Taking a Look at New Mexico's Film Subsidies!
New RGF video explainer illustrates failure of New Mexico’s biggest corporate welfare program
The Rio Grande Foundation is constantly on the lookout for ways to educate New Mexicans about what their tax dollars are being used for and what state and local government could or should be doing better. To that end the Foundation has developed a short video,...
Rio Grande Foundation provides counterpoint on NBC/Universal subsidy deals counterpoint on NBC/Universal subsidy deal
The Rio Grande Foundation had an opportunity to explain (again) why New Mexico's film subsidy program is not the economic winner it is so often touted as in a number of media outlets. Click on the 1st story below for the KOAT story: Also talked to KOB Channel 4:...
Legislative analysts agree: Film subsidies are money-loser
For years the Rio Grande Foundation has attempted to educate New Mexicans on the bad economics of film subsidies. The program which actually began under then Gov. Gary Johnson was enhanced by Bill Richardson when he and the Legislature made it state policy to return...
Freedom Index Results Highlight Challenging 2019 Legislative Session
(Albuquerque) The Rio Grande Foundation has tracked floor votes in New Mexico’s Legislature from the perspective of individual freedom (both economic and under the US Constitution) for several years. Final results for the 2019 Legislature are available now. Unlike...
Legislature faces both peril, opportunity in 2019
With New Mexico’s politics trending hard left, what is a fiscally conservative think tank that focuses on New Mexico’s still-shaky economic situation to do? Quite simply, there will be more to do than ever. For starters, New Mexico’s $1.1 billion oil-generated surplus...
Following ‘blue tsunami,’ what’s next for NM’s free-market movement?
COMMENTARY: The Rio Grande Foundation is a nonpartisan organization, but like so many other New Mexicans we followed the recent election closely and were surprised by the “blue tsunami” that hit our state. As a policy-driven organization, we look forward, not back....
Film subsidy expansion would drain state’s coffers
Strong growth in the oil patch has given New Mexico’s legislators a little “new money” to spend. There is no shortage of ways that our Legislature has cooked up in order to spend it, but perhaps the worst idea of them all is to eliminate the $50 million cap on annual...
NM can balance budget without hurting economy
No politician relishes the job facing New Mexico’s leadership in the months ahead. Facing massive budget deficits and the prospect of an election-year special session in an unpredictable and unsettled political season is no elected official’s anyone’s idea of fun....
What to Cut: Finding $600 Million in Savings w/o Raising Taxes
ALBUQUERQUE — It is no secret that New Mexico faces serious budget challenges. Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith called the budget situation “a crisis” and noted that the State is facing a deficit of more than $150 million for the budget year that...
Correcting the Record on Gary Johnson’s Fiscal Legacy
The following article by RGF president Paul Gessing was written in response to an article that appeared a few days ago (linked below) which attacked former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson's fiscal record in New Mexico. As the free market think tank working in New Mexico,...
State Has Many Opportunities to Reduce Spending
Journal columnist Winthrop Quigley seems to believe that what New Mexico’s struggling economy needs right now is higher taxes. We at the Rio Grande Foundation couldn’t disagree more and believe raising taxes would have further deleterious effects on our economy....
No Need to Raise Taxes in New Mexico
The budget numbers are changing (for the worse) on an almost daily basis. The latest information calls for a 12% decline in General Fund revenues which means a reduction of $700-$800 million (not factoring in rainy-day funds etc). The point remains, as I note below,...
