ABQ can’t blame pandemic for crime
BY JOEL JACOBSEN / SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Monday, May 17th, 2021 at 12:02am The pandemic year was also the murder year. This past March,...
HOW NEW MEXICO KILLS JOBS
Overwhelmingly the evidence shows that New Mexico is among the riskiest states in which to start a business or to own a business. Though New Mexico has wonderful vistas, a great climate, and a unique mix of cultures, it continues to chase business and jobs away. How?
NMJobKiller.com has joined with Adelante Now Foundation to offer business owners and former business owners the opportunity to explain to New Mexicans why it is so difficult to create and maintain businesses and jobs in New Mexico.
New Mexico had job creation problems before the current Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has worsened the problem. The combination of the pre-Covid problems and the Covid problems may together place New Mexico in a dire economic situation. We worry about that!
To assist viewers to understand New Mexico’s job creation problems, we decided to divide our interviews with business owners into those dealing with conditions existing before the pandemic and those arising from New Mexico’s response to the pandemic. The first video in the series dealt with New Mexico’s response to the pandemic and can be viewed by clicking here. The second deals with problems preexisting the covid-19 crisis and tells Lance’s story:
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Fixing New Mexico
New Mexico is a beautiful land full of natural resources, an ideal climate, and hardworking people. So why do we have one of the consistently worst economies in America?
The answer lies in the outdated, anti-growth policies pushed by politicians in Santa Fe. New Mexico CAN live up to its potential - but we need new leadership with the courage to challenge the status quo and to implement proven free-market policies that will allow our people to reach their true potential.
While in office the governor’s overspending has led New Mexico to a massive $2 billion deficit.
New Mexico had its highest number of people on the unemployment rolls May 23 with 108,714, according to Labor Department statistics from June 27.
Tens of thousands of children depend on schools for education, nutrition, and many other important resources.
According to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham:
"I want to wholeheartedly commend the thousands of New Mexicans who peacefully protested in Albuquerque last night." (6/1/2020)
(Restaurants): "Zero-tolerance policy for risks and risky behavior...incredible danger of COVID-19" (6/9/2020)
Recent News
Los Lunas drive-in completed, but still closed to the public
LOS LUNAS – The Los Lunas drive-in theater has been completed but it has yet to open as Valencia County is still currently red under the state’s tiered COVID-19 system.
It’s not that the drive-in theater is inoperable under the current health orders, but the number of cars are limited due to mass gathering restrictions. Currently, when a county is in the red, a maximum of 10 cars can gather – in this case for a drive-in theater.
After more than two decades serving up dessert and community, the pandemic shutters beloved eatery
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was 1998 and Kathy Knapp had a decision to make.
Leave her very urban, all-the-conveniences-within-miles of Dallas life, or move to a place in the middle of nowhere that had more cows than people and was anything but convenient.
Knapp said some might not understand why a person who had spent her life in some of the country’s largest urban areas – Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas – would agree to move to Pie Town, New Mexico
Small businesses bear brunt of pandemic crash, Española mayor says
Española was spotlighted in a national discussion Tuesday when its mayor discussed its economic challenges compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are seeing a long-term shift away from small businesses to large businesses,” Mayor Javier Sánchez said during the “Listening to America” forum. “And that’s going to impact us in ways that we can’t even recognize at the time.”
New Mexico Sheriff Says He Won’t Enforce ‘Unconstitutional’ Health Order
The sheriff of New Mexico’s largest county said over the weekend that he won’t enforce the state’s public health order, calling the governor’s restrictive measures unconstitutional.
In a video posted on YouTube, Sheriff Manny Gonzales said the Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, is located, has seen “more than its fair share of personal hardships and devastation” amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.
NM’s economic resolution? End tax pyramiding
I was glad to see that the recent consultant’s report, which was done for the state on improving the New Mexico economy, mentions New Mexico is the only state that allows tax pyramiding and its effects on the New Mexico economy need to be evaluated.
I retired in New Mexico to be near my grandchildren four years ago and have found my contacts don’t seem to understand tax pyramiding. Tax pyramiding has two harmful effects: one is that it places a huge cost burden on component manufactures, and second it kills the development of a core community business sector.
Homicide numbers high despite pandemic
Michelle Phillips had just left work on Jan. 5, 2020, when her phone rang.
A woman frantically told her that her son Thomas Gonzales had been shot outside his home. Before Phillips could ask any questions, someone grabbed the phone, said, “Your son is dead,” and hung up.
Someone in a passing vehicle had opened fire on Gonzales – shooting him multiple times – after an argument broke out.
Fitness Bootcamp will pack it in at the end of December
Santa Fe Health and Fitness will discontinue its Fitness Bootcamp high-intensity interval training group program at the end of December because of the drastic drop in memberships during the two pandemic-related shutdowns, the owners said.
Mark and Donna Gurule have offered Fitness Bootcamp since 2008 and had about 310 members in February. By the time group gym training was allowed again Aug. 1, membership had slid to about 34 to 40, and another 15 to 20 dropped out during the second shutdown in November, Mark Gurule said.
Walmart, Grocers Can Avoid New Mexico Shutdowns With Covid-19 Testing
New Mexico officials are offering grocery stores, retailers and other essential businesses a way to avoid shutdowns when workers become infected with Covid-19: regularly test all employees.
Supermarkets, big-box retailers and hotels that pay for regular testing and contact tracing of their workers will be exempt from two-week shutdowns the state has imposed on stores with infected employees as cases rise.
New Mexico leaves small-business owners feeling shut down unfairly
The big box/small business debate was rejoined Monday as New Mexico began a new, 14-day shutdown amid the latest COVID-19 surge.
Large retailers — not just the Walmarts, but also stores like REI, Big 5 Sporting Goods and Ross Dress for Less — opened, albeit at capacity limits, while other, smaller stores agonized at limitations imposed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s most recent public health orders.
