At the Rio Grande Foundation we focus on good public policy reforms and we’ll be doing that again when the new Legislature convenes in January. That said, New Mexico relies heavily on oil production and, in case you haven’t been paying attention, since early October prices are down dramatically from the mid-$70 range to the mid-$50 range.
Michelle Lujan-Grisham has some big spending plans, but will she have the money to carry them out? Markets are volatile and time will tell, but it just shows that creating “permanent” new spending programs based on rapidly-changing prices in a volatile market is not a good idea. It also points to the need for tax reform and other measures to diversify the New Mexico economy.
It will be interesting since the gov. elect and the new land commissioner both seem to “hate” the oil and gas industries…we here in SE NM would really like to secede to Texas.
I said that to a Roswell Rotary group a few years ago. That the best way to turn around their economy without action from Santa Fe would be to petition Texas for entry.