On Monday, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) announced that it projects around a $1.1 billion increase in new revenue for the fiscal year 2024 thanks to the oil and gas industry.
The report projects $3.6 billion in recurring revenue for the year, a massive 42.7 percent increase from the roughly $2.5 billion revenue estimate for the 2023 fiscal year.
The “new” money will mean more funds for legislators to spend or save during the next legislative session, which starts on January 17, 2023.
Despite Democrats being hell-bent on knee-capping the oil, gas, and coal industries in every possible way, the funding to the state coffers for education, health care, and other key pieces of the budget comes thanks to extractive energy industries.
Many legislators have urged the state to use excess funds for one-off projects that benefit the long-term fabric of the state, such as infrastructure projects to fix roads and rebuild aging government buildings.
One project Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is adamant about ramming through is $10 million to build a new abortion center in Las Cruces to abort even more Texas mothers’ children.
State Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), the Senate Finance Committee chairman, said after the LFC report, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, “No one in this state’s history has ever had this opportunity, and if we don’t use this opportunity to fix problems within our agencies, fix problems within our schools, then we’re going to lose out.”
And blow it they will.
First they will give themselves lucrative pay raises. Teacher unions will follow, along with Grisham’s dirty little pet projects.
Don’t forget about the New Green deal hoax, and of course many more abortion clinics across this state.
Homeless veterans will remain homeless, our taxes and fuel prices will continue to rise while more restrictions are placed on us to combat climate change.
Cynical much? You bet I am, given the ongoing evil agenda they have to gain even more power and control over us, and Grisham’s history of incompetent and irresponsible management of money.
But once again next month, Grisham will take the oath swearing to support our Constitution, break that oath, and get away with it. 🙄
Not even a cynical opinion, just a realistic one.
So how do these dumbocrat legislators and governoress expect to continue their wild and drunken spending sprees when they have ultimately shut down the state’s extraction industries?
Is it a “live for today” attitude to build a (very sorry) legacy? That is, let someone else worry about tomorrow?
And a majority of the New Mexico electorate continues to believe that unicorns will make it all better?
The Dems in New Mexico are having it both ways: Killing the oil and gas industry while plundering the revenue while the industry slowly dies.
Bob N. nailed it perfectly.
I have a nice house for sale on the West Side. – going home to Ohio
Ditto but mine is on the east side. I’m a native hispanic but I’ve seen enough. Ohio is not my cup of tea but I’ve found a place that is.
I cannot even comment anymore about these tyrants without using foul language, so I will just end it here.
The Governor’s favorite issues: Abortion and Marijuana…she brags on Fecebook about her ‘achievements’ just as senile Joe lies about his own. Our Democrat friends and neighbors go about their dreamworld, oblivious to what is happening to the country, brainwashed by the fakenews media, including our own local channels/stations which ignore real news and propagate the fantasy of the Biden Administration. With Nan Pelosi gone come Jan1, we have to hope the new Congress has the guts to defund every fkg program… including FBI/CIA/DHS/DNI… expose Schiff/Nadler/Swallowell/Whitehorse and the HUNTER/JOE crimes and corruption. These DemocRats are all intertwined all the way from DC to Santa Fe. Remember Zorro Ranch/Epstein/Clintons/Richardson etc etc etc. (currently suspended from Fecebook – again for posting a story about Hunter Laptop)