New Mexico

NM ranked one of the states most in need of sales, business tax reform

4 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a report from the nonprofit organization Tax Foundation’s “2022 State Business Tax Climate Index,” New Mexico ranks as one of the top ten states in need of sales tax reform, ranking 41st out of 50 states on tax freedom.

New Mexico is also a state that is ranked toward the bottom when it comes to its sales tax base, which is measured on five criteria, including the variety of the tax base, the typical purchases of consumers, whether it includes services, tax holidays, and excise taxes on things such as gasoline, alcohol, and tobacco. 

“States with the worst scores on the base subindex are Hawaii, Alabama, Washington, California, South Dakota, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Maryland. Their tax systems hamper economic growth by including too many business inputs, excluding too many consumer goods and services, and imposing excessive rates of excise taxation,” writes the group.

According to Tax Foundation, “Legislators in New Mexico created an additional individual income tax bracket on income above $210,000, bringing the state’s top rate from 4.9 percent to 5.9 percent. This dramatic increase caused a 10-place drop in the state’s individual income tax ranking and dropped New Mexico’s overall rank from 22nd to 28th.”

The state also ranks 41st out of all other states in business tax climate, making New Mexico a state with a more hostile tax environment for businesses.

“States that create the most tax pyramiding and economic distortion, and therefore score the worst, are states that levy a sales tax that generally allows no exclusions for business Inputs. Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Washington are examples of states that tax many business inputs. The ideal base for sales taxation is all goods and services at the point of sale to the end-user,” the group concludes.

In recent years, Democrats have worked to increase taxes on consumers, businesses, and industries in the state while creating new taxes on many industries. This has all likely contributed to New Mexico’s unfriendly tax structure.

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NM taxpayers forked over staggering amount for abortions in 2020-2021

11 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to New Mexico Department of Health documents obtained by the pro-life group Abortion Free New Mexico, a shocking number of taxpayer-funded abortions happened right here in New Mexico through Medicaid.

The records obtained by the group indicate, “In 2020, New Mexico Medicaid funded 3,372 abortion procedures that resulted in expenditures to abortion providers totaling $386,096.06.”

“In 2021, the numbers rose as New Mexico Medicaid funded 3,955 abortion procedures that resulted in expenditures to abortion providers totaling $421,026.90.”

The group wrote in the press release that New Mexico’s Medicaid system expended “almost $1 million tax dollars funding 7,327 abortions over the course of two years alone.”

The news comes after Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pledged to spend $10 million in 2023 on a new abortion mill in Las Cruces to service Texas women if she wins re-election. 

Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico wrote, “Nearly $1,000,000 of our tax dollars that are already being paid out by New Mexico Medicaid over the past two years alone for 7,327 abortions should alarm us all and motivate us to act!”

“While we can’t stop New Mexico Medicaid from funding abortions, we can work to prevent Michelle Lujan Grisham’s latest attempt to force us as New Mexican citizens to pay for an abortion center that will cater to out of state women seeking to kill their children by voting pro-life. It is vital that each New Mexican of conscience is mobilized to help get pro-life candidates elected in November. Early voting is right around the corner so time is of the essence to volunteer your time, talents and treasure to the candidate of your choice who will stand for life and make sure that Lujan Grisham’s nefarious plans don’t come to fruition.”

Lujan Grisham faces tough competition from GOP nominee Mark Ronchetti, who is polling within single digits of the embattled abortion up-to-birth governor who previously signed a bill in 2021 to legalize abortion up-to-birth in the state of New Mexico by stripping away all protections for mothers, babies, and doctors.

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MLG claimed to be ‘product’ of NM ‘public schools system’ despite going to private school

14 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Tuesday, far-left Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was called out on Twitter by school choice advocates for claiming to be “A product of New Mexico’s public schools system” [sic] despite graduating from a private school.

The Democrat’s education platform reads, “A product of New Mexico’s public schools system, Michelle is dedicated to uplifting every student, parent, educator, and school in New Mexico.”

