Submitted by NM Senator Cisco McSorley (D-16-Bernalillo).
August 23, 2016

Where is Governor Susana Martinez?

A recent report on New Mexico's economy confirms that we have been in a deep recession going on eight years, and good jobs are hard to find. The Legislative Council Service issued the analysis showing that we have one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation, now 6.4 percent. The decline in oil production and the absence of any other new economic activity are the causes.

Across our state, we are losing good paying middle class jobs. They are being replaced by entry-level positions, with which it is impossible to raise a family. Intel announced 12,000 worldwide layoffs not long ago. Who knows if Intel will hand out pink slips to employees at its Rio Rancho manufacturing facility? They would be difficult to replace.

According to the report, Gǣthe economy struggles to find traction today.Gǥ Young and educated New Mexicans are leaving our zero-growth state for better, available jobs in surrounding states. Colorado and Texas, despite being oil and gas states, are enjoying an economic resurgence. These young people are key to our future, since good employers will need such workers if they are to locate here.

Tax revenues to fund classrooms, colleges and state government are falling, too. Collections are lower than last year. Oil and gas revenues are down, but gross receipts tax revenues are too, by $111 million.

Where has Gov. Martinez been during this jobs crisis? AWOL. She has barely been in the state at all.

We have challenges aplenty. Instead of dealing with them, the Governor has been traveling around the country non-stop, rubbing elbows with CEOs and elites from finance and industry. She has been to national Republican dinners, cocktail parties in New York with Donald Trump, to South Carolina and to G