Check out the following chart:

It shows that New Mexico is among the slowest states in the nation when it comes to releasing financial reports. This chart comes to us from our friends at the Institute for Truth in Accounting which advocates for clear, honest, and transparent governmental accounting. Once aspect of their mission is to encourage states to release their reports in a timely fashion, on which account New Mexico is not faring too well.

While corporations have to file their 10-K’s within 90 days or less of their fiscal year end, in 2011 New Mexico took 356 days. This year is looking little better as it has been 298 days since the end of the fiscal year, and the state has yet to issue the report.

Additionally, on January 10, Governor Martinez issued her Executive Budget Recommendations. This means that she was making budgetary recommendations for 2014 without knowing for sure what took place in 2012—and she still doesn’t know!

Recently, the Institute highlighted the state which took the longest to release their financial reports in 2011. That is the chart shown above.

It has been well-publicized that I am on the board of a new, completely virtual charter school called New Mexico Connections Academy. Well, the proverbial “rubber is hitting the road” and enrollment is happening now as is a series of information sessions on the school itself.

Information sessions, both online and in-person (throughout the state) are going on over the next few weeks. If you think digital learning might be right for your child, grandchild, or the child of a friend (grades 4-12), now is the time to find out more and reserve a spot for that child (enrollment is limited by law). Again, click here for additional information.

Contrary to New Mexico law which authorizes the Oil Conservation Division with the power to approve or deny drilling, the Mora County Commission has voted 2-1 to ban all drilling for oil and gas within its borders. Not ‘fracking’ which, while safe, has generated a great deal of concern among liberals and NIMBY types, but plain old oil and gas drilling.

This in a County where 23.8 percent of residents live in poverty and 15 percent of the County is unemployed. No jobs here!!!

Now, I honestly don’t have a moral problem with being against oil and gas drilling. It is illegal under New Mexico law and unfair even for, say 90% of the citizens of a given locality to tell the other 10% they can’t have a job, but it’s not inherently immoral. What is immoral is the fact that the folks in Mora County send their kids to schools that are funded largely by oil and gas, heat their homes and watch TV by the power of gas and/or some other nasty fossil fuel, drive on roads that have a petroleum base, and generally benefit from the fact that society around them embraces fossil fuels and oil and gas exploitation.

So, what can be done? First, it is time for our leaders to do everything possible to cut off severance tax dollars to the County. Secondly, I think Gov. Martinez and her Administration should do whatever they can to deny funding and services to the County. Need a pothole fixed or a road paved? Sorry, that requires petroleum…local welfare office or senior center not staffed appropriately…sorry, we just don’t have the money and you aren’t pulling your weight.

Freedom means responsibility. If Mora is free to deny basic economic activity on its hallowed land, then the leaders of the County should bear responsibility for those decisions and voters bear responsibility for allowing “Mora-ons” to represent them.

Like it or not, New Mexico is heading down the expensive path of Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare. One of the concerns we expressed in opposing the expansion was related to some preliminary data from Oregon which seemed to show that Medicaid doesn’t really do much to improve the health of its recipients.

Well, the data are no longer preliminary, rather they are confirmed. According to a new report from the New England Journal of Medicine, indeed, having Medicaid newly available “did not lead to big health gains” in Oregon.”

In other words, Medicaid expansion will likely result in a lot of additional spending for very little in the way of results.

On a related note, I found this story very interesting. There is a pilot program in Medicare that, if replicated nationwide, would save an estimated $122 billion a year and improve patient lives through reduced hospitalizations (a 33% reduction). Rather than expanding this program, the Obama Administration is going to kill it.

“Film Loans Fizzle.” That’s the headline of the front page story in today’s Albuquerque Journal. The rest of the story treats us to whining from the “usual suspects” on the difficulty of obtaining interest-free loans for film projects and their desire to alter the terms of such loans. It all sounds so sad…another government program that just isn’t being adequately funded.

The reality is much more optimistic, at least for taxpayers. After all, right there in the story is the explanation that the state made $1.4 million on loans totaling $240 million under the original, generous program, for a return of about 0.6 percent. Not exactly a stellar return on investment even in these low interest rate times. According to the story, the same $240 million invested in government treasuries instead of film productions would have generated more than $31 million over the same period. In other words, the changes to the program arguably saved taxpayers $30 million. This is GOOD NEWS!

