blognetnews.com
» New Mexico

Capitol Report New Mexico

  • Blog Shifts Perspective

    The publication Capitol Report New Mexico has a new site, www.capitolreportnewmexico.com. Much of the material previously posted here will appear on the new site. That's because the site and the publication are both now owned by the Rio Grande Foundation. The site supports the mission of the publication which is' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: May 23, 2009, 11:12am EDT

  • Economy: Abq Journal 4/26 & 27

    The Albuquerque Journal ran stories Sunday and yesterday about the New Mexico economy. The Sunday story, the second lead, was headlined, "State Is Showing Signs of Recovery." That, folks, is simply not true.
    The subhead was, "Hints of Activity Ease Pain of Recession." This is true, but meaningless. One [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 27, 2009, 6:16pm EDT

  • Movie Subsidy More Coming

    Except the "more" is coming from Texas. Here is the beginning of a story from today's El Paso Times. "Gov. Rick Perry signs Texas law to lure moviemakers
    By Kelley Shannon / Associated Press Posted: 04/24/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
    AUSTIN -- Surrounded by cheering film industry workers, Gov. Rick Perry'" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 26, 2009, 10:37am EDT

  • Jobs: March, the Rest of the Story

    The 1.9% March 2008 to March 2009 job loss is New Mexico's worst year-over-year performance since 1954, reports the Department of Workforce Services.
    DWS says, "Only two of the state’s 13 industries posted any job growth since last year, while the eleven others reported employment declines. Most of the gains'" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 23, 2009, 3:18pm EDT

  • Jobs: March Unemployment

    New Mexico's unemployment jumped again in March and employment dropped. No surprise either place.
    The unemployment increase was half a percentage point—to 5.9% from 5.4% in February, a change considered "statistically significant" by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the numbers. New Mexico was one of 18 states' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 19, 2009, 10:10am EDT

  • Hispanic Cultural Center: The Gallery

    We went to the "Meso-Americhanics (Maneuvering Mestizaje)" exhibit at the gallery of the National Hispanic Cultural Center last Sunday. We arrived at the 10 a.m. opening time. Only one semi-sleeping homeless man occupied the covered walk to the main center that contains the gallery. When it opened, my sense was [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 17, 2009, 12:14pm EDT

  • Politics: Congress Pays Bonuses, Wilson, Udall, Too

    It's one of those gotcha stories journalists love in the dark recesses holding their sense of humor.
    Today's Wall Street Journal has a story on page A5 headlined, "Congress Thinks Bonuses Are Fine—for Its Own Employees." Tucked into the 19th inch of the 25 inch the story (and thereby verifying [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: April 01, 2009, 1:15pm EDT

  • Broadband: Abq RFP Cancelled

    There was fair hoopla when the City of Albuquerque put out a request for proposal to bring wireless broadband to the entire city, especially area less well off economically. The cost have been $30 million, I was told. So it might have a clue (or clueless) when
    “I don’t know,” [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 30, 2009, 4:57pm EDT

  • Job Losses: February 2009

    In February New Mexico had its second best month for year-over-year job losses in 48 years. The 1.7% wage job loss between February 1960 and February 1961 beat the 1.4% (12,200 job) loss between February 2008 and February 2009. The Department of Workforce Services summarizes, "This (the national situation) all" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 27, 2009, 11:12am EDT

  • Politics: House Speaker Ben Luan

    By all indications, Speaker Ben Lujan did not have a happy 2009 session. Only ten of his 35 bills passed. Nine died in Senate Finance, which is chaired by his not-so-good buddy Sen. John Arthur Smith. Lujan didn't even get the money for some sort of program named after him' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 26, 2009, 5:47pm EDT

  • Legislature: Tax Bills

    Our friends at the New Mexico Tax Research Institute get paid to track taxes. They do a newsletter that is available at their website, www.nmtri.org. The newsletter lists all the tax-related bills filed during the current session. However, the newsletter does tell how many bills it lists. So I counted. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 16, 2009, 5:34pm EDT

  • Economy: Goods News, Other News

    The good news is about potash production near Carlsbad. It came toward the bottom of an economy story in the weekend Wall Street Journal. On March 9, Intrepid Potash, Inc., of Colorado has its two Carlsbad-area mines operating again. The mines are "only" running for 18 hours a day instead [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 15, 2009, 5:12pm EDT

