{"id":646258,"date":"2018-11-16T09:32:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T16:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=646258"},"modified":"2018-11-16T09:32:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T16:32:57","slug":"following-blue-tsunami-whats-next-for-nms-free-market-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/11\/following-blue-tsunami-whats-next-for-nms-free-market-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Following ‘blue tsunami,’ what’s next for NM’s free-market movement?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roundhouse\"

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

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>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 \u201cblue tsunami\u201d that hit our state.<\/p>\n

As a policy-driven organization, we look forward, not back. That said, the utter devastation of the GOP and most fiscally-conservative candidates on Election Day will make the 2019 Legislature and beyond quite interesting. We have a number of questions that we don\u2019t know the answers to, but we hope will frame the policy discussion as we move forward:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The gross receipts tax is a job-killing mess. Candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham pledged to address it, starting with naming a bipartisan tax commission to look at it. Will she really make tax reform a priority and will she get enough Democrats in the Legislature to get involved, or will the whole thing devolve into a push for higher taxes?<\/p>\n

\"Paul

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Paul Gessing<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 Lujan Grisham supported marijuana legalization, and the House is more progressive than ever. Is there enough support in the Senate to legalize recreational pot?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Speaking of the Senate, will Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith be able to stymie efforts to tap the \u201cpermanent fund\u201d for universal pre-K, or will there be a compromise or capitulation? Also, will the Senate in general and Smith in particular stand firm against what seems likely to be a raft of tax-and-spending proposals that have been bottled up by Gov. Susana Martinez for the past eight years?<\/p>\n

\u2022 We know that K-12 spending will rise dramatically, but by how much? With Democrats in control of everything they have tremendous leeway to shape New Mexico\u2019s education system. How will they spend that money, and will they be able to actually improve our state\u2019s struggling K-12 system?<\/p>\n

\u2022 With \u201cprogressives\u201d running the show in the House and having already attempted to ban new charter schools, are New Mexico\u2019s charter schools in danger?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Will Republicans unite to oppose big-spending and taxing plans? The House GOP won\u2019t be able to exert itself on many policies with a massive disadvantage and a \u201cprogressive\u201d majority led by Speaker Brian Egolf, but Senate Republicans could influence policies with a reconstituted \u201ccowboy coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Will Democrats succeed in eliminating the $50 million cap on film subsidies and increasing the state\u2019s \u201crenewable\u201d mandate to 50 percent from the current (as of 2020) 20 percent requirement? Is a $12 minimum wage inevitable? What economic impact will these policies have on the state economy?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Finally, will New Mexico\u2019s oil boom continue? The state has benefited greatly from the boom in oil production in the Permian Basin, which has been sustained by high oil prices. Since Oct. 1 the price per barrel has dropped from the mid-$70s to below $60. Future oil prices are hard to predict and even harder to base budget on.<\/p>\n

Declining oil prices are not the only concern. Land Commissioner-elect Stephanie Garcia-Richard is the first New Mexico land commissioner to have expressed hostility toward the oil and gas industry that funds this state\u2019s economy and her office. Will she fulfill her anti-industry campaign rhetoric (which included banning fracking<\/a>) or will she be willing to work with the industry while also advancing the cause of \u201crenewables\u201d and protecting state lands?<\/p>\n

New Mexico has always been a pretty \u201cblue\u201d state. Gov. Martinez took a lot of heat for the sorry state of New Mexico\u2019s economy even while Democrats in the Legislature prevented her from adopting most of her policy reforms (like \u201cright to work\u201d and education reforms). With the Democrats in total control and presumably in control of the coming redistricting process, is New Mexico the newest blue state like California?<\/p>\n

Or if Democrats mismanage the budget, raise too many taxes, and things generally go poorly for Gov.-elect Lujan Grisham, will the pendulum swing back toward New Mexico being a \u201cpurple\u201d state once again? And, if so, will Republicans\/Libertarians\/moderates be able to formulate a coherent strategy to take advantage of that overreach?<\/p>\n

Paul Gessing is the president of New Mexico\u2019s\u00a0Rio Grande Foundation<\/a>, an independent, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility.\u00a0Agree with his opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The utter devastation of the GOP and most fiscally-conservative candidates on Election Day will make the 2019 Legislature and beyond quite interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":790,"featured_media":405938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[2238,118,107],"class_list":["post-646258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2018-election","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646258","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\/790"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646258"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646264,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646258\/revisions\/646264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}