However, Lujan Grisham graduated from St. Michael’s High School, a private Catholic school in Santa Fe, as she also notes on her official government website, “Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe.” 

Corey A. DeAngelis of School Choice Now wrote on Twitter, “New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign website says she’s ‘a product of New Mexico’s public schools system.’ She graduated from a private school.” 

The Rio Grande Foundation’s Paul Gessing chimed in also:

She also did the very opposite of “uplift” every “ student, parent, educator, and school in New Mexico” due to her pandemic lockdowns which punished teachers who would not get the jab, ramming down the far-left Critical Race Theory curriculum through her Public Education Department, and even going as so far as to remove duly elected school board members who she disagreed with — the antithesis of her promise.

New Mexico’s education marks show 30-year lows in testing, with the deprivation of education for months and years to some children resulting in a barely literate publicly educated student population.

The proficiency tests released by PED show that third-graders had 23% proficiency in language arts, while those figures ebbed and flowed for other grades: fourth-graders (35%), fifth-graders (36%), sixth-graders (33%), seventh-graders (35%), and eighth-graders (33%). 

The state’s schools remain dead last on multiple rankings that show New Mexico has the worst public education system in the nation. Lujan Grisham is endorsed by the leftist teacher’s unions, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association, both of which advocated for lockdowns, forced masking, jabs, and Critical Race Theory. 

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Judge removes Couy Griffin from office, citing Civil War

26 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Tuesday, it was announced that state District Court Judge Francis Mathew had made a ruling barring Otero County District Two Commissioner Couy Griffin from holding public office.

Mathews wrote in his ruling that Griffin “became constitutionally disqualified from federal and state positions specified (under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, Section 3) and forfeited his current office as Otero County Commissioner effective Jan. 6, 2021,” adding, “Griffin shall be removed from his position as an Otero County Commissioner effective immediately.”

The judge made many anti-Trump sentiments in the ruling, claiming President Trump on January 6th made “false claims that the election was ‘rigged’ and ‘stolen,’” while claiming that the incursion into the U.S. Capitol constituted an “insurrection” despite not a single person involved being convicted of “insurrection.”

Regardless, Mathews concludes, “The Court concludes that the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol and the surrounding planning, mobilization, and incitement constituted an ‘insurrection’ within the meaning of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

He then compared the January 6th protesters to the Confederates, who lost the Civil War, writing, “The mob ultimately achieved what even the Confederates never did during the Civil War: they breached the Capitol building and seized the Capitol grounds, forcing the Vice President and Congress to halt their constitutional duties and flee to more secure locations.”

“The case law holds that a person ‘engage[s]’ in an insurrection within the meaning of Section Three by ‘[v]oluntarily aiding the [insurrection], by personal service, or by contributions, other than charitable, of anything that [is] useful or necessary’ to the insurrectionists’ cause. Worthy, 63 N.C. at 203; see also Powell, 27 F. Cas. at 607 (defining ‘engage’ as ‘a voluntary effort to assist the Insurrection … and to bring it to a successful termination’ from the insurrectionists’ perspective).” 

“One need not personally commit acts of violence to ‘engag[e] in’ insurrection,” said Mathews.

According to the New York Times, Griffin’s removal is “the first official in more than 100 years to be removed under the Constitution’s bar on insurrectionists holding office.”

Griffin represented himself in the trial, and he does have the opportunity for an appeal.

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will likely have the opportunity to appoint Griffin’s replacement, which will go against the citizens of the District who elected Griffin — a conservative — to represent them as commissioner.

The lawsuit was filed by residents of Santa Fe and Los Alamos Counties, while none are from Otero County.

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Leftists have fit over Santa Rosa hanging image of city’s namesake

7 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Despite the city of Santa Rosa in Guadalupe County having heavy Catholic influence in its founding, including that of Saint Rose of Lima, some who have been attacking Ten Commandments statues across the country are coming for images of Santa Rosa and Our Lady of Guadalupe in the small city of around 3,000 next.

