RGF president Paul Gessing recently sat down with KOAT TV Channel 7 to discuss Bernalillo County Assessor Damian Lara’s interesting approach to property tax assessments. The issue was discussed in more detail in a blog post here.
In addition to Gessing and Lara, the KOAT piece includes Doug Peterson, one of the largest landlords in New Mexico. While everyone wants to see properties maintained and filled with thriving businesses, those seem to be policy and enforcement considerations for the Mayor, City Council, and APD.
A recent editorial cartoon highlighted the vastly different approaches towards governance of New Mexico and Texas. The cartoon is of the state border circa 2030 as New Mexicans head to Texas for gas-powered vehicles (due to the recent regulations proposed by Gov. Lujan Grisham) while Texans visit NM for abortions and marijuana.
These are hardly the only differences between the two nowadays as Texas has no income tax or job-killing gross receipts tax, it is a right to work state, and state spending per-person is less than half of what it is in New Mexico. Not coincidentally, Texas is also one of the fastest growing states in the nation while New Mexico’s population is stagnant with young people leaving and being replaced by older people and retirees.
People have been talking about Texas’ economic success for decades, but a recent family vacation gave me the opportunity to see it firsthand. I have flown to several major Texas cities and have driven across the Panhandle more times than I care to recall, but this trip involved flying to Dallas and driving from all the way to Corpus Christi and the Gulf Coast. That’s a trip of over 400 miles including stops in major cities including Austin and San Antonio (in addition to Dallas).
We went deep in the heart of Texas and compared what we saw with our home state of New Mexico. Here’s what we saw.
It seems like all the roads in Texas are under construction. Yes, this is a hassle for visitors and commuters alike, but it also highlights the fact that more people and businesses require more infrastructure. Aside from the road construction, the interchanges are often complicated with extremely high overpasses. Finally, just the sheer amount of construction equipment involved highlights the size and scale of these projects. Construction projects are definitely bigger in Texas.
Setting aside roads and bridges, businesses are flocking to Texas as well. The Tesla plant outside Austin is the largest manufacturing space in the United States by floor area. Even in and around small towns construction was under way on significant buildings and cranes often dotted the skyline.
Texas rest areas are incredible. One might think that with New Mexico having two of the nation’s most important east/west highways (I-40 and I-10) running through it (and a booming budget), would invest the tiny level of resources needed to make rest areas a place people want to stop and feel safe and comfortable doing so. This is especially true given the lack of road-side amenities available on many of our highways. Sadly, New Mexico’s rest areas are meager and often in a state of disrepair. Texas has playgrounds and historical/local interest information available for those who need a potty break or just want to stretch their legs.
Texas is booming. It provides a business-friendly environment and a government that does the basics well and at less than half the cost per resident.
While New Mexicans have a long-standing historical resentment of the Lone Star State, but the entrepreneurial, pro capitalist culture and polices clearly have a lot to be said for them. New Mexico can’t and shouldn’t be Texas, but we can also learn some valuable lessons from it.
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
While not discussed in detail in the article, our primary concern is that City Council has a chance to fully vet and vote on the plan which would use city-owned land at Balloon Fiesta Park. The plan would (unfortunately) spend $13.5 million in State funding but we need to know what, if any, liabilities could be faced by Albuquerque taxpayers. It is also important to understand what the real impacts of the stadium will be on Balloon Fiesta Park’s parking situation and what alternatives could be undertaken with this land.
In summary, this is yet another “big ticket” taxpayer-financed project foisted upon us when what the City desperately needs is improved public safety and an improved economic climate (not to mention a better education system). A neon tumbleweed structure may be nice, but it is certainly not a core government function regardless of your broader thoughts on bike trails and Albuquerque’s extensive trail network.
The Rio Grande Foundation, alongside the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute have led a coalition letter (available here) of state-based and national free market organizations and leaders in expressing serious concerns about provisions contained in the “Railway Safety Act,” (S. 576) which is now moving through Congress.
