Rio Grande Foundation

Understanding spending and its growth under Gov. MLG

Paul Gessing — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:17:10 +0000

A policy blogger named Maria Davidson recently started posting a series of charts contrasting the growth in state spending vs the growth in the same state’s population over the past decade (one for California is linked). I asked for a New Mexico version of her chart, but none was forthcoming, so I made my own. But then […]

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Opinion piece: Curley effect is keeping N.M. stagnant

Paul Gessing — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:33:08 +0000

The following appeared on April 5, 2026 in the Santa Fe New Mexican. The article also appeared in papers across New Mexico. I recently came across a concept called the Curley Effect. It has nothing to do with Larry and Moe. After some research, I learned the Curley Effect, coined by economists Edward L. Glaeser […]

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Opinion piece: Ranked Choice Voting the Wrong Approach

Paul Gessing — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:51:23 +0000

The following appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on April 4, 2026 Albuquerque’s “progressives” are at it again. Ever since Republican RJ Berry won a three-way election for mayor in 2009 (against two Democrats), Albuquerque has had runoff elections requiring candidates to achieve more than 50% of the vote. These runoffs can be costly. The city […]

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RGF weighs in against proposed Albuquerque gross receipts tax hike in KOAT 7 story

Paul Gessing — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:10:08 +0000

RGF has been very active in opposing the plan to enact a massive gross receipts tax hike at Albuquerque City Council. You can find out more about the plan here and even use the links in the post to reach out to your council members. RGF president Paul Gessing recently sat down with KOAT 7 […]

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Opinion piece: RGF opinion piece: Medical malpractice success a win, but more needed

Paul Gessing — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:45:39 +0000

The following appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on March 2nd, 2026 and in other newspapers across New Mexico. The passage of medical malpractice reform is the most important public policy success in New Mexico in more than a decade. It took support from New Mexicans of every political stripe and a bipartisan coalition in the Legislature to […]

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RGF Freedom Index Results Finalized

Paul Gessing — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:43:34 +0000

As we have done for more than a decade, the Rio Grande Foundation has tracked the votes in New Mexico’s legislative sessions. The 2026 session was a short, 30-day legislative session, but some momentous bills passed (for better AND worse) and some horrible bills that could have passed were defeated, but often included floor votes […]

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RGF talks to KOAT TV about roads

Paul Gessing — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:09:13 +0000

SB 2 has passed which means that the road issue has been “put to bed” for the time being. The bill which has been signed by the Gov. includes: $1.5 billion in new road spending via a bond (debt) package. This also includes: A 35% increase in the weight-distance tax on trucks A 25% increase […]

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RGF opinion piece: Data centers are coming: How to handle them

Paul Gessing — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:48:21 +0000

The following appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican on January 10, 2026. It has appeared in several other publications as well. After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, with the […]

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ABQ Ethics Board Dismisses frivolous “sweatshirt-gate” ethics complaint made by Keller campaign against RGF’s Paul Gessing

Paul Gessing — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:08:39 +0000

This afternoon in a hearing, the Albuquerque Board of Ethics (BOE) unanimously dismissed a complaint filed by Daymon Ely for the Tim Keller campaign that was made against Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing. The complaint arose out of the Foundation’s reporting over the purchase and delivery of yellow hoodie sweatshirts to members of Albuquerque’s […]

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ABQ Journal opinion piece: More investigative journalism is a must

Paul Gessing — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:54:19 +0000

The following appeared in Albuquerque Journal on January 11, 2026. The Albuquerque Journal recently made appeals on its pages for donations to increase investigative journalism efforts. Even though the Rio Grande Foundation is in direct competition for limited donor dollars, we applaud the paper for focusing attention on investigative journalism currently. The issue of investigative journalism is […]

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