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.

This tweet was posted on Thursday, November 19. The writer is New Mexico Speaker of the House Brian Egolf’s Chief of Staff. Of course, most major New Mexico school districts have shut down in-person learning and the rest are doing “hybrid” learning at best. Sports were shut down in New Mexico including golf and cross country.

And this all comes on top of the fact that the left’s own advocacy group ranks New Mexico 50th for children’s well being. This, in spite (or more likely because of) New Mexico’s 90+ years of Democrat dominance.

As RGF responds, have YOU heard anything from Speaker Egolf about the way Gov. Lujan Grisham has handled the lockdown? Has he said New Mexico schools should reopen or that fall non-contact sports should be played? We haven’t heard whether the Speaker will support efforts to reign in the power of this or any governor to take such drastic action as we have seen during this crisis over many months and without legislative input.

Recently, New Mexico’s Educational Retirement Board (ERB) made the decision to divest itself from private prisons. Supporters of such a move have painted such companies in a very negative light with little justification.

Patrick Brenner, a policy analyst with the Rio Grande Foundation, submitted the following letter to the Albuquerque Journal. It was published on Monday, November 16, 2020.

I read the guest column, “ERB right to help dismantle unjust prison system,” published in the Albuquerque Journal on Nov. 8 and feel compelled to offer a response. The author is certainly entitled to her opinions about the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s decision to divest from private prisons, but she appears to be unclear on some of her facts.

The family separation mentioned in the column is a serious issue, but GEO does not manage any shelters or facilities housing unaccompanied minors, nor does it run any border patrol holding facilities along the U.S. southwest border.

What GEO does do is provide safe and humane residential care, including at the modern immigration Processing Centers it manages for the federal government that feature amenities such as artificial turf soccer fields, flat screen TVs in living areas, and indoor and outdoor recreation. These amenities are not usually available in government-operated facilities.

Unfortunately, the divestment campaign is based on an incorrect narrative and a mischaracterization of the role of GEO and other private contractors in this field who ultimately must answer to federal and state governments who are both their customers and regulate the terms of their contracts.

The latest Economic Freedom Index of North America report is out from the free market Canadian think tank Fraser Institute.

Overall, New Mexico ranks 42nd nationally in the Index which ranks US states on various measures including: “government spending,” taxes, regulations, and legal system/property rights. All of New Mexico’s neighbors are among the most economically-free states in the nation.

As can be seen in the chart below that, while people in the most economically-free half of jurisdictions have higher incomes than others, it is the least economically-free jurisdictions like New Mexico that really lag behind dramatically. It is not surprising that New Mexico is among the most impoverished states in the nation.

Twitter is a useful and frustrating tool. Bill Jordan who lobbies on behalf of one of the many liberal groups that lobbies the Legislature here in New Mexico recently posted the following. Now, we know that the rich don’t really pay less taxes than the poor in NM (we’ve had this discussion/argument with Bill numerous times). And, New Mexico corporations also pay millions of dollars in corporate income taxes as well as other taxes to the State of NM (much of which is used for education).

You can see the corporate tax data on page A-2.1 of the Gov.’s budget which shows that the State collected an estimated $133 million for FY 22.

But, Bill DOES have a point. A line item called “refundable” CIT credits vastly reduces the corporate tax burden. A friendly lobbyist in Santa Fe helped us figure things out. Much of that “refundable” loss comes in the form of film subsidies. 

Check out the paragraph below which is from page 11 of this report from the Legislative Finance Committee:

In other words, thanks to film subsidies being “booked” against corporate income taxes in ways that seem to reduce New Mexico’s corporate tax revenues to zero (or even below). The Rio Grande Foundation has consistently opposed film subsidies from day one, but Voices would rather misleadingly claim that corporations don’t pay taxes and ignore what is really happening.

Gov. Lujan Grisham places New Mexico on full lockdown again. Paul and Wally discuss the implications. Notably, New Mexico’s booming real estate sector (residential is especially strong) is NOT considered an essential business this time around. 

How long will this two weeks REALLY last? Wally and Paul believe it will be quite a bit longer. There is a lot to discuss on this important issue.

Albuquerque City Council pushed the vote on mandatory sick leave back by a week. Paul and Wally agree that imposing such a policy under the current more thorough lockdown would be even more problematic than before.

Oddly, while Gov. 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 November 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.

What’s going on with the schools? Most big districts are shut down. Not much help for families while other states have been helping.

Finally, the NM House GOP makes an interesting proposal for the 2021 legislative session

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.