  • Consumer Choice: Dumping the Land Line

    New Mexico is eighth in the percentage of households that only use cell phones with 21.1% of our households having dumped the landline or never having gotten one. The report was released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. The source seems unlikely, but an explanation exists. The [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 12, 2009, 10:54am EDT

  • Job Losses: January 2009

    In January, New Mexico lost wage jobs at a 1% year over year rate. The state was down 8,600 jobs over January 2008. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.1% in January, up from revised estimates of 3.7% a year ago. Ten of the 13 major job groups lost jobs [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 09, 2009, 2:48pm EDT

  • New Journalism: KRQE TV

    Some time back a former TV anchor in Las Vegas, NV, remarked to me that the Albuquerque and Santa Fe media were passive. If someone would blow off a question, the locals just let it drop. In Las Vegas, she said, there was a pact, an unwritten professional standard, I [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 04, 2009, 5:33pm EST

  • Economy: Bank of America

    Bank of America provides one of those under the radar examples of the national economic mess affecting New Mexico. That's because there is a fair sized group of BofA shareholders in the state. I don't know the size of the group, but it is more than three or four. That's' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 02, 2009, 3:26pm EST

  • Economy: Some Good News

    A bit over a week ago, there were 1.5 items of good news for the New Mexico economy.
    The full item of good news is that Louisiana Energy Services' National Enrichment Facility near Eunice received its first shipment of uranium, a 70-lb batch that will be used to equipment' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 27, 2009, 2:28pm EST

  • Legislature: Capitol Crowds

    I have seen a report or two that the Capitol is very quiet this year. The usual crowds haven't shown for the Legislature. My brief observation around 4 p.m. yesterday says this is true. Walking through the rotunda after dropping copies of the February issue of Capitol Report New Mexico,' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 25, 2009, 11:01am EST

  • Surveys: Movies, McCune and NM Community Capital

    Earlier today into the email inbox there popped a survey that claimed to "take approximately 20 minutes of your valuable time." The survey was said to be a joint effort of the McCune Foundation, which sometimes does odd stuff, and New Mexico Community Capital, which, in my limited experience, lies [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 14, 2009, 1:45pm EST

  • Intel: Rebuilding Again

    Constant innovation is the rule for the semiconductor industry. In keeping with this rule, yesterday Intel Corporation announced plans to spend $7 billion remodeling semiconductor fabrication plants in Rio Rancho and in Oregon and Arizona. "Remodeling" is hardly the word. The concept is more like raising the building, taking out [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 11, 2009, 4:16pm EST

  • Election Overturned: Amendment 4

    Well, not exactly. But if a clear majority of voters, just shy of 75%, in an election vote one way or the other, then people can be forgiven for thinking those votes should have something to do with the outcome of the election. But in the case of proposed constitutional [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 08, 2009, 12:02pm EST

  • Commuting in New Mexico

    The average metro Albuquerque commute is 23.4 minutes, the Census Bureau reports. The national average commute is 25.1 minutes. Within the metro, Rio Rancho residents are the big commuters with an average of 28.1 minutes, a third more than the 21 minute commute for those living in the city of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 05, 2009, 2:19pm EST

  • Pueblos, Spaniards and the Kingdom of New Mexico

    In his new book, John Kessell provides a short, readable and interesting history of the early years in New Mexico. Pueblos, Spaniards and the Kingdom of New Mexico should be part of the library of anyone interested in the complexities of New Mexico.
    Kessell starts with a summary of the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 02, 2009, 11:36am EST

  • Job Losses: December Numbers (The Rest of the Story)

    New Mexico closed 2008 with its second month of job losses, the Department of Workforce Services report January 29. Wage jobs were down 6,800 from December 2007, a 0.8% drop. Eight of the 13 industrial categories lost jobs while four gained.
    Metro Albuquerque added 400 jobs in December over November [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 31, 2009, 3:54pm EST

  • Real Estate: Year End Numbers

    Metro Albuquerque residential real estate sales during 2008 were down a quarter from 2007, reports the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors. The figures cover single family detached homes, condos and townhouses. The 7,644 homes sold figure was the lowest since 2000 when 6,740 homes were sold. Annual sales peaked in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 29, 2009, 2:33pm EST

