Biden Administration’s energy policies and how they will impact New Mexico remain open to debate. We must make sure that we don’t lose sight of how important natural gas has been in powering America’s economic resurgence and leading the charge to a cleaner environment.

Candidate Biden made numerous conflicting statements about his likely energy policies including on the issue of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” which enables oil and gas producers to access previously inaccessible oil and gas sources. Elimination of this important process, even on “just” federal lands would have devastating impacts on New Mexico’s oil and gas industry and its economy.

During the campaign Biden repeatedly pledged not to lease any more federal land for oil and gas production. That pledge, with its potential to cast irreparable damage on our economy, got the attention of Democratic Governor Michel Lujan-Grisham. Last year the Governor wasted no time in announcing she would apply for a waiver or exemption for New Mexico on a federal ban aimed at crippling the oil and gas industry’s ability to fund public education. Gov. Lujan-Grisham should maintain this position and make sure New Mexico is allowed to continue our development of natural gas on public land.

Biden’s old boss, President Obama also understood the need to support oil and gas activity in oil and gas states, particularly activity surrounding natural gas. Obama was of course considered an environmentalist by political opponents and supporters alike. His support for natural gas was hardly contradictory, rather it was right in line with his environmental track record. That’s because natural gas emits CO2 at rates from 50 to 60% lower than does coal. 

In fact, the Energy Information Administration recently found that “U.S. electric power sector emissions have fallen 33% from their peak in 2007.” This was no coincidence or accident. These emissions reductions occurred because electricity consumers have increasingly sourced natural gas instead of coal. This progress would be reversed as a result of a federal leasing ban.

When it comes to energy and the benefits of home-grown natural gas resources, Biden should take his cue from former President Obama and the expressed wishes of Gov. Lujan Grisham. New Mexico energy, produced on federal, state, and private lands, can and should play an integral role in ongoing reductions to CO2 emissions.

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

According to a new report from McKinsey & company that was written up in The Economist, (surprising no one), poor and minority kids are losing out the most from the shift away from in-person learning.  See chart below.
As we’ve written about in the past, numerous experts have stated clearly that in-person schooling should be reinstated for students around the glob. New Mexico’s supposed advocates for “the children” are nowhere to be found advocating for these children. RGF recently called out Speaker Egolf for his lack of a public stance on the issue, but  he’s hardly alone.

New Mexico has literally dozens of well-funded left-wing advocacy organizations. We have not seen a single one of them advocate publicly for the reinstatement of in-person learning. If you know of any that have, please send us a note: info@riograndefoundation.org.

In this interview, Paul talks with Carol Wight, Executive Director of the New Mexico Restaurant Association about another sick leave ordinance being considered by the Albuquerque City Council as well as the challenges and struggles restaurants are facing with the ever-changing COVID-19 health orders.

After some delays, the full Albuquerque City Council will meet on Monday, December 7 for a potential final vote on mandatory paid sick leave.

Tell ABQ City Council The Time is NOT Right for More RegulationsWe know that 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 (with the State having enacted an even stricter lockdown of businesses), now is definitely not the time for Albuquerque’s City Council to force more heavy-handed regulations on struggling local businesses.

Click Here to Email the City Council

The following appeared at National Review’s website on December 1, 2020 6:30 AM

The former territorial governor of New Mexico (and author of Ben Hur) Lew Wallace once said, “Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico.”

In so many ways Wallace was prescient about this beautiful, poor, and utterly unique state in the American Southwest. One “calculation” about modern politics that would perplex Wallace is the fact that a relatively poor, but oil-rich Western state elects politicians that are so directly at odds with its economic best interest.

After Texas and North Dakota, New Mexico is the 3^rd– state in the US. The oil and gas industries combine to generate Furthermore, New Mexico’s oil and gas resources are heavily concentrated on lands managed by the federal government. The central role of energy, especially energy extracted within New Mexico’s borders and controlled by federal policymakers, might lead one to believe that New Mexicans would vote for pro-energy Republicans in federal elections.

