{"id":250613,"date":"2016-12-22T07:16:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T14:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=250613"},"modified":"2016-12-23T08:42:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T15:42:06","slug":"new-mexicos-economic-policy-is-counterproductive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/12\/new-mexicos-economic-policy-is-counterproductive\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico’s economic policy is counterproductive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0I concur with two points from D. Dowd Muska\u2019s recent opinion piece<\/a>. One: \u201cIt\u2019s certainly true that by themselves, lower individual and corporate taxes have not generated much job- and wealth-creation in New Mexico.\u201d Yep.<\/p>\n

Two: New Mexico is in a \u201cdire fiscal condition.\u201d Or, more simply put, our state\u2019s economy is in the tank.<\/p>\n

\"Bill

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Bill Jordan<\/p><\/div>\n

Under Governor Martinez\u2019s watch, our state has developed a deficit of hundreds of millions, we\u2019ve spent all of our savings \u2015 which led Wall Street to lower our bond rating \u2015 and we\u2019re ranked the worst-run state in the country (again). Governor Martinez\u2019s economic policy \u2015 rooted in the decades-old ideology of \u201ctax cuts for jobs\u201d \u2015 has failed, and failed spectacularly.<\/p>\n

We know what creates jobs, and they\u2019re the same things that make our nation\u2019s modern economy possible: investments in human capital and infrastructure. Sure, businesses like tax breaks, but they don\u2019t need tax breaks. They need well-trained, educated employees; customers with money to spend; and the infrastructure that enables them to get their products to market.<\/p>\n

But those are the very things they\u2019re less and less likely to find in the Land of Enchantment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, instead of investing in its human capital, New Mexico has actually been divesting. Some of the deepest cuts of the past decade have been to our universities and colleges, which have had to raise tuition significantly in order to survive.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re relocating a business that will need educated workers, would you set up shop in a state that\u2019s made it more difficult to get a college degree? Or would you pick a state that makes educating their workforce a top priority?<\/p>\n

Investments in our workforce and infrastructure require money \u2014 which we\u2019re short on at the moment, in large part because of tax cuts we\u2019ve passed for out-of-state corporations. Since these tax cuts have failed to stimulate the economy, it\u2019s foolish to continue them. If we rolled them back we\u2019d be able to reinvest in the things that will grow our economy.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Mr. Muska\u2019s opinion piece is really about the fact that taxes have been raised on the county and city levels, and he has a fair point there. His point, however, simply reinforces our underlying argument \u2014 that tax cuts at the state level have failed and those failures are felt at the municipal level as well.<\/p>\n

City and county governments have been short-funded both because of the poor economy and because the 2013 corporate tax-cut legislation decreased the amount of money going to cities and counties. It also gave municipalities the power to increase their gross receipts tax rates \u2014 a tax that Mr. Muska accurately points out falls hardest on consumers.<\/p>\n

In fact, all taxes at the city and county level fall hardest on working families. Only the state can tax incomes \u2014 both personal and corporate \u2014 which helps spread the tax responsibility more evenly than do sales or property taxes.<\/p>\n

The outdated, disproven ideology of \u201cno new revenue\u201d offered up by Governor Martinez and the Rio Grande Foundation is a failure. New Mexico deserves better. We need to invest in New Mexico in order to transform our economy so everyone has an opportunity to better themselves.<\/p>\n

Bill Jordan is senior policy advisor and government relations officer for <\/em>New Mexico Voices for Children<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The outdated, disproven ideology of \u201cno new revenue\u201d offered up by Governor Martinez and the Rio Grande Foundation is a failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[196,118,107,271],"class_list":["post-250613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-budget","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}