Unfortunately, the author of the piece talked to film advocates, not taxpayer advocates, so the piece is gloomy in tone when it should be singing the praises of Gov. Martinez and the folks (like the Rio Grande Foundation) who advocated for these reforms.

John Fund is National Affairs Columnist for National Review magazine and an on-air analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics. He spoke at the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque on Monday, April 29, 2013. His presentation is below:

4-30-13 John Fund from Paul Gessing on Vimeo.

The Western Energy Alliance has put together a fascinating website that allows users to find out basic information about the impact of the oil and gas industries in their area whether that be congressional district or by county.

So, users can find for example that in San Juan County (which is located firmly in the oil/gas patch, the industry employs 3,656 workers directly in drilling and production with more than $288 million paid in wages in just those areas. When factoring in suppliers and other direct impacts of the industry, total jobs come to 4,618 with $348 million in wages paid.

Bernalillo County, on the other hand, is located outside of the oil/gas patch, but still has 86 jobs in drilling and production. Where Bernalillo County really benefits is in the follow-on impacts which came to 5,466 jobs and $260 million.

Fascinating stuff, available for every county and congressional district in the nation. New Mexico’s economy rests on two pillars: the extractive industries which are led by oil and gas and the federal government. Oil and gas are undergoing a technology-driven, transformative boom while the federal government tends to destroy wealth through taxation and regulation. I know which one I’d prefer to have here in the Land of Enchantment!

Unlike some conservative organizations, the Rio Grande Foundation speaks openly and frequently about the need to cut all aspects of federal spending, including the military. This news article highlights just one case of Congress forcing the Pentagon to an extra $436 million on a weapon the experts explicitly say is not needed (the Abrams tank). As the article notes, “Keeping the Abrams production line rolling protects businesses and good paying jobs in congressional districts where the tank’s many suppliers are located.”

Are some areas of the Pentagon being negatively-impacted by the sequester? Undoubtedly. But the issue is not inadequate spending (after all, military spending has exploded over the past decade); it is poorly allocated spending. This problem is rampant throughout government and was recently highlighted by the FAA’s ill-advised attempt to squeeze air travelers by cutting service.

Sure, when it comes to the military, the “free market” is not likely to take over soon; the best we can do as citizens is to demand that our elected officials be reasonable with their military spending priorities. The Abrams tank seems to be yet another example of “pork” taking priority.

The issue of “fairness” and taxation on sales made over the Internet is back in Congress with a bi-partisan group pushing for a new taxation scheme called the “Marketplace Fairness Act designed to collect taxes on ALL sales made over the Internet.

It sounds simple, but it’s not. Forcing mom-and-pop businesses and sellers on Ebay to collect taxes and fill out forms for 9,600 taxing jurisdictions is not simple and will inevitably kill jobs and economic growth…it’s not just about the taxes, rather it’s about the compliance costs….and the “Marketplace Fairness Act” doesn’t resolve these problems.

And, while some Republicans have joined many Democrats in supporting the scheme, some Democrats have also led the way in opposing the scheme (you can click here to share your opposition with Heinrich and Udall):

Now that Gov. Martinez has seemingly jumped on the film subsidy bandwagon and will be pushing to complete a study of the program’s impact, some are wondering if we’ll finally have an answer to the question of whether the film subsidy program is an economic winner.

Of course, this implies that there is some great controversy over the economic impact of film subsidies, but there’s not. The programs are economic losers and there is plenty of information available to this effect. There’s a study by the lefty group Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

There’s the fact that other states have been slashing their film subsidy programs.

There’s a column by liberal Michael Kinsley.

The Economist has written numerous articles including this one on the negative impact of film subsidies.

And Massachusetts is just one of many states that have found the subsidy programs provide a poor return on “investment.”

So, why have New Mexico film subsidy recipients been so successful at obtaining and keeping very generous subsidies?

1) They are Hollywood and are great at telling stories (fiction);
2) They are “cool.” Hanging out in the oil patch is not nearly as fun as meeting the cast of Breaking Bad or Jessica Simpson.
3) Classic economic case of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. The film people know they are getting a sweet deal from the State and are organized to defend it (and obtain even more). Average taxpayers don’t see that they are getting hosed and are disorganized.

So, it is a pure political power play. What can be done to stop it? Average taxpayers need to tell their elected representatives that the film program is not a good deal and hold their Representatives and Senators (not to mention the Governor) accountable for their support of a program that takes tax dollars from average people and gives it to Hollywood studios.