Instead, New Mexico has become a safely blue state. It narrowly went for George W. Bush in 2004, but since then has gone for Democrats by wide margins. The situation is even more stark at the state level where Democrats have had “trifectas” (total control of both houses and the Governor’s mansion for 60 of the last 90 years. The GOP hasn’t had such governing authority in the State for a single year since 1931. Also, despite significant turnover, New Mexico has not elected a Republican to the US Senate since Pete Domenici retired in 2009. In 2020 Biden won the State 54.3 percent to 43.5 percent despite the very real fact that President Trump’s pro-energy policies were a boon to the New Mexico economy and the Biden Administration’s energy policies represents nothing less than a dagger aimed at the heart of New Mexico’s economy.

That “dagger” comes in the form of numerous, sometimes clear, often conflicting statements, candidate Biden made during the campaign. It is unclear what Biden will do regarding hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” which enables oil and gas producers to access previously-inaccessible oil and gas sources. He backed away from an outright nationwide ban late in the campaign. However, Biden has clearly stated that he would ban new gas and oil permits — including fracking — on federal lands.

Targeting federal lands would devastate New Mexico’s oil and gas industry and its economy due to the State’s large federal estate within its borders. According to the Institute for Energy Research, federal land represents 34.7 percent of the land in New Mexico. In fiscal year 2019, New Mexico received energy-related disbursement (from the federal Bureau of Land Management) at $1.17 billion, the highest payment made in any state (Wyoming was next with $641 million, and then Colorado on $108 million) This was the highest payment from the BLM in the state’s history and compares with $455 million in FY 2017. A vast majority of this increased revenue is due to the use of fracking.

Furthermore, data from the Global Energy Institute indicate that if energy production on federal lands were banned, New Mexico would lose 24,300 jobs (10,000 direct, 14,300 indirect and induced), a significant hit for a state with a workforce of around ). Making matters worse, a good number of the ‘direct’ jobs lost are good-paying, something that is not easy to find in New Mexico, a state that consistently ranks among the poorest in the nation and has been hard-hit by the     Closing New Mexico’s federal lands to energy production entirely  cost the State $496 million in annual royalty collections, representing eight percent of the state’s total General Fund Revenues.

Biden’s proposed fracking ban is even too much for New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has said she’ll ask for an exemption from any future drilling ban. Acknowledging the tax revenue contributions to education funding, Grisham explained to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association conference in Santa Fe last October that “without the energy effort in this state, no one gets to make education the top priority.”

Far from being an opponent, Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, is broadly supportive of Biden’s energy policies. Both of them have stated that they would like to “transition out of fossil fuels” despite New Mexico’s financial dependence on the Industry.

Biden’s aggressive anti-fossil fuels stance as relates to federal land not only puts him at odds with New Mexico’s Democratic governor (who is also on the short list to join his administration), it puts him far to the left of President Obama on the issue. In a 2012 presidential debate, Obama  stated, “We’ve opened up public lands.  We’re actually drilling more on public lands than the previous administration… And natural gas isn’t just appearing magically; we’re encouraging it and working with the industry.”

President Obama was of course considered an environmentalist by political opponents and supporters alike. His support for natural gas right isn’t difficult to reconcile with his environmental track record. That’s because (when used in a new power plant) natural gas emits CO2 at rates from 50 to 60 percent  than does coal.

Obama understood the vast benefits of natural gas, including the fact that it was appropriate to drill for it on federal lands. During his tenure, from approximately 21 million cubic feet to more than 28.4 million cubic feet.

If he truly cares about the environment, Biden would be wise to follow his predecessor’s playbook. According to the EPA, more natural gas meant net greenhouse gas emissions went down by 10 percent  from 2005 to 2018.  But if natural gas prices rise – and a ban on federal leasing is likely to contribute to higher prices, this  positive developments could go into reverse.  The Energy Information Administration recently projected that higher natural gas prices would cause coal’s share of power generation to increase from 18 percent to 22 percent in 2021.

Obama also signed into law legislation that ended the US government’s restrictions on crude oil exports back in 2015.

During the campaign Biden faced tremendous pressure from the left wing of his political base to come out for policies like the Green New Deal and bans on fracking and other fossil fuel based energy production. Biden has never been associated with such hard-left stances against economic policy and growth in the past. As noted above, even Obama is to the right of where Biden campaigned.