A local resident, Herman Baca, reportedly “donated the painting [of Santa Rosa], by a Peruvian artist, to City Hall — where it hung for about 24 hours in the spring before calls to take it down prompted its removal.” 

Baca also donated a monument of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the city, which was planned to be placed on a city-owned lawn a block from City Hall. 

Santa Rosa de Lima is the patron saint of embroidery, gardening, and the cultivation of blooming flowers. She is also the first saint born in the Americas to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

Mayor Nelson Kotiar placed the image of Santa Rosa in City Hall, but after an outcry from some residents, it was removed. 

The Santa Fe New Mexican writes, “[Kotiar] noted a painting of Santa Rosa hangs in the county courthouse, and no one raises a fuss about it. Nor has anyone complained about a small bust of St. Joseph he displays in his office, he said.”

Attorney Andy Schultz, who helped rip down a Ten Commandments monument in Bloomfield, told the New Mexican, “The current status of the Establishment Clause jurisprudence is a mess,” while claiming conflicting case law makes the Catholic icons’ presence in Santa Rosa’s City Hall difficult.

“I am a devout Catholic and pray to Mary every single day, but that’s not where the painting belongs,” claimed gift shop owner Luisa Chappell.

“It’s an interesting question, right?” said State Historian Rob Martinez  “We have so many Spanish and Mexican names [of towns and counties] that are shod through Roman Catholicism.” While some people may protest placing religious icons on public property, he said, “Locals say, ‘What’s the big deal? We’ve been doing Catholic imagery for centuries.’ ” 

Many others see the monument of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the image of Santa Rosa as a big boost to the city’s identity and attractiveness to tourism, as well as paying homage to the historical events that led to the city of Santa Rosa’s creation.

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Like clockwork, Dems make Labor Day about socialism

12 Comments / Editorial, New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Monday signifies the federal Labor Day holiday, celebrating working people and the fight at the turn of the last century for humane, fair working conditions. This seemingly non-political holiday to celebrate the working man and woman, of course, had to be seized by left-wing radicals to promote socialism via modern unions and initiatives that work hard to put as much government into private industry as possible.

Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who previously failed to run for the U.S. Senate in 2020, claims Labor Day is meant to “celebrate our unions who ensure that every worker – regardless of what you make, what you look like, how you pray, who you love, or how you identify – has the rights, benefits, standards, and opportunity we deserve.”

She then continued to tout socialist policies, such as a guaranteed living wage, universal health care, and other government-funded programs, while erroneously claiming there is an attack on the right to vote. 

“Every one of us deserves a living wage, access to healthcare, good benefits, adequate working conditions, and easy access to the ballot box,” she wrote. 

Democrat Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico’s Third Congressional District took time on Monday to tout extremist labor leader Dolores Huerta, who said that babies in the womb do not have souls. 

Huerta previously said in 2021 to promote abortions, “I know that the child has no soul until they are born. Right?” 

Leger Fernandez wrote on Labor Day, “Today, we honor working Americans — and the unions and labor movement that gave us the five day work week and moved our nation forward over the decades. As one of my personal heroes, Dolores Huerta, once said: ‘Honor the hands that harvest your crops.’” 

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham shared a video on Labor Day with clips of her posing alongside Huerta while touting organized labor. She did not mention, however, that she has killed over 40% of small businesses in the state due to her brutal pandemic lockdown. 

She wrote to tout unions, “When unions exist, everything gets better. Thank you, New Mexico Labor.”

In a subsequent tweet, she promoted socialist policies, writing, “Without your organizing, we would never have achieved paid sick leave, accessible child care, a higher minimum wage, or many other policies that protect working people’s interests.”  

Other far-left politicians, such as Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM-CD-01), Democrat Second Congressional District candidate Gabe Vasquez, and others, wrote similar sentiments online, trying to tie Labor Day with socialist policies.

