Mortgage Closing Costs
Why does a poor state like NM rank among the highest in mortgage closing costs? Could it be excessive regulation?
HT: Craig Newmark
In: Uncategorized
Update on the Train to Nowhere
New Mexico has its train to nowhere, and now it looks like Alaska is actually going to get its bridge to nowhere! Wouldn’t it be cool if the train to nowhere could take passengers to the bridge to nowhere (we have already bought some track in Colorado)? And while we are making such wise use of the taxpayers money, let’s not forget the run the nowhere train down to the spaceport that takes passengers to nowhere.
Update 12/23/05: Alaska is actually getting its BRIDGES to nowhere. At least Alaska is in the national news with its taxpayer ripoff. In New Mexico we ripoff the taxpayer while managing to keep the train to nowhere under the radar.
Questions for the Astronomically Challenged
The new spaceport will cost our taxpayers an estimated $225 million. The recipient of this corporate welfare will be Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic estimates that up to 2300 jobs will be created as a result of them receiving the welfare. That estimate is somewhat vague since we don’t know whether that is all for direct employment or some of it is for businesses that would have sprung up somewhere else absent the welfare. Also, we are told that 100 “founders” have paid $200,000 each for the cost of a flight. In any event, let’s take the 2300 jobs estimate and ask the following questions:
1.) How much is it costing our taxpayers for each job “created?”
2.) How much are our taxpayers subsidizing each founder for his/her flight?
Why not an NFL Team?
The know-it-alls have decided to spend the taxpayers’ $225 million on a new spaceport rather than an NFL stadium. But they have ignored an important complement that we already have for the new stadium: a blimp.
Local Gasoline Prices
This story (subscription) by Rosalie Rayburn questions why New Mexico’s gasoline prices are mostly higher than in other states. She misses the main reason: gasoline in not a fungible commodity because of EPA rules. Refineries must produce gasoline with specific formulations for specific areas, thereby eliminating the possibility of transport from one region to another when there is increased scarcity in a region such as NM:
Presently, the motor fuels industry has to separately refine, transport, and store as many as 18 different so-called boutique fuels for different markets. Some of these blends are more expensive to make, and the logistical burden of having to simultaneously provide all of them adds to costs and causes localized shortages and price spikes.
Higher prices result when when gasoline becomes relatively more scarce compared to other regions. You can be sure that refineries would have plenty of incentive to transport more gasoline to NM absent the EPA rules.
BTW: I spent the first weekend in December in Tucson and the second weekend in Cincinnati. My first hand observation is that Albuquerque’s average gasoline price is roughly 10 cents per gallon less than in those two cities.
In: Uncategorized
An Idiot in the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body”
I really dislike using the word “idiot.” This is supposed to be a civil forum. But what better description is there? First it was the bridge to nowhere; and now this. For you wishful thinkers: does this do anything to alter your trust in government? Just curious.
Quebec as Pre-Kursor?
Quebec’s Pre-K initiative costs 33 times more than it was projected to cost; and it has not increased preschoolers readiness for school. I wonder when New Mexico will stop its wishful thinking and do something useful for the kids.
Hat tip: NCPA.
In: Uncategorized
No Clothes?
I am no fan of Newsweek. It frequently gets a lot wrong; but to the extent that this story about our president is accurate, it is quite distressing. Bruce Barlett weighs in here.
Santa Fe’s “Harm the Poor Ordinance”
Anybody for a $9.50 “living” wage? Then we can really do some damage!
Check this for damage already done by the $8.50 “living” wage (thanks to NCPA for alerting us):
Aaron Yelowitz of the University of Kentucky found that Santa Fe’s
minimum wage had significant and negative effects on the labor market.
Even more troubling, he found that the negative effects of the wage
hike were concentrated on the least-skilled members of the economy –
the very individuals the increase was intended to help.
He found:
o The likelihood of unemployment for employees in Santa Fe
went up by 3.3 percent.
o For less-educated employees, however, the results were much
higher, with their likelihood of unemployment
increasing 8.3 percentage points.
o The usual hours of work fell by 1.0 hours for the full
sample and 3.2 hours for less-educated individuals.
o There was significant evidence to suggest the displacement
of adult employees by unmarried high school age
employees.
These are all unintended consequences that should give pause to
any claims of success of the ordinance, says Yelowitz.
Source: Aaron S. Yelowitz, “How Did the $8.50 Citywide Minimum Wage
Affect the Santa Fe Labor Market? A Comprehensive Examination,”
Employment Policies Institute, December 6, 2005.
We told you so.
In: Uncategorized
The Train to Nowhere
Alaska has (or had) its bridge to nowhere; New Mexico has its train to nowhere. It will be interesting to compute how much this ultimately costs the taxpayer per rider.
In: Uncategorized