  • Job Losses: December Numbers

    December 2008 saw the close of a year of essentially no job growth with the inevitable—an increase of more than half in New Mexico's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from December 2007. Here are the numbers, in thousands, released yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All December 2008 statistics are' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 28, 2009, 9:37am EST

  • UNM & Golf & Planning

    When it last hit the fan over the fate of the University of New Mexico's North Golf Course, I argued that the only way to preserve the golf course for what it is—a multi-use community open space—was to get the area under different ownership. My rationale was that UNM, being' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 23, 2009, 10:16am EST

  • Job Losses

    The year started with continuing deterioration in the situation for wage employment in New Mexico. For the week of January 3, there were 1,626 new claims for unemployment filed in New Mexico, up 478, or 42%, from the same week in 2008.
    The week of January 10 saw 3,165 [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 22, 2009, 10:12am EST

  • Real Estate: Foreclosures

    Residential real estate is one economic arena whether New Mexico is both better off than a lot of other places and where it truly matters. There contrast is drawn with the specious consolations offered with regard to the state economy.
    Still, some of what is happening nationally is happening here, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 22, 2009, 9:33am EST

  • Publications: Más New Mexico!

    As Clara Padilla Jones, she was secretary of state from 1983 through 1986. Then it was off to Portland, Oregon, with husband Frank Andrews, a one-time candidate for attorney general who was beaten in the primary. The Portland years included the serendipitous purchase, 14 years ago, of El Hispanic News, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 21, 2009, 10:58am EST

  • Politics: Money & Ethics

    OK, here's a question: What is the real effect of money in politics? Barack Obama, heralded now for his pragmatism, changed the game when he blew off public financing. Obama took the money, the ultimate pragmatic decision.
    Political ethics "reform" always seems to come back to more rules. This' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 19, 2009, 8:29pm EST

  • Politics: "New Mexico's Political Wild West"

    This was the headline on a story in the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition.

    The story, on page A5, summarized what we have come to know. But the last paragraph added something. It said, "A few years ago, the legislature authorized the
    attorney general to hire a special team'" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 18, 2009, 5:57pm EST

  • Politics: Diane Denish, Bill and the Political Rug

    This is the second time Diane Denish has had the political rug pulled from under her. In 1994, she declared for Lt. Gov.
    against Casey Luna and then Casey declared for Governor. Shortly before Casey declared for Gov. I happened to provide Patsy Madrid a ride to Santa Fe. As [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 11, 2009, 5:03pm EST

  • Capitol Report Re-Launches; Projected Deficit Grows

    In a public radio interview about 5:30 this evening, Senator John Arthur Smith, the Deming Democrat who chairs the Legislative Finance Committee said the difference between state spending and projected revenue for the current fiscal year had grown to about $550 million. The interview with KRWG FW in Las Cruces [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 09, 2009, 5:42pm EST

  • Corruption: CDR & Abq

    In today's Wall Street Journal (that is, 1/7/09), P A4, the next to last paragraph of the Richardson story reads, "In another case, the IRS is conducting audits into whether CDR and French bank Societe Generale SA fixed the prices of financial products used for proceeds from bonds issued in'" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 07, 2009, 8:14pm EST

  • Politics: The Richardson Situation

    Bill Richardson dropping from being the nominee for Secretary of the Department of Commerce seems to leave the following scenarios:
    1. The state's $454 million (and change) projected deficit for FY 09 is still the state's $454 million (and change) projected deficit for FY 09. However, dealing with the deficit [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: January 04, 2009, 8:52pm EST

  • Population: Growth Rate Plummets

    If plummet means a 25% drop, then New Mexico's population growth rate did indeed plummet between 2007 and 2008. The growth for the state's population was 1.02% for the year, according to Census Bureau figures released this week. That's a 25.6% drop from the 1.37% population growth from 2006 to' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 25, 2008, 4:32pm EST

  • Legislature: Budget Outlook

    Political blogger Joe Monahan asked for my two cents worth about the budget and the upcoming legislative session. The full email exchange is here. -HM

    On Dec 19, 2008, at 11:10 PM, Joe Monahan wrote:

    Harold--do you have any thoughts on the state budget shortfalls for this and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 21, 2008, 8:37pm EST

  • Political Notes: A Whole New Car?

