With the biggest revenue increase from fossil fuels (due to the price gouging from the oligopolistic oil companies), and already sitting on Land Grant Funds of nearly $25 billion with a "rainy day" fund overfunded in the billions (far more than most States), the State of New Mexico has a once in a lifetime chance to spend public monies wisely, and with an eye to a humane, sustainable future:
1. Early childhood education in a public setting for every pre-K child in NM (no neoliberal or right wing solution of giving public monies to private secular or religious oriented pre-K places as that is a boondoggle for the wealthy and theocratic);
2. Affordable public housing that avoids past US high rise "projects" errors, and does it more like Germany, France, and Great Britain, with a New Mexican adobe twist;
3. Medical service provider increases, with aggressive pay raises for public health people, meaning regular and specialist docs, mental health therapists, and nurses so those professionals from other states come here (on top of swelling the ranks of nursing and medical school programs in our state schools). Also, use these monies to provide a premium rate of payment to the Medicaid reimbursement rate to help doctors who are treating or want to treat more Medicaid patients. The reimbursement rates are nationally too low, but especially so in New Mexico;
4. $1,000 a year for every New Mexican over 18, which will be part of what brings in docs, therapists, nurses, etc.--sorta like Alaska;
5. Infrastructure, starting with completing broadband access for the remaining 30% of rural people who live in nearly 70% of the rest of the state;
6. Promote tech and film industries, not so much by giving money away to already wealthy SoCal movie producers, but instead for internal investment for the many creative people we already have in our State; and
7. Jump start solar and wind development and UBI money set aside to begin to transition the 2.6* of people in the fossil fuel industry, giving them first rights to renewable energy and infrastructure jobs. If we don't take care of fossil fuel workers FIRST, we are properly exposed as elitist environmentalists. And if we don't make this movement into renewable energy, we are doubly foolish as a species and parents and grandparents to our children and grandchildren. It should go without further argument the fossil fuel industry is killing the planet, and us. We need to use this short term money to transition to renewable energy. It's not only for us now, but for our children and our planet.
*See the link, particularly page 3, and footnote 3 for the methodology.
Our State can do all of this at the same time. What is needed are Democratic Party and progressive minded people with vision to articulate, promote, and then implement this set of programs.
It would be a disaster if the majority of voters in our State fall for what will be the Republican solution, which are simply tax breaks and tax giveaways to business with no significant targeting for diversifying New Mexico's economy. There is no vision in such policies, and we would end up wasting this moment--with dire climate consequences.