Hopefully President Biden has a more realistic approach to energy than did candidate Biden. New Mexico’s economic future is at stake, but so is the recovery of our nation’s virus-hobbled economy.

Rather than instituting a blanket ban on production of oil and gas on federal lands, a better approach would be to recognize the benefits, and work to make sure that any production is handled responsibly and safely. The growing American energy sector and American energy independence have delivered wins for the environment, for consumers, and for the US and state economies like New Mexico’s. Let’s keep it that way.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

On this week’s podcast, Paul and Wally discuss the fact that New Mexico made national news for its grocery lines. 

Netflix gets an amazing sweetheart deal to come to New Mexico (Wally and Paul discuss the details).

New Mexico’s special session disperses money, but not without controversy.

The latest Wallethub report shows just how bad New Mexico’s economy is.

Bernalillo County recently passed a Community Workforce Agreement (aka project labor agreement) which mandates union control over labor on public works projects. On the first major such project, the County is NOT implementing the CWA…because it might increase costs. Just as we said.

On this week’s interview podcast, Paul talks to the Rio Grande Foundation’s own Patrick Brenner. Among Patrick’s many duties with the Foundation is fundraising, graphic design, maintaining and increasing our presence on the Internet, and public records.

With Giving Tuesday right around the corner and 2020 (blessedly) coming to a close, Patrick and Paul appraise the Foundation’s efforts during the past year and discuss some of the highlights and challenges for both the Foundation as well as the State of New Mexico of this strange and difficult year.

The recently-completed, one day special session of the New Mexico Legislature didn’t include issues of substance of interest to the Rio Grande Foundation (limited government, individual liberty). While much-needed legislation WAS introduced to limit the Gov.’s powers during a crisis, the Democrats who control both bodies, didn’t give the bill a hearing.

Instead, the Session was called to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars of federal CARES Act money. But, that doesn’t mean that no controversies erupted during the Special. In fact,  the following short video from the Session shows a testy exchange on the House floor.

Rep. Rebecca Dow had presented an amendment to the Relief bill that would have provided a $600 one-time payment to front line essential workers who make less than $15/hr. Speaker Egolf did not want his members to have to take a vote on the measure and he attempted to twist the rules in his favor. Rep. Jason Harper calls him on it in a heated exchange toward the end of this video.

On this week’s podcast, Paul and Wally discuss numerous problematic issues with the Gov.’s latest lockdown orders.

Paul identifies crazy problems with the Gov.’s lockdown policies.

New Mexico’s Legislature is about to go into a special session. What will happen?

Leftists: get rid of oil and gas and replace it with?   CO2 emissions dropped this year by 9.2% 

Debating corporate taxes with Bill Jordan of Voices. 

The Fraser Institute’s Freedom Index report for 2020 has been released. NM is 42nd.

New Mexico’s Educational Retirement Board has divested from private prisons and corrections companies. RGF takes issue with this.

To great acclaim and the sound of trumpets Netflix has added to their film “footprint” in New Mexico.

This is considered an undisputedly good thing by those who either don’t look at the details or don’t have a rudimentary understanding of math.

For starters there is the 25% film “tax credit” which is really a rebate of 25% of the costs of production. They get another 5% since they are qualified production facility, so that means taxpayers will reimburse Netflix for 30% of their spending in NM which according to the article will be an additional $1 billion. Based on this, the company will cash checks from New Mexico taxpayers for up to $300 million (and that’s just on their production spend).

As if that were not enough the State is providing $17 million in LEDA incentives; the City of Albuquerque is providing another $7 million in LEDA, and they will also provide an industrial revenue bond to abate some if not all property taxes over a 20-year term for the first $500 million investment to build out the facility.

In total Netflix will receive $300 million + $17 million + $7 million + the IRB tax abatement to eliminate their property taxes.

Finally, even though N.M. has annual cap on film tax rebate expenditures, the legislation exempted companies that purchase or sign a 10-year lease for a qualified production facility. Meaning the cap does not apply to Netflix.

In other words, Netflix is definitely going to grow and appear to create more jobs in New Mexico, but it will come at a tremendous cost (not just in lost revenue, but in actually spending) to both State and local taxpayers. This is both unfair AND unsustainable. The notorious New Mexico outlaw and thief Billy the Kid would be jealous.