    Yesterday Tom Taylor was only talking about the state's tax system, but his comments could be generalized to suggest the approach Republicans need to take the next two years. Taylor, Farmington Republican and House Minority Leader, was part of a panel of legislators at the annual Legislative Outlook Conference sponsored [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 20, 2008, 3:55pm EST

  • Economy: Small Business

    It's said so often New Mexico is a small business state that it is a cliche.
    The numbers come from the census Bureau. In the publication, County Business Patterns 2006 (The latest available), the New Mexico page is: censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/cbpnaic/cbpsect.pl. For the week of March 12, 2006, there 628,681 employees [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 16, 2008, 2:56pm EST

  • Energy and Environment: Otero Mesa

    I was reminded over the weekend that 70 oil wells have been drilled on Otero Mesa, the allegedly "pristine" desert grassland south of Alamogordo. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 15, 2008, 8:41pm EST

  • Energy: Wind vs. Solar in Taos

    Taos seems the perfect place for a battle between wind energy and solar energy advocates. Actually, the solar folks are much more than advocates, passionate prophets, perhaps, in the intensity of their opposition to a 40-turbine wind farm on private land west of Taos proposed by Taos Wind Power Inc. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 10, 2008, 9:17am EST

  • Culture: Natural History Museum

    Our visit to the Natural History Museum in Albuquerque last weekend was impressive overall and disappointing in some details. The exhibit of the history of the personal computer is worth seeing. Especially gratifying was the statement, contrary to myth, that Microsoft founder Bill Gates did not leave Albuquerque due to [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 05, 2008, 1:44pm EST

  • Political Notes: The Rs Future?

    Yesterday I happened to briefly visit with a 30-year national level political (Republican) and corporate affairs consultant. This man mostly lives on airplanes but sometimes stops in Abq to do laundry and say hello to his wife.
    With regard to Republican woes in NM and nationally, he offered the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 03, 2008, 2:53pm EST

  • Education: Reform Not Rocket Science

    There are "four straightforward things," writes former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner in today's Wall Street Journal, needed 'to bring fundamental changes to K-12 education." Everything else either doesn't matter or supports the four items, which are:
    1. High academic standards for all with a rigorous curriculum.
    2. Greatly improve teaching [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: December 01, 2008, 10:17am EST

  • Petroleum and Pretentiousness

    The other day my neighbor was gathering firewood from his driveway. As he performed this suburban task, I thought of his Prius and of the Obama sticker that probably will be on the Prius for another year, based on past history. If Prius drivers were consistent, they would opt for [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 30, 2008, 8:13pm EST

  • Jobs: October, Approaching Zero

    New Mexico's year over year growth keeps nudging toward zero. The growth for October was 0.1% with a 1,000 job increase from October 2007. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.4% after the drop in September to 4% which was considered a statistical blip. The unemployment rate of 4.6% in August. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 29, 2008, 2:26pm EST

  • McCulloch on GOP Future

    Today Dr. Allen McCulloch of Farmington had an opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal about the future of the New Mexico Republican party. It has been reported that McCulloch seeks the chairmanship of the state Republican party.
    When Dr. McCulloch ran for the United States Senate in 2006, he won [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 28, 2008, 5:26pm EST

  • Thanksgiving: Palin Pursues Opportunity

    My wife, the family liberal, got a personal letter yesterday from newly famous Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Surely it was a personal letter. After all, it was addressed to her by name. The envelope had the seal of the state of Alaska with a return address of "Office of the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 27, 2008, 10:08am EST

  • Economic Development: Eclipse Aviation

    As everyone will know by the evening's television news broadcasts, Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Rather than belabor the soon to be well known details, the point of the moment is to remember that Eclipse always and remains a startup, risky by definition. Not [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 25, 2008, 2:28pm EST

  • Capitol Report: Oil, Movies And Lt. Gov. Denish

    At the Legislative Finance Committee Meeting today in Santa Fe, Sen. William Sharer, a Farmington Republican, and Rep. Don Bratton, a Hobbs Republican, expressed serious worry that the state's financial situation is going to get even worse. Sharer said he had seen five idle rigs in San Juan County recently, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 19, 2008, 5:52pm EST

