In a moment of sanity Monday night Albuquerque’s City Council voted down a proposal to offer “hazard pay” to force businesses to pay workers during the pandemic more and a separate plan that would have created a new mandatory sick leave plan was withdrawn.
The sick leave ordinance would have required businesses that are within Albuquerque’s city limits to give full-time employees 80 hours of sick pay until the end of the year and create a new paid sick leave mandate. 80 hours of sick pay would be 2 full weeks during the last 25 or so weeks of the year.
The Council’s reasonableness is welcome, but of course we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to mandatory paid sick leave. Voters have previously rejected such plans and yet Councilors like Ike Benton keep pushing the issue. At least for now businesses that have been hammered by the economic shutdown, destructive riots, the loss of Balloon Fiesta and the State Fair, and many other economic drivers won’t face additional costs…for now.
Charles Sullivan writing at the popular American Thinker website takes apart Spaceport America in a recent column. He also generously mentions the Rio Grande Foundation and our tireless efforts to oppose and shed light on the poor prospects for the facility.
Yes, as reported, Virgin Galactic had a 2nd successful “glide” landing last week, but that is a very long way indeed from regular commercial space launches that take customers to the edge of space.
While we at the Rio Grande Foundation share the hopes of all New Mexicans that successful launches will eventually take place at the facility, it was always a mistake for the political leadership of our state to spend hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on the facility which has now been open for nearly a decade.
When will Virgin Galactic launch its first group of paying customers? I’d bet the farm it won’t be 2020. Maybe 2021 or 2022? The fact is that we have no idea and neither do they. A decade in and Charles Sullivan’s critique is relevant when the discussion turns to FUTURE taxpayer-financed projects.
On this week’s podcast interview Paul talks to Jason Espinoza. Jason does lobbying in the New Mexico Legislature as well as at the City of Albuquerque.
Jason and Paul discuss the recently-completed special session of the Legislature which resulted in various budget cuts as well as some assistance for small businesses and police/criminal justice reforms. Overall Paul and Jason agree that, despite serious transparency issues/concerns the Session was reasonably successful.
Then, Paul and Jason turn their attention to the sick leave mandate being considered in the City of Albuquerque and how that anti-business ordinance would hit businesses at a time when many of them are just recovering from being shut down or are STILL shut down by the Governor’s orders.
Rio Grande Foundation President, Paul Gessing reviews the following hot-button political issues in New Mexico over the past three weeks:
The Rio Grande Foundation is no shill for higher spending on the state’s top-heavy, bloated, and ineffective K-12 system, but as New Mexico students return to school this fall there is no question that costs will rise as PED, districts, and schools deal with the fallout of COVID 19.
Justified or no, that fallout includes mandatory masks for all students and staff, “staggered” schedules, virtual learning, and temperature reading before entry to the school. All of these will be expensive.
But, through a “swap” the Democrat-controlled Legislature (with the support of a handful of Senate Republicans) took $44 million earmarked under the CARES Act for schools to deal with COVID 19 and shifted it to general spending. Of course, while the Legislature was busy reducing funding to an education system that faces both a lawsuit (Yazzie) AND an unprecedented reality of dealing with COVID 19, they saw fit to keep $300 of the $320 million earmarked for a NEW early childhood permanent fund and $5 million for the Gov.’s “free” college scheme.
The likely upshot is that when the Legislature convenes in 2021 the K-12 system will be dealing with a funding shortfall and Gov. and Democrats in the Legislature will demand tax increases or the use of permanent fund money to make ends meet.
KOAT TV Channel 7 and the Rio Grande Foundation are both tracking COVID 19 spending in New Mexico. You can find an interactive chart for New Mexico and other states here.
Notably, New Mexico’s COVID 19 spending is concentrated in areas of the State that have had serious impacts from the Virus. Also, New Mexico has received MUCH more money from the Feds than other states including those of similar populations (like Nebraska).
You can click on the screenshot below or click here to watch the story.
On this week’s discussion, many topics including: Balloon Fiesta canceled and with it the $187 million annual impact. Will the State Fair and other events be next?