Among the numerous issues with the bill is its arbitrary 2 person crew mandate;
A massive new regulatory burden (imposed absent any cost-benefit analysis) on movement of hazardous materials;
Enshrinement of mandates for trackside detectors and other technologies that locks a single technology into law. When government does this the public suffers as industry lacks the flexibility or incentive to pursue next-generation technologies.
The following article appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News and other media outlets on June 30, 2023.
Once again New Mexico is at the very bottom of a list. Kids Count 2023 is compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation with distribution and media handled by New Mexico Voices for Children.
While it is not the report Rio Grande Foundation would compile, the 16 variables considered in do highlight issues regarding the well-being of New Mexico children. Sadly, like so many similar reports, the results are not good for our state. What is unique is the positive spin being applied by Voices for Children.
As Voices for Children’s Amber Wallin recently wrote in an opinion piece, “you shouldn’t let the rankings get you down because they don’t tell us how far we’ve come.” We politely disagree and believe that Voices would not have the same sanguine viewpoint if a Republican governor or Legislature were calling the shots.
In 2019 the organization’s then Director James Jimenez said of New Mexico’s 50th ranking, “It is very much a reflection of what happened, and more specifically, what didn’t happen during the Martinez years.”
We took a careful look through this year’s report and found that of the 16 variables, 9 of them got worse while 6 improved (one stayed the same). That is hardly cause for celebration.
Perhaps even more interesting than the overall results is New Mexico’s poor performance in four “COVID-related” indicators. In our view these include:
79 percent of New Mexico fourth graders are not proficient in reading. This number has dropped 4 percent since 2019;
87 percent of eight graders are not proficient in math. This number has dropped by 10% since 2019;
New Mexico’s child and teen death rate per 100K worsened by 16 percent since 2020;
The percent of youth who are overweight or obese has worsened by 6 percent since 2019-2020.
These four variables (of the 16 in the report) have significant connections to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s COVID lockdown policies that locked our kids out of school for over a year and encouraged New Mexicans to stay inside and isolate themselves from other people.
The good news is that the COVID pandemic is over, as are the Gov.’s restrictions. Sadly, as critics pointed out at the time, the impacts of her policies were clearly going to do more harm than good. Will the kids, especially those from poor families be able to recover? It is hard to say.
What is clear is that after more than four years in office and with the benefit of an unprecedented oil boom, massive spending increases haven’t improved New Mexico’s 50th-place performance. We recommend going a different direction from the government-driven status quo (a status quo that has dominated New Mexico for nearly a century).
Instead of more government programs we can use the oil and gas surplus to reform our anti-business gross receipts tax and then focus on eliminating the anti-work personal income and corporate taxes. Make New Mexico the jobs and economic growth hub of the Americans Southwest and watch as good paying jobs and economic opportunity improve education, social, and economic outcomes for our children and all New Mexicans.
We are a long way psychologically and politically from breaking out of the big-government paradigm, but it is long overdue. After all, it’s for the children.
Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility
The following appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News and numerous other newspapers on June 18, 2022.
According to New Mexico’s Tax and Revenue Department rebate checks (or transfers to bank accounts) will be going out at any time during the middle of June. At the Rio Grande Foundation we welcome the $500 or $1,000 (depending on single/married filing status). This is especially true at a time when inflation is rising faster than wages.
But New Mexico is in the midst of an unprecedented boom in its oil and gas industry and, while those checks are nice, they are a pittance relative to the windfall being experienced in State government. Worse, unless the Legislature and Gov. take concrete action and soon to diversify the economy, New Mexico will waste this unique opportunity.
First the numbers: according to the Legislature’s analysts, the one-time “cost” of the rebates is $667 million. You may recall that the Legislature began the 2023 session with a surplus of $3.6 billion and spent $1.2 billion of that.
Though new spending was “just” double the amount of the rebates, the reality is that almost all of the money not spent this year will be put into reserves to be spent in the future. That means that more than 80 percent of this year’s budget surplus will ultimately be spent (unless the Legislature enacts some real tax cuts in the 2024 session).
