March 22, 2025 • 46 mins
In This Episode:
🚨 Breaking News: Las Cruces Car Show Turns Deadly
Three people killed and 15 injured in a mass shooting at a car show in Las Cruces, NM.
Social media was quick to jump to conclusions, with images of a man holding an AR-15 going viral. Turns out—he wasn’t the shooter.
In reality, this was two rival groups with handguns, opening fire and hitting innocent bystanders.
🔥 Mark Breaks Down the Bigger Picture
This tragedy is just one more example of what happens when a state becomes soft on crime.
Mark explains how New Mexico has created an environment where young criminals feel empowered—with zero respect for the rule of law.
Even the Las Cruces Police Chief admitted: “There is no respect for law in this state.”
🎙️ Special Guest: Paul Gessing, Founder of the Rio Grande Foundation
Paul joins Mark and Krysty to break down how the far-left legislature refuses to hold criminals accountable.
They also discuss how the recent legislative session failed to address crime, while proposing more tax increases—despite record surpluses.
Paul also shares his ongoing push to eliminate the state income tax, a policy that could lift the burden on working families across New Mexico.
🤯 Minnesota Governor Celebrates Tesla's Fall… At His Own State’s Expense?
Governor Tim Walz cheers the decline of Tesla stock, even though Minnesota’s retirement plan is heavily invested in the EV company.
We ask: Why is a sitting governor rooting for the collapse of his own citizens’ retirement savings?
🏀 Go Lobos! New Mexico Wins Round 1
We wrap the episode with a celebration of the New Mexico Lobos' victory in Round 1 of the NCAA tournament!
Plus, a preview of their big Round 2 matchup with Michigan State—let’s go Lobos!
This episode combines breaking news, hard-hitting analysis, and meaningful conversations about how to turn things around—for New Mexico and the country.
#doge #newmexico #trump #breakingnews #musk #news #albuquerque #politicalpodcast #governmentwaste #santafe #lascruces #lascrucesshooting
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose
between a left or right.
Well, I'd like to suggest thereis no such thing as a left or
right.
There's only an up or down.
This is the no Doubt About it.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No doubt about it Now your hosts.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Christy and Mark Runcany.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, special edition .
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, saturday special session edition
basically.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we're going to wrap up the legislative session
which is going on right now, orwrapping up right now as we
speak.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, they're patting themselves on the back.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, they are.
There's a lot of glad-handinggoing on for not much
accomplished, but that's why webring in Paul Guessing from the
Rio Grande Foundation, one ofthe very best when it comes to
policy, especially economicpolicy in the state of New
Mexico, and we're going to getinto what happened in the
session and, paul, what didn'thappen in the session, and one
of those things being a taxbreak for working people in the
(01:00):
state of New Mexico.
That did not necessarily godown.
Apologies for the dress.
I'm a little.
I didn't get a chance to shaveor do anything.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
You're looking rough.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's like this is you think this is a radio show guy
and it's not like it's not aradio.
I'm sorry, Paul, I apologizefor my ready for vacation.
I am ready for vacation.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He grows a beard in like 20 seconds when he can.
Easy, easy, let's take it easy.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, by the way, just a quick reminder, this will
be our only show this week,meaning this next coming week,
because the girls are on theirspring break, so we're going to
hang out with them here.
So we will not be doing a showon Wednesday into Thursday, just
so you know.
So that's why we brought inPaul to add some extra juice to
this baby.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, so we're ready to go.
Paul, first of all, thanks fortaking the time.
We're going to get to a bunchof economic stuff too, but we
want to start with what happenedin Las Cruces, because this is
breaking news going down rightnow.
There was a shooting last nightat Young Park in Las Cruces.
Three people are dead, fifteenpeople are injured from this
event, and we do have some videothat we can show you what went
(02:00):
down with this and a horrificevent.
It was a pop-up car show.
Basically, this was notsomething that was, you know,
passed through, you know LasCruces and permitted and
everything else.
They all just showed up thereand started doing this car show
and this is what unfolded aspeople were showing off their
cars I mean, people hidingunderneath their cars just a
(02:28):
very difficult situation andobviously scary, no question
about it.
And so a couple of things Iwant to talk about with this and
you guys, what's interestingabout this is, if you watched
online throughout the morning onSaturday morning, you saw
pictures start to pop upeverywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Right, this kid with an AR AR 15 with an AR 15.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So we'll show you.
We'll show you the picture here, and I want to make something
extremely clear the person thatyou see here holding an AR 15,
he's not the gunman.
He is not the gunman.
He's already been spoken to byLas Cruces police department
officials.
But he did bring an AR 15 toa15 to a car show and started
pointing it around, which isstupidity beyond belief, right,
(03:09):
but he is not the gunman.
Okay, so a couple things.
That's, when you start lookingonline, you start grabbing
little pieces of information.
They identified who this personwas and they went and said you
know, he's the person they'relooking for as the shooter.
He's not.
He's already been spoken to.
It was not an AR-15 that wasused in this shooting.
Those were handguns.
So I want to get to the policechief.
(03:30):
It's Las Cruces Police Chief,jeremy Story, who talks about
what's going on right now andwhat they're trying to do, and
he first kind of referenced someof the stuff happening online
that you want to make sure thatyou disregard.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I correct a few things that are circulating,
especially on social media.
The person holding an AR-15 inthe photo that's being
distributed has already beeninterviewed.
At this time we do not believehe was involved in the shooting,
although it's obviously aproblem that he's out there with
an AR-15 in his hand, but atthis time we do not believe he
was involved in the shooting.
He has been contacted already.
(04:03):
Casings have been locatedthroughout the park and parking
lot.
Again, it's a huge scene.
All the casings located so farare handgun caliber casings.