On Friday David Scrase put New Mexico’s opening on hold for 2 more weeks. What metrics are they using anyway? WalletHub study reports that New Mexico is the state with the most coronavirus restrictions.
Albuquerque’s two “dollar theaters” have closed permanently.
The Legislature met (in relative secret). What happened and what about the NM Supreme Court case that allowed this to happen?
New Mexico is 50th again in Kids Count Report. What will schools look like this fall? We may have a better understanding than before.
It’s back…Albuquerque’s mandatory paid sick leave could be voted on as early as June 29th.
There’s no doubt that New Mexico’s reopening has been chaotic and seemingly based on mere whims as opposed to science. On Friday with the Legislature’s special session taking most of the media attention, David Scrase, the Gov’s health/COVID 19 “guru” held his own press conference (without the Gov.) to tell New Mexicans that the reopening of our State will be on hold for at least two weeks (from July 1).
Of course, based on the Gov.’s original phased opening plan which was released back in late April we are WAY behind in terms of reopening. As the screen shot below shows, the original plan was for theaters, bars, and casinos to have opened in early June.
Also, as we have noted elsewhere, there are STILL numerous businesses and services that seem to have fallen through the cracks: studio gyms (like yoga and pilates), amusement parks, swimming pools, entertainment centers, wineries, and more continue to be shut down with no reopening in sight. Churches remain at 25% capacity.
Is there a rhyme or reason to the Administration’s policies? If so it is hard to tell. At the Rio Grande Foundation and along with Power The Future NM we released a plan several months ago to “Fairly Open” New Mexico. Of course, as someone from out of state recently complained with regard to this situation (and a planned meeting here), “Your state does not make it easy to find info. LOL!” 
Before this post was even finalized we found out that the International Balloon Fiesta has been canceled for 2020. Major events with large numbers of people would be tricky under COVID 19 circumstances, but one wishes we had a clearer path forward than the one Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Administration has given us.
New Mexico’s School Reentry Task Force has made its recommendations for how schools will look this fall. If the Gov. adopts them the educational experiences of the State’s children will look dramatically different and I suspect that many more students will opt for school choice or even home school options. KOB TV has a story here. The full recommendations are here.
Among the most important recommendations are:
There are numerous questions and points to be made about this. Obviously the mask issue is a big one. Wearing a mask for long periods of time is uncomfortable for disciplined adults. Getting young children and teenagers will be a major challenge.
Maintaining social distancing is also going to be a deal breaker. For young people the social aspect of school is a major component of the entire experience.
Staggered attendance sounds like a good idea, but the real result for parents would likely be days spent hauling kids back and forth from school. Admittedly child care is a big part of what parents get out of education. Forcing them to run students to and from school throughout the day is not going to please anyone.
Will non-public school or charter schools be more innovative or open than these recommendations provide? Will home schooling experience an unprecedented boom as many expect?
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On this week’s interview podcast, Paul interviews Rep. Rebecca Dow. Paul and Rebecca discuss the recent primary election results and the major changes that will be taking place in Santa Fe in 2021. They also discuss the impending special session of the New Mexico Legislature and what will or won’t happen. At the time of recording, they were not privy to the New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision NOT to open the Roundhouse to public participation in the session.
Finally, Rebecca and Paul discuss the situation at Elephant Butte Lake State Park which is in Rebecca’s district and how that facility is being opened by the State. They also discuss the possibility of state meat inspections and how that could help New Mexico based ranchers.
Leave it up to the “leadership” of a City already distracted by stark public safety issues in a State that is embarking upon a controversial special session after a long period of economically-devastating “lockdown” to decide “now is the time to impose a costly new sick leave mandate on local businesses.”
You can read about the proposal (although it is complicated and unclear) in the Albuquerque Journal.
Forcing Albuquerque businesses to pay mandatory sick leave is much the same as a tax increase which the Rio Grande Foundation has advocated so strongly against in the Legislature.
The LAST thing that businesses (many of which remain shut down) already struggling to recover from the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forcing businesses to pay out significant amounts at a time when revenue is way down will lead to more businesses closing and more
lost jobs for our city.
Of course Albuquerque voters already rejected mandatory paid sick leave in 2017, but that wasn’t the result the well-funded advocacy groups and “progressive” city councilors wanted, so here we are.