It is widely acknowledged that New Mexico needs to diversify its economy, but neither more spending nor one-time rebates will do that. When will Lujan Grisham and Democrats in the Legislature get serious about making New Mexico less dependent on oil and gas?
While RGF applauds genuine efforts to diversify the economy, oil and gas revenues show no sign of slowing down. That’s because New Mexico is in a production-driven boom, not a price-driven boom. So, rather than allowing a scarcity mentality to drive tax cut and tax reform decisions, policymakers should understand that strong revenues are here for the foreseeable future and should be used to get New Mexico out of its unnecessarily impoverished state.
Like all New Mexicans we at the Rio Grande Foundation welcome these rebates. What we are looking for out of Lujan Grisham and the Legislature is some kind of coherent economic strategy (besides simply spending more money). It is time to translate our oil and gas wealth into prosperity for ALL New Mexicans. That requires average New Mexicans to engage with and hold this Legislature and Gov. accountable for their policy decisions.
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
Judge Glock, Director of Research at the Manhattan Institute, is an expert on homeless policy in the United States. On June 14 he gave a presentation in Albuquerque and also sat down with Bob Clark of KKOB radio.
The following article by William Patrick Leonard, senior fellow with the Rio Grande Foundation, was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on 6/4/23.
According to the state Attorney General’s Office, “The Inspection of Public Records Act is intended to provide the public with access to information on governmental affairs. The law requires public access to virtually all public records with a few exceptions. Most records are available for public inspection.”
Early responses were encouraging. One research institution responded within three days. Three comprehensives and one research institution sent the requested data within two weeks. All were com- plete, although varying in format. New Mexico Highlands and UNM were non-compliant. The latter quickly denied my request, claiming an exemption from an Attorney General’s Office finding in an unrelated municipal case.
The following briefly describes how New Mexico’s public research and comprehensive universities responded to a request for data.
I appealed, noting that its rationale was flawed. Highlands was more evasive. Initially, I was redirected to other officers within the institution. Finally, I was advised that the officer responsible was off campus and unavailable to respond. My subsequent attempts failed.
I requested the number of first- time, full-time fall 2017 through 2021 New Mexico enrollees required to take between one and four remedial courses; the number completing that fall term; and the number enrolling in the subsequent spring term.
The two institutions employed different noncompliance tactics. Both appeared to have the same goal: wear the requester out. Follow- ing the Public Records Act, I sought the state’s Attorney General Office’s assistance. Some communication between the agency and Highlands led to a response that it did not have any enrolled students required to register in remedial coursework.
I first filed a public information request form with the listed custodians at the state’s public universities — Eastern New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, Northern New Mex- ico College, the University of New Mexico and Western New Mexico University suggested otherwise.
Highlands does enroll probationary and non-degree students. Further, its catalog lists a course, “English Reading and Writing for Inquiry. This course offers instruction and practice in college-level critical reading and writing skills. It is designed to give students experienceand practice developing academic inquiry needed for much of their course- work.
While the data sought likely exists, it appears to be secret. Why the institution did not reveal its current policy remains unanswered. The Attorney General’s Office appears to haveclosed the case.
The AG’s approach to UNM, cit- ing the cover of an unrelated municipal case, has remained unresolved.I was informed that it had queried the institution and referred its response to the attorneys.Three subsequent requests for the resolution to the AG’s Office have yet to receive a response.
Five of seven relatively prompt responses suggest my request did not pose major assembly or confidentiality issues.My experience indicates the Inspection of Public Records Act’s measured enforcement facilitates selective noncompliance.
Why fight the law? The prompt response from five of seven does not suggest resource issues. Perhaps the data sought challenges a desired public image. Since the data sought focuses on the graduates of New Mexico’s primary and secondary schools,any embarrassment should be rested.
Revoking the law has been advanced. It would only lead to lengthy and costly lawsuits.A more reasonable solution would include timely and consistent compliance and enforcement.
William Patrick Leonard is a senior fellow with the Rio Grande Foundation.