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APD makes likely biggest drug bust in NM history

29 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

On Friday, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) announced it had made a massive drug bust Thursday that included $10 million worth of drugs, cash, and other assets.

According to the Department, “APD conducted a joint investigation with partnering agencies into a Drug Trafficking Organization throughout Albuquerque.”

The Albuquerque Journal reported that the bust “may be the biggest seizure of drugs and money in New Mexico history.”

The outlet reported, “Federal search warrant returns unsealed Friday revealed the discovery of up to $4 million in bulk cash and what authorities said could be a record amount of fentanyl pills at one of 15 Albuquerque locations searched Thursday as part of an ongoing FBI investigation into a new evolving alliance among street and prison gangs in the state.”

The report added that one senior member of the Sureños gang, Jesse “Lobo” Young, was arrested. According to the Journal, Young “had at least 21 prior arrests in New Mexico, and felony convictions of possession of a controlled substance and transferring a stolen vehicle.” It’s unclear with that many arrests how he was breathing air outside of serving a life sentence in a federal prison 

More from the report:

The high-profile bust marks the latest twist in a massive seven-year criminal investigation by the FBI into the ultraviolent Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico. The 42-year-old prison gang that operates inside and outside prison walls has been crippled in recent years by more than 160 arrests of its members and associates and five federal rackeetering trials that landed its top leader and 11 other gang members in federal prison for life. Eleven homicides have been solved in the investigation to date.

Now the FBI believes the members of the Sureños, a California-based gang linked to the Mexican Mafia prison gang, also known as the La Eme or Black Hand, have stepped in to help the SNM continue its mission of violence, revenge and illicit drug distribution in New Mexico.

The Sureños have significantly more personnel on the street and in custody, and informants have reported the Sureños have taken over the illicit drug market in Albuquerque, unloading hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine a week and tens of thousands of fentanyl pills, according to the affidavit.

Crime in Albuquerque and around the state has exacerbated as the southern border has been flooded with illegal aliens and criminal enterprises ravaging New Mexico as lenient policies from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Joe Biden have made illegal crossings and illicit activities more prevalent.

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Leftist NM columnist launches venomous attacks against Herschel Walker

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In a column published on Thursday, far-left Santa Fe New Mexican columnist Milan Simonich launched attacks against Republicans, including Trump-endorsed Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, among others.

Although softly bashing all of them, Simonich launched particularly nasty comments against Walker, who just so happens to be Black.

Simonich wrote in his poisonous opinion piece, “Palin seems like a Jeopardy! champion compared to Walker.”

But Simonich’s venom against Walker was not just in his latest column. He’s been railing against the football star for weeks — in an apparent vendetta of rage for some strange reason.

In another August 23, 2022, column, Simonich launched another racially tinged attack targeting Walker, claiming GOP New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti, who is White, is “is several cuts above Walker, which isn’t hard.”

He added, “A Republican, bumbling Walker is Trump’s handpicked choice in a state the former president lost in 2020,” dubbing him “The worst candidate this year.”

“Lujan Grisham can’t afford to underestimate Ronchetti. For all his generalities, he’s no Herschel Walker,” Simonich concluded.

Why all the low blows against the Republican, who just so happens to be Black? We will let you make your own conclusions on that.

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MLG’s lockdown resulted in 30-year education proficiency lows: PED report

12 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s brutal pandemic lockdown that left countless New Mexico children without education for years did exactly as expected: plunged students’ proficiency levels down the toilet in a state where education already ranks 50th out of all other states.

Test results released by Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Public Education Department give horribly low marks for New Mexico’s students.

“In the 2021-2022 school year, PED deployed the first assessments of New Mexico’s Balanced Assessment System, which includes both within-year state assessments (e.g., dyslexia screening for all first graders, K-2 monthly progress monitoring for early literacy and math skills, interim mathematics and language arts assessments) and federally required end-of-year summative assessments. These end-of-year assessments measure proficiency in content standards of English/language arts and mathematics in grades three through eight and science in grades five, eight and high school,” wrote PED in a news release.