Email members of the Albuquerque City Council and tell them “No paid sick leave mandate!” You can read the text of the proposed ordinance here.
Lan Sena: lansena@cabq.gov
Isaac Benton: ibenton@cabq.gov
Klarissa Pena: kpena@cabq.gov
Brook Bassan: bbassan@cabq.gov
Cynthia Borrego: cynthiaborrego@cabq.gov
Pat Davis: patdavis@cabq.gov
Diane Gibson: dgibson@cabq.gov
Trudy Jones: trudyjones@cabq.gov
Don Harris: dharris@cabq.gov
The Special Session starts June 18 and there is going to be a lot on the agenda for the Legislature to consider in a very short time and with minimal public involvement.
For starters, there is the budget which is the primary reason for the Session in the first place. The executive budget framework includes cuts to state agency budgets, grants to local governments and sovereign nations and a preservation of a portion of the pay raises that had been scheduled for educators while using the state’s unprecedented reserves and federal funding to patch the budget hole created by the shutdown of New Mexico’s economy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
RGF’s take: It is important that the bloated budget passed in 2020 be adjusted, but it appears that the Gov. and the Legislature will wait on the 2021 session to make most of the hard choices about further cuts to New Mexico’s government.
Unfortunately, many of the proposed bills are simply not available online as the session kicks off. So, we are basing these discussions on descriptions in an article by Dan Boyd of the Albuquerque Journal.
As discussed above, this is what you got if you looked for “all bills” introduced in the 2020 special session.
The Rio Grande Foundation is not a fan of teachers unions or any public employee unions. We share President Franklin Roosevelt’s concern that unionizing public employees is very different from unionizing private sector employees.
But, a natural experiment that resulted in a study out of Yale University adds to the strength of our argument. As the screenshot below clearly states, “mandatory teacher bargaining laws increase the performance of high-achieving students while simultaneously lowering the performance of poorly achieving students.”
The logic is simple. In the absence of collective bargaining (unions) districts can use incentives to encourage the best teachers to go into tougher, low-income and minority schools. With unions negotiating on teachers’ behalf the best teachers choose to go to the best (easiest) schools.
It would seem that the issue of collective bargaining should at least be on the table as New Mexico works to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students, but you can count on the unions to work very hard in opposition to anything that weakens their power.
On this week’s discussion episode, Paul and Wally discuss the Special Session of the New Mexico Legislature which begins June 18. As of the recording of this podcast, it will NOT be open to the public. That decision has been appealed to New Mexico’s Supreme Court.
When the Legislature DOES meet Wally and Paul believe that the Legislature will largely“kick the can” down the road to beyond the November election.
Gov. Lujan Grisham has reopened breweries as the RGF requested recently. Bars, fitness studios, entertainment centers remain closed.
Paul has recently been on KOAT TV Channel 7 discussing various potential budget issues. One story addressed the $34 million in COVID 19 expenses.
The Rio Grande Foundation has long argued that New Mexico needs to develop its private sector economy beyond the oil and gas industry (we support oil and gas, but believe New Mexico relies too much on this volatile source of jobs and revenues).
A new report from Wallethub confirms that New Mexico is the MOST reliant state in the nation.
Check out the interactive map below:
The other “most reliant” states are Kentucky, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Arizona a 9th-most reliant is the most reliant state bordering on New Mexico while Utah at 46th is the least reliant.
Due to the shutdown of New Mexico’s economy during the COVID19 outbreak New Mexico businesses have had to furlough or let go large numbers of their workers. This is going to potentially have serious repercussions for the State’s unemployment insurance fund and the payments those businesses must make to that fund.
This article by Carol Wight of the New Mexico Restaurant Association addressed the issue from the 2008-2009 economic crisis. Unfortunately, if the political leadership of New Mexico is not prudent, businesses could be deeply impacted, even if they are able to recover from the shutdown.
You can watch the story here:
On this week’s interview podcast, Paul sits down with Roswell Mayor Dennis Kintigh. Paul and Dennis discuss the economy of Southeast including the increased economic impact of the old Walker AFB. Dennis is a former State legislator so the two discuss Dennis’ work in the Legislature on limiting film subsidies and they also talk about the big shifts in the Legislature in the recent primary election.
