Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Another era of big government has arrived.
Arguably, it never ended.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated all sorts of programs to create jobs while expanding and investing in the nation’s infrastructure, and the federal government never really shrunk after that.
Even during the Reagan years, when the president declared that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” our federal government grew, as did a big, fat deficit to pay for it all.
Now we have, over a single year, a $5 trillion infusion of federal dollars into a pandemic-plagued economy. It started with a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill in March 2020, followed by another $900 billion appropriated in December and then, earlier this month, another $1.9 trillion.
That’s a whole lot of deficit spending, and the immediate risk is inflation. The long-term risk is something our great-great grandchildren will have to contend with.
Or, if we want to be responsible about our own spending, we’ll need to raise taxes. Whether such an added burden will be placed on rank-and-file Americans or on the corporate giants that actually run the economy remains to be seen.
Of course, the good news for places like New Mexico is that a lot of this stimulus money is making its way into state coffers. CARES Act funding has already found its way into state and local government expenditures, along with millions of dollars going into small businesses last year — and millions more coming this year.
In Santa Fe, as state lawmakers wrapped up this year’s legislative session, some of them decried the difficulty of holding a 60-day session under strict pandemic restrictions, but it could have been worse. Imagine how tough it would’ve been without all that federal money coming into the state. This was already going to be a down year for state revenues, thanks to the pandemic and declining oil-and-gas revenues, but lawmakers were able to pass a $7.4 billion budget without having to drain the state’s “rainy day” reserves to get it done.
Still, there is plenty to worry about as we wean ourselves off oil and gas, which typically generates about a third of New Mexico’s tax revenues.
Space exploration, filmmaking and taxable “sins” are all industries the state is poised to capitalize from.
Spaceport America will be making national and international news at some point when Virgin Galactic launches its space tours. Netflix’s new facility in Albuquerque is only going to make New Mexico’s role in the film industry stronger. And higher taxes on tobacco, greater access to booze (soon to be available via home delivery) and the legalization of recreational cannabis are all going to generate more bang for the buck.
Regarding a new, above-board industry of growing and selling pot for recreational purposes, legalization didn’t pass but it came oh-so-close this session. The governor is now saying she’ll call a special session to approve its legalization.
In announcing her intent to call a special session, Michelle Lujan Grisham called legalization “one of the best moves we can make … to build a bona fide 21st century economy in New Mexico.” What she didn’t mention was how much bigger state government will grow just to regulate this burgeoning industry.
Big government is here. Our task, as citizens, will be to hold it accountable.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