It noted that “34% of students assessed are proficient in language arts,” “33% of students assessed are proficient in science,” and “25% of students assessed are proficient in mathematics.”

The Albuquerque Journal reports, “About 31% of kindergarten through second-graders were proficient in early literacy, and 33% of fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders were proficient in science.”

In subgroups of the data, children remained at record lows. The Journal added, “24% of third-graders eligible for free and reduced lunch were proficient in language arts, and about 16% were proficient in math. By the fifth grade, proficiency numbers rose to 28% and 23%, respectively.

State Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences), who sits on the House Education Committee, wrote, “The facts are finally here. MLG’s prolonged shut down of our schools has resulted in the lowest student reading and math proficiency scores in thirty years. In. Thirty. Years. The mental, social and emotional impact remains unmeasured. Low income and majority children have been most harmed.” 

“During COVID the republicans introduced bill after bill to limit MLGs runaway power over parents and their children. The majority party would not even give our bills a hearing. Below are a few of the bills I introduced during COVID to help parents get educational help for their children. None of these bills even received a hearing. With New Mexico scoring worst in the nation, all options and solutions to address this massive learning loss must be available.” 

The proficiency tests released by PED show that third-graders had 23% proficiency in language arts, while those figures ebbed and flowed for other grades: fourth-graders (35%), fifth-graders (36%), sixth-graders (33%), seventh-graders (35%), and eighth-graders (33%). 

Early literacy scores also were horrible, with 31% of kindergarten through second-grade children proficient in reading.

In math, 23% of third-graders were proficient, while those figures continued to ebb and flow for other grades: fourth-graders (24%), fifth-graders (31%), sixth-graders (32%), seventh-graders (25%), and eighth-graders (20%). 

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Pro-aborts issue ‘Orwellian’ abortion press kit demanding reporters deny facts, science

15 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Wednesday, following Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s announcement of an executive order pledging to use $10 million taxpayer dollars to erect a new abortion facility in Las Cruces, pro-abortion groups issued what is being called an “Orwellian” press kit denying basic facts and promoting abortion misinformation.

In the kit shared by the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Daniel Chacón, the groups list what they brand as “political terms” versus “accurate terms,” claiming terms have become “stigmatized” to oppose abortion.

The guide claims “abortion clinic” must now be called “health center,” pro-lifers be branded “anti-abortion individuals,” pro-abortion supporters be branded “pro-abortion rights” and “pro-reproductive health care,” abortionists be deemed “health care providers,” “women” now be called “patients,” “individuals,” and “people,” and “late-term abortion” now be branded “abortion later in pregnancy.”

The pro-abortion press kit says regarding nixing the word “woman,” “Women are not the only people who become pregnant and/or seek abortion care. People of all genders, including non-binary individuals also seek abortion care.” Science does not back this up. Only women can become pregnant and have children.

The abortion kit also defended full-term abortion, claiming that the terms “abortion up until birth” and “infanticide are terms pushed by anti-abortion organizations in order to scare people and stigmatize reproductive health care. ‘Abortion up until birth’ simply does not occur.”

This is easily fact-checkable as blatantly false. A U.S. Congressional report found in 2016 that babies in New Mexico were, indeed, aborted up until birth and even killed after birth, making “infanticide” an absolutely appropriate term.

The Republican Party of New Mexico responded to the new press kit, writing, “Look at this: This Orwellian ‘newspeak’ guide was given to media reporters in NM to make sure they use words that sway the narrative. Women are replaced by ‘people,’ late-term abortion is now ‘abortion later in pregnancy,’ and pro-life is replaced with ‘anti-abortion.’”

Will Reinert of the Republican Governors Association noted that Lujan Grisham “now dictates how reporters write about her taxpayer funded abortion clinic to make it more politically palatable.” 

[READ NEXT: Democrat gov. denies press credentials to two conservative news outlets]

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article reported based on other reports that the press guide came from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. It actually came from MLG’s pro-abortion allies.

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