  • Real Estate: Industrial & Commercial Outlook

    Real estate people are wired for optimism so it might have been expected that the presentation of the 2009 outlook for metro Albuquerque wasn't as depressing as an external person might have thought. Even so, it wasn't a happy tale told today by members of the Society of Office and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 17, 2008, 5:24pm EST

  • Jennings: Legislature Needs to Meet


    Sen. Tim Jennings, Roswell Democrat, doesn’t necessarily believe that the legislature should go through the formality of calling itself into an “extraordinary session.” But he does believe that all of the legislators should get together soon for a thorough briefing on state finances. That’s because [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 16, 2008, 2:40pm EST

  • Economy: Albuquerque Tech Performance

    Metro Albuquerque probably should count it a victory to have kept 31st place for 2008 in the Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index of 200 cities. The Milken Web site says the index "ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 13, 2008, 9:43am EST

  • Taxes: Increase Rejected

    Voters in Otero County, where Alamogordo is the county seat, last week rejected a tax increase proposed to help pay for New Mexico's Spaceport. The margin was 52% to 48%, early reports said. The ten-year, one-eighth cent addition to the county's gross receipts tax rate would have provided the Spaceport [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 12, 2008, 2:00pm EST

  • Politics: Election Report

    Lonna Atkeson, University of New Mexico political science professor, crunches numbers and does post-election interviews of candidates. She gave a preliminary report at noon today to the Albuquerque Press Women. All her figures are preliminary, she said.
    Atkeson's wisdom usually doesn't quite run with the conventional. Today was no exception. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 10, 2008, 4:31pm EST

  • Mini-nuke plants from Santa Fe

    Hyperion Power Generation of Santa Fe has turned the first letter of intent received in August into what "The Guardian" of Britain calls "more than 100 firm orders" for its small nuclear power generating plants that are based on technology licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory. For The Guardian's story, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 09, 2008, 11:18am EST

  • Politics: NRAs Final Shot



    The National Rifle Association creatively fired a last shot in the New Mexico election. The NRA’s ad was the plastic bag containing my election day Albuquerque Journal. “Defend Freedom. Defeat Obama,” one side said. The other side pitched a vote for Steve [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 07, 2008, 5:53pm EST

  • Movie Making: Followup

    When writing a week ago about movie-making disruptions, I assumed that Jefferson Middle School had to have been out last Friday. The confusion and complexity of the filming looked to be far than would have been possible while holding school. After a week of unreturned phones calls to Jefferson and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 07, 2008, 5:27pm EST

  • Ute Lake Ranch

    That's the name of the development near Tucumcari that may have been advertised by the billboard we saw in Amarillo ten days ago and mentioned in a "Road Notes" post.
    The initial plan is for the 12,500-acre project is for 1,500 homes, 750 patio homes at $450,000 or so [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 03, 2008, 3:16pm EST

  • Movies Making: Being Annoyed

    I have read about the disruptions movie making causes regular people. But until this afternoon, I had not had the pleasure. Here's the tale. Driving south on Girard Blvd. in Albuquerque, toward Lomas, I was about to pass Jefferson Middle School. I was late for a 4 p.m. meeting. This [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 31, 2008, 5:53pm EDT

  • Jobs: September. Slide Continues

    New Mexico's economic slide continued, down, that is, in September. Headlines, however, went to a seasonally adjusted drop in the unemployment rate to 4% in September, from 4.6% in August. But after leading with the unemployment rate drop, the release from the Department of Workforce Services release said, "The state’s [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 30, 2008, 6:19pm EDT

  • Politics: Obama / AFL-CIO Thorough

    At about 8:15 this evening I received a couple of laser printed Obama / Martin Heinrich flyers tucked into my front door. I knew something might be there because the tucking person rang the bell. Given the time of day, I didn't answer. But a few minutes later, I checked [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 28, 2008, 8:22pm EDT

