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Wednesday, August 13, 2025Haaland Makes One Of First Statements On State Economy; Focuses On Rural Outlook; "I Don't Want Ghost Towns In New Mexico"; Points To $60 Billion In State Reserves But That Cash Is Restricted
Deb Haaland says she is looking to invest in rural New Mexico communities whose present status is lousy and whose future is threatened. Details of how she would invest there are uncertain. Haaland's campaign put up a video on the socials that has the candidate pointing to the state's large cash reserves, saying she does not "want ghost towns in New Mexico." The transcript: Are we a rich state or a poor state? We have 60 billion dollars and half our population is. . .Medicaid eligible. That means that half of our population is living in poverty. It feels really unbalanced. It's very unbalanced and we need take money and invest in communities so that they can lift their communities up. Right? Like everyone talks about (how) we need this money for a rainy day. It's pouring outside. It is pouring. . . When we are writing up our (campaign's) rural communities platform these are things that we would like to make sure that communities have. I don't want ghost towns in New Mexico. That $60 billion Haaland references is the total in the state's permanent funds and other state-managed assets. But the funds are long-term investments and not readily available cash. The Land Grant Permanent Fund has $26 billion. The funds are constitutionally restricted to education. They are not available for the broad category of rural communities. The Severance Tax Permanent Fund totals $6.6 billion but like the Land Grant Fund, only a set amount--not the corpus of the fund--is available for annual distributions. The rest of the funds are similarly restricted, bringing tje total to over $60 billion invested. The State Investment Council which administers the permanent funds, says it has invested in 12 venture funds in 2024 and set a new record for "New Mexico-centric investments." Perhaps Haaland could look at that pipeline for a rural investment. Thanks to the oil boom the state has been keeping historic reserves of over $3 billion annually in its nearly $11 billion budget. Some of those funds could conceivably be tapped for a Haaland rural initiative. RURAL VS. URBAN? Haaland says she does not want "ghost towns"in New Mexico. By one count there are over 400--many dating from the Great Depression--with new ones seemingly in the making in distressed areas such as Colfax County. The 2020 census puts the state's urban population at 75 percent. How much more investment should rural areas see, considering the needs of the majority urban residents and the high chance that more rural investment will not be effective in halting a decades-long decline in rural living. It's not lost that Haaland's political position against her chief Dem rival, Sam Bregman, is fragile in rural conservative areas and that her referencing them early in the campaign can be viewed through that lens. But Haaland's generalized statements do raise a fundamental and profound question about the economic future and they are not-sugarcoated. That's a start. This is the Home of New Mexico Politics. |
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