With New Mexico’s Special Session to begin (in darkness) on June 18, the Gov. has finally put out her main proposals for addressing the economic situation. KOB TV Channel 4 has the details (the proposals weren’t listed on the Gov.’s official website).
According to KOB, the plan is to:
The Gov. added that “furloughs and layoffs are not on the table.”
In other words, no serious action will be taken to address the budget. While many businesses STILL remain shut down by order of the Gov. and the economy struggles to regain momentum New Mexico government employees will not only NOT suffer any pain from being “all in this together,” they will see pay raises.
1) The Gov. is hoping that recent “progressive” gains will give her the freedom to tap New Mexico’s various permanent funds in January and beyond if needed. Some of those dollars may be used to support businesses impacted under COVID19 in a move that could prove politically-popular (providing support/stimulus for businesses without raising taxes by tapping permanent fund dollars);
3) As the newly-minted leader of the Senate “progressives” Sen. Jerry Ortiz Y Pino outlined in a recent column, tax hikes are very much on the table.
$34 million and counting is what New Mexico has spent so far on fighting COVID19. Federal CARES Act money should be available and more than enough so as to not impact New Mexico’s budget (the shutdown is another matter).
But, as Gessing cautions in his brief comment for the story here and on the picture, politicians have a tendency to spend money for purposes that aren’t necessarily as intended.
By now you may have heard that the special session set to kick off in Santa Fe on June 18 will be closed to the public. Set aside the constantly changing “science” behind the lockdowns and the ongoing restrictions on our personal liberties. The simple truth is that if New Mexicans can shop in big-box stores and malls with some restrictions, they should be able to weigh in on the future of their state and the (as of yet unknown) policy changes being proposed by Gov. Lujan Grisham.
Yes, the New Mexico Legislature is SUPPOSED to meet in public. But the majority can make its own rules, so it is Democrats only who get to determine whether the public is allowed in although I think the courts will have the final say.
Ultimately, more innovative solutions could be put into place. After all, committee meetings already have limited space due to fire restrictions. The same could be done just on another level with entrance to the building itself and Committee rooms themselves.
On this week’s Tipping Point New Mexico discussion Paul and Wally discuss the fact that over the weekend Paul got tested for COVID 19. He was not feeling well late last week and went ahead and got the test. It was negative, thank goodness. Paul explains the process and what happened.
There’s a serious discussion going on in Minneapolis and other cities about abolishing the Police. Others are discussing reforming the police. What can actually be done? Parallels between police unions and teachers’ unions.
In the biggest New Mexico-specific news of the last week, the recent primary election means some big changes are ahead in New Mexico’s Legislature. Paul and Wally discuss the results and likely political and policy outcomes for New Mexico.
Adding on to that discussion of the Legislature, Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino’s writes in the Albuquerque Journal with an absurd “plan” to eliminate oil & gas in NM. Wally and Paul discuss the rise of Ortiz y Pino from “Comrade Jerry” to being the de-facto “leader” of the NM Senate’s “progressives” and why you can’t dismiss his insanity out of hand.
Good news? A national poll from Wallethub shows that Americans overwhelmingly oppose tax hikes. Question: After the economy recovers, should tax rates go up to cover the cost of coronavirus pandemic?
Finally, Paul and Wally have a brief conversation about the special session and what, if anything will happen.
Comparing school districts in New Mexico is often challenging. Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is one of the largest districts in the entire country. With that come certain “efficiencies of scale” as well as some serious drawbacks.
The answer is to compare similar districts with roughly similar demographics across state lines. Laura Abendroth a policy analyst with the Rio Grande Foundation has crunched the numbers in a detailed research project on the issue of school funding among various school districts of similar demographics. The paper is, “Albuquerque Public Schools v. Southwestern Regional School Districts: How Does Spending and Student Performance Stack Up?”
In advance of this project Abendroth considered numerous large school districts in states surrounding New Mexico. The primary consideration (aside from size) was demographics and poverty.