  • Road Notes 2

    Three highlights from our return to Albuquerque last Thursday from Clinton, Oklahoma. And you just thought blogs were supposed to be utterly immediate....
    1. The east side of Amarillo sports a billboard that may advertise the Ute Lake up-scale retirement / second home development near Logan which is near Tucumcari. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 28, 2008, 4:39pm EDT

  • Tony Hillerman

    As just about everyone in New Mexico knows by now, Tony Hillerman, author and gentleman, died yesterday. My tales of Tony are three.
    I was in his senior news writing class in 1969 at the University of New Mexico when he floated in one day to announce the sale of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 27, 2008, 9:33am EDT

  • Politics: Obama Event

    The Ds do much better at political events than the Rs. When John McCain and Sarah Palin came to town last month, the Rs stuck with security checks till the bitter end. Th Ds last night got real and about an hour before Obama's scheduled talk, simply started waving people [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 26, 2008, 3:56pm EDT

  • Sin: Manny Aragon and Crony Capitalism

    Wow! I leave town and economic reality hits the state, Mannie Aragon cops a plea and, for comic relief, Rebecca Vigil-Giron is back on the state payroll.
    Readers know I'm a big fan of our citizen legislature. The structure keeps the elected folks, mostly, closer to the people. In Wisconsin [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 19, 2008, 2:31pm EDT

  • Road Notes and Signs

    We are traveling. This is the annual trip to visit the in-laws in Dubuque, Iowa, and southwest Wisconsin. Think cheese, five-year-old cheddar, a delicacy on the scale of the best green chile.
    On October 12, last Sunday, at about 10:15 AM, we saw two road signs flanking I-25 just west [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 9:31am EDT

  • Politics: Tom Udall Interview

    The two-week publishing is over for the eight New Mexico newspapers that subscribe to the New Mexico Services syndication service. That means I can post, as promised, the non-interview with Rep. Tom Udall. A subsequent post will have some of the email correspondence with the Udall campaign and some additional [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 10, 2008, 4:46pm EDT

  • Economy: The Credit Crunch, KC Fed View

    Tom Hoenig, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Bank City, got the second and heavy half of the road show last Thursday. The purpose of the gathering—the 2008 New Mexico Economic Forum—was both to share information and perspective and to listen to people and hearing things that [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 5:34pm EDT

  • Economy: New Mexico

    Manufacturing is the weakest sector of the New Mexico economy and, as manufacturing sectors go, among the weakest in the nation. In August, manufacturing jobs accounted for 4.16% of New Mexico's nonfarm employment, as compared to 9.85% nationally. Nor do current surveys "indicate a near-term rebound." For perspective, in 1993, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 03, 2008, 11:40am EDT

  • Jobs: August, Again

    A bit of reality has finally crept into the monthly employment report from the Department of Workforce Services. In the September 25 news release about August employment, DWS starts with its trademark exaggeration, saying, "The New Mexico economy remains fairly resilient despite rising unemployment and lower job growth." Then comes [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 30, 2008, 8:51am EDT

  • Politics: Steve Pearce Interview


    The story below is my column that runs in eight newspapers around the state. They are in Farmington, Gallup, Espanola, Raton, Hobbs, Artesia, Roswell and the Defensor Chieftain in Socorro. The papers are given a two-week window to print the column. For this column, the window [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 28, 2008, 5:20pm EDT

  • Sustainability, Purity and Apples

    This morning's Albuquerque Journal featured a delightful photo of the line of vehicles waiting yesterday to buy apples at the legendary Dixon's Apples orchard north of Albuquerque. The sign said the actual apples were three miles away. The caption said the wait from the photographed point was another three hours. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 27, 2008, 5:05pm EDT

  • Jobs: August

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment situation in New Mexico seems to be deteriorating less quickly than in other states. Headlines in Albuquerque this week have found solace in this development. The headlines see the cup half full, I suppose, and avoid notice of how quickly the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 9:17am EDT

  • Transportation & Money: MRCOG & NAIOP

    Lawrence Rael's, executive director for the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), started his NAIOP presentation today by insulting the area economic developers.
    To end, Rael pitched a new transportation tax. His proof of the need was the transportation plight of a young man commuting to a minimum
    wage at [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 22, 2008, 5:25pm EDT

  • Politics: Jonah Goldberg, "Happy Warrior"

