I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
If you’ve heard repeatedly that New Mexico relies on government spending to prop up its economy, but like me wondered what that looks like exactly, here’s some data to fill in the picture.
According to the Consolidated Federal Funds Report for fiscal year 2008, New Mexico ranked 5th out of all the states in the amount of federal dollars it receives per capita. Put another way, New Mexico received more than $12,000 for each resident, or nearly $24 billion in fiscal year 2008, the report reveals.
That rate puts the Land of Enchantment just below Kentucky (4th), but behind Alaska (3rd), Maryland (2nd) and Virginia (1st). Virginia, by way of comparison, receives more than $15,000 in federal dollars per each resident.
This likely does not come as a surprise to many native New Mexicans, who know from years of experience the big footprint the federal government leaves here. But because I’m a government report geek and I can’t help trying to evangelize others to my love of data-rich reports, I thought I’d share this information in hopes others would romp joyfully in the lakes of data a report like this one offers.
The Consolidated Federal Funds Report uses an expansive definition of federal dollars, considering several categories, to come up with its computations. Those categories are: retirement and disability payments; other direct payments; grants; procurement contracts; salaries and wages; direct loans; guaranteed or insured loans; and insurance.
It goes without saying that New Mexico benefits hugely from the two national labs — Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory — not to mention a couple of U.S. Air Force bases, when all the categories are considered. New Mexico registered $6.9 billion in procurement contracts during the federal government’s 2008 budget year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
The next largest category in federal dollars for New Mexico was $5.9 billiion, in retirement and disability checks, the report shows.
Of course New Mexico, because of its small population, is dwafed in the amount of real dollars it receives by big population states. For example,California receives nearly $300 billion, Texas $210 billion, New York $174 billion, according to the report.
For some additional reading, the Christian Science Monitor attempts to make sense of some aspects of the report.