In addition to APS, Abendroth studied the Austin (TX) ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Denver Public Schools, Mesa Public Schools, and Alpine (UT) Public Schools.
Making solid comparisons across state lines is never easy. For example APS has the highest percentage of Hispanics and Native Americans of the districts studied, but APS has a lower percentage of “English Language Learners” than any district beside Alpine.
Abendroth found (during the 2019-2020 school year) that while Austin ISD’s spending is quite high relative to ALL other districts studied at $28,000 per pupil, APS spends the next-largest amount at $17,571. Denver spent $16,000 per pupil and the other districts all spent $11,000 or so. So, APS is a relatively big-spender on a per-pupil basis.
Indeed APS spends about 20% of its operating budget on capital projects while the other districts spend just 10% of their budgets. Notably, most of those districts have smaller overall budgets, thus making that capital outlay figure even larger in real terms.
Also, APS DOES spend a lot of money in the classroom. In fact, APS class sizes are just 10.7. Austin and Fort Worth are in the mid-teens per class while Denver and Mesa are very close to 20. Alpine School District has 23.6 students on average.
Unfortunately for APS students all of this spending and extra attention in the classroom doesn’t have the impact we would like. Across the board (in terms of graduation and 4thand 8thgrade reading and math NAEP scores) APS only outperforms Fort Worth ISD. To be blunt, APS taxpayers are not really getting their money’s worth.
While solutions are beyond the scope of Abendroth’s paper the Rio Grande Foundation has touted more robust “school choice” options, elimination of LEED mandates and “Prevailing Wage” laws both of which drive up construction costs, and reduction in overall District overhead.
UPDATE: this post was written on Tuesday, June 9. The Gov. announced the partial reopening of breweries on June 11. Bars remain closed.
As with so many aspects of our Gov.’s economic shutdown the “science” behind the ongoing shutdown of bars and breweries just doesn’t add up. The Gov.’s plan is here. It doesn’t even mention bars and breweries (who, by the way have been incredibly quiet and patient during this shutdown).
One assumes that the reasoning behind the shutdown goes something like this: people drink at these places and drinking can cause a loss of judgement, thus a loss of “social distancing.”
That is all fine, but many breweries in particular have patios and outdoor seating. It seems hard to believe those couldn’t have been opened months ago. Of course the difference between a “restaurant” and a “bar” or “brewery” is not always apparent. It simply has to do with the percentage of food sold relative to alcohol.
New Mexico’s brewing industry was one of the State’s real economic success stories due in large part to some big tax changes made by the Legislature. One wonders how these businesses are faring and how many of them will open when the Gov. finally allows them to get back to business. One hopes that is on June 15 (or even June 12 to get the weekend started).
Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino has been in politics a long time. We even see eye-to-eye on a small handful of issues and our interactions have always been cordial (I wish I could say the same about other New Mexico “progressives.” But, his recent opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal in which he argued that New Mexico should “end its oil revenue addiction” is foolhardy and dangerous.
While you should read the piece for yourself, Ortiz y Pino essentially argues that New Mexico should stop “relying” on oil and gas revenues. He doesn’t imply shutting down the entire industry. Indeed his argument is not directly an environmental one. However, he implies that there is some realistic way for New Mexico government to keep spending at current levels while completely eliminating 30% (he claims) or more of the State budget (oil and gas). Other reports say oil and gas are 40%, but at this point who’s really counting?
What does Jerry argue should replace the Industry? If you said tax hikes, you are a WINNER! He wants to “eliminate” Bill Richardson’s tax cuts, Susana Martinez’s tax cuts, eliminate GRT exemptions, tap the (oil and gas generated) Land Grant and Severance Permanent funds, raise capital gains taxes, and increase taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline.
Truly, this is a recipe for economic disaster. But, with “moderates” like John Arthur Smith riding off into the proverbial sunset, “progressives” especially those who have seniority like Ortiz y Pino will be empowered. If he gets his way good luck New Mexico!
The good news is even former Gov. Bill Richardson opposes raising taxes. So do 72 percent of Americans according to a recent poll from WalletHub. The Rio Grande Foundation is collecting legislative/candidate pledges to NOT raise taxes