    Jonah Goldberg is witty and funny, articulate, incredibly well-read and really, really smart.
    Goldberg spoke this morning at the newly and stylishly or garishly (you decide) repainted Marriott Pyramid. About 120 attended. Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing said 50 attended a lunch event in Santa Fe. The Albuquerque [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 19, 2008, 4:43pm EDT

  • Income: State

    Leave it to me to find unhappiness in the good news that New Mexico's 2.7% annualized increase in personal income in the second quarter over the first quarter ranked sixth nationally and was more than double a year earlier.
    Here's the rest of the story. Transfer payments—welfare, social security [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 18, 2008, 10:56am EDT

  • Investing: Coldwell Banker Legacy

    Full disclosure to start: I write a newsletter for Coldwell Banker Legacy, metro Albuquerque's (and presumably New Mexico's) leading, by sales, residential real estate firm.
    At the company level CBL has a tendency to not toot their own horn, something I've fussed about a bit with them. The tendency [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 17, 2008, 5:19pm EDT

  • Politics: Pearce Interview Questions

    On September 10, I interviewed Rep. Steve Pearce, who is running for the United States Senate. My newspaper column reporting the interview will appear during the next two weeks in papers in Raton, Farmington, Gallup, Espanola, Roswell, Artesia and Hobbs. The timing of running the column is up to the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 15, 2008, 5:09pm EDT

  • Politics: Polar Bears and Sarah Palin

    Polar Bears are getting ink and video lately. The ink and video use the bear as a prop to argue charge Alaska Gov. and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin with moral turpitude because Palin has objected to naming the bear a threatened species. Note a bit of irony. Palin is [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 14, 2008, 3:11pm EDT

  • Politics: Literature Report

    One standard gauge of the closeness of election day is the appearance of candidate literature attached to the front door of the home. The deluge started yesterday at my house. When we arrived home in the evening, the door held two items, both paid for by the Democratic Party of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 14, 2008, 11:43am EDT

  • McCain/Palin Second Installment

    Security needs must explain much of the work involved in attending a presidential-level political rally. At the McCain/Palin rally in Albuquerque on Saturday, September 6, there was one door for the people attending the rally. If there was a second door, I didn’t see it. But my view was restricted [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 09, 2008, 1:48pm EDT

  • Politics: McCain / Palin Rally

    Political rallies are real work to organize and attend. The media doesn’t know this, the local media anyway. They get to come in the back door, the “press” door. For national media, political campaigns are work. That was one message on the faces of the national folk who filed into [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 07, 2008, 5:45pm EDT

  • Taxes

    The Federal for Tax Administrators, (www.taxadmin.org), says that New Mexico's overall tax burden was nine percent of personal income in 2007. That's seventh nationally. On a per capita basis, our tax burden was 16th nationally at $2,642 per person. New Mexicans paid $5.2 billion in taxes last year. The FTA [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 06, 2008, 9:53am EDT

  • Income: Metro Areas

    Santa Fe and Farmington were the two New Mexico metropolitan statistical areas to beat the 2006-2007 national average for per capita income growth. The national growth was 6.2% for 06/07 and 6.8% for 05/06.
    Santa Fe's per capita income grew 6.8% in 06/07 to $45,230. The 05/06 growth was [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 01, 2008, 4:26pm EDT

  • SAT Scores

    Total mean SAT scores for New Mexico college bound high school seniors dropped for the third year in 2008, according to the annual report of SAT scores from the College Board, which runs SAT testing. The report covered 2,336 takers of the SAT through March 2008. It was released Tuesday.
    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 28, 2008, 4:38pm EDT

  • Real Estate:Homes Prices & Housing Units

    In terms of price change, the metro Albuquerque real estate market ranks just about the middle among 273 metros around the nation from June 2007 through June 2008, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO).
    During the one-year period, the average metro home increased 0.95% in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 26, 2008, 2:55pm EDT

  • Jobs: July

    New Mexico's job picture continues to deteriorate. But, hey, take heart, "The state's unemployment rate remained below the national rate of 5.7%," said the Department of Workforce Services in its news release yesterday.
    The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate cracked the 4% barrier in July, rising to 4.1% from 3.9% in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 22, 2008, 9:17am EDT

