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New Mexico Must Change to Become Competitive with Neighboring States: Jonathan Williams in New Mexico Sun

The Land of Enchantment has a less-than-enchanting pattern of raising taxes.

On a recent trip to New Mexico, ALEC Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Policy Jonathan Williams, spoke to the New Mexico Sun for a feature article promoting Rich States, Poor States and ALEC model policies to help New Mexico improve its economic competitiveness.

New Mexico’s economic performance over the last decade ranked 42nd out of 50 states in “Rich States Poor States,” he told New Mexico Sun.

“[This] is not a big surprise to any New Mexico natives that have lived through this last period of time and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her tax increase proposals and ideas for bigger government, even outlined more recently in her State of the State Address,” Williams said. 

“But it’s a longer-term trend of population loss and loss of GDP growth and loss of job growth in New Mexico relative to the rest of the country now for a decade, in our measurement,” he added. “And you combine that with how we rank New Mexico’s economic outlook, which is a forecast that we put together every year in our ‘Rich States, Poor States’ report, that comes in at a pretty poor 38th ranking as well.”

In his keynote address, he reviewed the errors and poor choices that led New Mexico to this fiscal folly. He also offered advice on how New Mexico can make itself more competitive while trying to “turn around this ugly picture of losses of outmigration and the poor job growth and poor economic growth.”

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