Wallethub has continued to track (and we have continued to report) on the “recovery” in New Mexico’s unemployment situation during the COVID crisis.

According to their report released today, New Mexico’s unemployment insurance claims since this time last year are worse than any other state besides Kansas.

Also, New Mexico has recovered the least among states since the start of 2020.

Finally, illustrating the negative impact of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s recent shutdown policies, New Mexico’s unemployment saw the worst week-over-week increase over the prior week.

The following opinion piece by RGF president Paul Gessing appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News on November 22, 2020

Recently, both the Santa Fe and Rio Rancho school districts joined Albuquerque and Las Cruces schools in abandoning any in-person learning. Instead, for the foreseeable future all learning in New Mexico’s largest school districts will be done online. The odds seem very good that this situation will continue into 2021 and possibly through the end of the school year.

Oddly, while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham constantly tells us that her anti-COVID efforts are based “on the science,” leading health bodies like the CDC have recommended in-person learning. And, as a Nov. 16 email distributed nationally from the New York Times put it:

“The one indoor activity that appears to present less risk is school, especially elementary school. Why? Young children seem to spread the virus less often than adults do. “Research has shown that if you put social-distancing protocols in place, school is actually quite a safe environment,” Andreas Schleicher, who studies schools for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, told NPR.

Closing schools and switching entirely to remote learning, on the other hand, has big social costs. Children are learning less, and many parents, mostly mothers, have dropped out of the labor force. The U.S. is suffering from both of these problems and from a raging pandemic.

The upshot is that increasing numbers of parents have few choices when it comes to educating their children. That is, unless they can pay for and get their child enrolled in one of the religious or private schools around New Mexico that have been providing in-person learning throughout the school year (despite arbitrary occupancy restrictions imposed by the governor).

The governor 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. Earlier this year 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.

But, here in New Mexico the options most children are really limited.

• Students, often young ones without typing and computer skills engaged in virtual learning, sometimes without great Internet access;
• Spending scarce resources in these difficult times on private schools while continuing to pay taxes for government schools;
• Or, withdrawing students completely from government schools and having one or more parent or family member dedicated to educating children at home.

These are not great options for many New Mexico families. Returning to in-person learning is undoubtedly the best available option. It would also be great if New Mexico came up with something similar to what is happened in neighboring states at least as a start to helping families deal with the consequences of the ever-shifting educational playing field. Alas, New Mexico didn’t get to 50th in education by making good decisions.

Paul J. Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. 

Gov. Lujan Grisham’s COVID restriction policies officially “jumped the shark” this week when the combined effects of her 25% occupancy mandate (or 75 people including staff (a tiny number for a big-box store) conflicted with her edict that allows the New Mexico Department of Health to close workplaces down for two weeks if they have four or more COVID-19 rapid responses in a 14-day period. (see photos below).

While the four Rapid Response concept has some merit, the reality is that larger workforces (like big box stores) are going to have more cases than smaller ones and several of them have indeed been shut down.

Worsening the situation is the Gov.’s “let them eat cake”mentality expressed by her spokesperson by claiming that the grocery store lines were “a Republican talking point.”

As bad as this is for the urban denizens of Albuquerque or Santa Fe (particularly the elderly), imagine the challenge of living in a rural part of New Mexico where the nearest grocery store is a 45 minute or even a 90 minute drive away.

As an American I never thought I’d see people having to line up to wait in line for food. The capitalist system remains functional as food and other essentials are being produced, but the government’s COVID response is failing.

On this week’s interview show, Paul sits down with Grover Norquist, president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform. Grover is one of the most prominent voices for free markets and lower taxes in Washington.

The dust is still settling in the presidential election and there are two runoff elections underway in Georgia that could determine control of the US Senate. How did conservative issues and policies fare in the 2020 election? Grover and Paul go over ballot measures on everything from marijuana legalization to ride-sharing companies and racial preferences. Grover is optimistic both about the future of freedom and lower taxes around the nation.

Paul and Grover conclude the discussion by discussing how legislative control shifted at the state level and whether a prospective Biden Administration will tack leftward on various economic policies or whether there will be opportunities for Democrats and Republicans to work together over the next few years.