  • Bicyclists

    It's always lovely when a favorite tool of a group is turned against that group. The group tends neither to get the irony or think the reverse tactic is funny.
    So it is with bicyclists in San Francisco. A "local gadfly," as the Wall Street Journal called him yesterday, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 21, 2008, 1:57pm EDT

  • Energy: Uranium Economic Impact

    The final version of an economic impact study of uranium mining potential in New Mexico has been released. To get a copy, email George Byers at Neutron Energy Inc: gbyers@neutronenergyinc.com.
    The title is "The Economic Impact of Proposed Uranium Mining and Milling Operations in the State of New Mexico." The [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 21, 2008, 9:59am EDT

  • Bank of Albuquerque

    A week ago (August 12) I wrote about the loss inflicted on BOK Financial from the implosion of a Tulsa energy firm. BOK is the parent of the Bank of Albuquerque. Jesse Boudlette, BOK corporate communications director, finally returned my call inquiring about the effect on the Albuquerque bank of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 19, 2008, 8:36am EDT

  • Area Codes

    Today I happened to call two people in Annapolis, Maryland, who worked in the same office in the same building. I thought they did, but they had different area codes, so I asked, suspecting that one perhaps had a home office or cell phone.
    It turned out that, when [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 18, 2008, 5:24pm EDT

  • Income: Wealth and "Inequality"

    In The Economist (www.economist.com), the London-based news and business weekly that calls itself a newspaper, a department called "Economics Focus" offers one page of theory that usually is clearly enough written to be mostly understandable.
    In the July 26 column, the story was that the long-term rise in American [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 17, 2008, 5:25pm EDT

  • Energy: SemGroup LP Bankruptcy

    SemGroup is the Tulsa firm that last month "filed for bankruptcy after running up $2.4 billion in trading debts," as the Tulsa World (www.tulsaworld.com) put it. While "Who cares?" may be a reasonable New Mexico reaction, there may be two effects here.
    First, World business editor John Stancavage wonders if [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 12, 2008, 9:02am EDT

  • Diplomacy Bill Richardson

    OpinionJournal.com's James Taranto jumped on Gov. Bill Rchardson today for having what Taranto called a "very bad" idea about how to handle Russia's invasion of Georgia. Basically, Richardson said, according to Taranto, work through the United Nations Security Council. Taranto, a UN skeptic, argues that would be futile. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 11, 2008, 8:28pm EDT

  • Health Care Costs

    It is generally acknowledged that exotic technology is a big factor in the increasing cost of health care. But here is something small and boring.
    In June my wife fell and both dislocated her shoulder and broke it. Actually she broke her arm. Presbyterian Health Services took marvelous, if not [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 07, 2008, 8:32pm EDT

  • Border Water

    A report I produced in 1995 talked about needing to understand the water resources of the two-country, three-state area that is Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. The problem is that the relevant basins don't pay attention to the human-imposed political borders.
    Over the weekend came the notice, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 04, 2008, 8:52pm EDT

  • Uranium, Oil and Gas

    Thursday's Cilbola County Beacon (http://cibolabeacon.com) headlined, "Residents campaign to support uranium mining." Here is the beginning of the story,
    "GRANTS - The Cibola Communities Economic Development Board hosted a 'grassroots action' meeting on Tuesday morning in an effort to help push uranium mining forward in Cibola County. “We (CCED) recognized [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 03, 2008, 5:24pm EDT

  • Infrastructure: Highways in Tulsa

    The city of Tulsa is having a partly useful public conversation with itself about roads. The good news is that the city is talking and in public locales such as the front page of the morning daily, the Tulsa World. This is different from Albuquerque and New Mexico at the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 02, 2008, 8:47am EDT
← Diogenes'six Roundhouse Report →

Blog Info:
Capitol Report New Mexico

» http://capitolreportnm.blogspot.com/

Categories

media

BNN Traffic Index

Alexa: No data
0

Compete: No data
0

Quantcast: No data
2

BNN Traffic Index: No data

BNN Influence Index

Rank

This week: Not ranked this week.

Last week: Not ranked last week.

12-week Average:

BNN Authority Index

Technorati: 0

Google: 0

BNN Authority Index: No data

» Subscribe to the Capitol Report New Mexico feed