Crisis, What Crisis? (Part II)

Here at this site, we have been tracking whether or not our New Mexico state and local political leaders have come to grips with the ongoing fiscal crisis. The answer, repeatedly (here, here, and here) is “no.” Of course, that is because politicians live in an alternate reality where unlimited quantities of money comes from [...]

Posted on March 7, 2009 at 2:10 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Supercomputer Adds Up, but not in the way The Journal Believes

If you took a close look at the Rio Grande Foundation’s 2008 Piglet Book on wasteful government spending, you would have seen on page 6 our critique of New Mexico’s supercomputer at a cost to taxpayers of $11 million.
Well, a few weeks ago, the Albuquerque Journal editorialized in glowing terms about the jobs supposedly being [...]

Posted on March 5, 2009 at 10:10 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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ABQ Journal Agrees With RGF: Cut Bloated Government Payrolls

If you didn’t already see it in today’s paper, check out the editorial which cites New Mexico’s bloated and overpaid government bureaucracy and mentions our study, “The Government Gravy Train,” on the topic.
Thanks to the Journal for noticing our work and for realizing that in tough times, government needs to sacrifice at least as [...]

Posted on February 28, 2009 at 7:08 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Do We Need More Cabinet Level Departments in NM?

To say the state is going through tough economic times is a bit trite at this point, but as I’ve written recently, it seems like many of our leaders in Santa Fe just haven’t gotten the memo. Another example of this was brought to my attention by Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Kate Nash who [...]

Posted on February 24, 2009 at 1:11 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Uncovering Total Ignorance at the State Investment Council

Recently, our investigative journalist Jim Scarantino reported on the State Investment Council’s misguided investment in the Small Smiles dental chain. I also published on op-ed on the subject.
In his follow-on report on the State’s investment in Small Smiles, Scarantino dug deeper and even requested emails from New Mexico’s top investment officers in which these highly-compensated [...]

Posted on February 4, 2009 at 3:27 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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RGF Hits NM’s Lack of Transparency in WSJ

A few weeks ago, in the wake of Governor Richardson’s “pay-for-play” scandal, the Wall Street Journal contained an article outlining some of the political scandals facing New Mexico and discussing ways in which the state’s open political process has created problems for the state’s political culture.
As part of the Rio Grande Foundation ongoing efforts to [...]

Posted on January 30, 2009 at 8:45 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Responding to Richardson’s State of the State

Perhaps you missed it in all the hoopla over President Obama’s Inauguration on Tuesday, but Governor Bill Richardson delivered his State of the State address on Tuesday as well. You can read the text of that address here.
While admitting that the state faces hard times financially and laying out a few ways to resolve those [...]

Posted on January 22, 2009 at 11:37 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Investigating New Mexico’s State Investment Council

Recently, the Rio Grande Foundation took a close look at the investment practices of New Mexico’s State Investment Council (SIC). This work turned in to an opinion piece that was subsequently published in the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Not surprisingly, when called to the carpet, the bureaucrats in charge of the SIC responded not with contrition or [...]

Posted on January 20, 2009 at 8:57 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Don’t Like One Study, Just Get Another

Ya gotta love Governor Richardson. A few months ago, as we have discussed here in the past, the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University studied the economic impact New Mexico’s film industry incentives were having on New Mexico’s economy. The study is available here. Advocates for spending taxpayer money on the film industry [...]

Posted on January 17, 2009 at 12:50 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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KOB Covers the Pork Report

If you caught KOB News last night, you saw a report on the release of our Piglet Book. Check out this article which includes some great footage of our pig frolicking in the Santa Fe plaza and handing out copies of our report. The report itself is available here.

Posted on December 11, 2008 at 9:43 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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