There are no rifle casingsconsisting with an AK or AR
style rifle.
In fact, there's no riflecasings that have been located
at all so far.
They're all handgun casings.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So just a quick thing , because we're going to tie all
this into New Mexico in abroader sense, the legislative
session and how things are dealtwith in this state.
But I think one of thearguments we've always made is
look, you currently have asituation in the state of New
Mexico with safety that has notbeen addressed by this
legislature.
They have been in charge of thelegislature for basically
(04:46):
uninterrupted for 80 years andoccasionally they'll get
Republican governors, butrealistically, this state is not
a safe state.
We're the most violent state inthe union, okay, and you saw it
basically show itself here inwhat happened in Las Cruces.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I mean, it just feels like the sad part is is
like even the kid that has theAR-15 or the adult young adult
that has the AR-15, it justfeels like there's, you know and
I think this police chief isgoing to discuss this a little
bit just on, there's no recourse, right.
So there's no like anythinggoes, right.
Like criminals, they know theycan get.
You know, if they even getcaught, it's a revolving door,
(05:22):
they're put right back out.
There's slaps on the wrists,there's things that you know
it's like crime isn't takenseriously here, and so instead
our you know, our legislaturecontinues to go after rightful
gun owners, missing the wholemark here, instead of like,
really, let's go after theseviolent offenders or those that
are actually committing thesecrimes, keep them behind, you
know, behind bars, and punishthem.
(05:43):
But that doesn't seem to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, paul, did you see anything?
Before we get to what the LasCruces police chief has to say
here in a second, is there any?
Did you see any change in theway crime was dealt with in this
session?
You were up there a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Not really.
Obviously, the red flag bill Ithink that is already law, if
not, or becoming a law very soon.
We're still waiting for a fewbills, but obviously the idea of
putting gun stores out ofbusiness through litigation is
not really the solution to ourcrime problems.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So no, I don't think anything happened this session
that changed the needle andwe'll get to that 318 here in
just a second.
Let's get to the Las Crucespolice chief talking about crime
in New Mexico, because I thinkhe said it without saying it,
and he said I don't want to getpolitical on this, and he
shouldn't be.
This shouldn't be a politicalissue.
That's what's so crazy.
And so again chief storytalking about the lack of
(06:38):
accountability and how nobodyfears law enforcement in the
state of New Mexico.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Thank you, chief.
This horrendous, senseless actis a stark reminder of the
blatant disregard people in NewMexico have for the rule of law
and order.
It's also a reminder of justthe utter lack of fear of
accountability in New Mexico.
As angry as I am right now,this news conference will not be
political.
(07:03):
There will come a time to talkabout the failures that led to
this tragedy and so many othersin New Mexico, but now is not
that time.
There are three prioritiesright now.
The first priority is tosupport the families and loved
ones of those who are affected.
Some of them need prayers asthey go through the loss of a
loved one and they grieve.
(07:23):
Others need your prayers astheir loved ones fight for their
lives in hospitals throughoutthe borderland.
There are a lot of hurtingpeople right now in our
community.
Our next focus is theapprehension of those involved
and those responsible for thisatrocity.
We will find each and every oneof them and we will hold them
accountable to the criminaljustice system.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, so, just so you know, as of noon on Saturday,
when we are putting this out,they have not been around.
There's nobody that's beenarrested for this.
They do believe it was ashootout between two different
groups, but, but?
But the police chief makes theexact point that we've been
talking about for the longesttime.
We live in a state where thereis no fear of the rule of law,
(08:03):
and if there is no fear of therule of law, you get wild crimes
which are incredibly hard toprocess.
And we go back to the last showwe had.
In fact, we can show the videoright now.
This is the video of the kidsthat were driving in the car a
13 year old, an 11 year old anda 15 year old go out on a
joyride, decide that they wantto run down a cyclist on his way
(08:26):
to work at Sandia labs and theykill him, and they kill him,
and they kill him, and so andthese guys post this on social
media- and, by the way, the 15year old, as far as as of right
now, has still not been caught.
Okay and you can see it pulledthere.
So this sort of stuff you watchand it's absolutely horrifying
to see what the state has become.
(08:47):
I mean, we have kids that wedon't let out past nine o'clock
at night anymore, and there arecertain areas of the city that
used to be places where youcould go and hang out, and
they're not anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Right, I mean we would say automatically no
parking lots after 9 PM for ourkids, not even any place close
by to our house.
It it is.
You have no idea what's goingon and, honestly, like these
kids, like we've talked about itwith the parents as well
Parents should absolutely beresponsible for these 11, 13 and
15 year olds, and I certainlyhope that our justice system
holds them accountable as well.
(09:16):
But who knows what's going tohappen?
Because I still feel like wehave all these bleeding hearts
for criminals, regardless oftheir age, that are up in the
legislature right now.
I mean, it blows my mind thatwe can't just wake up and say
and number one, put this back onour leadership too, not just
our state legislature, but ourmayor and our governor and you
know, the folks that actuallymake the calls on this stuff.
(09:38):
I don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Well, speaking of the governor, she did just put out
a tweet.
Daniel Chacon showed this.
It's let's clip nine, and youcan see she just put this out.
So now, does this inspireconfidence?
I don't think it does.
But she says after the massshooting in Las Cruces, governor
MLG says in a statement thelegislature should expect a
special session to address ourongoing public safety crisis.
(10:01):
Again, if she's going to addressthe people who are committing
the crimes, I'm all for it.
Good for you, mlg.
I hope you're right.
I hope you can get this and getmeaningful legislation passed
to keep violent criminals behindbars.
But I fear because it happensin every legislative session and
their solution always seems tobe and we'll talk about some of
the bills Paul has been pushingback against that they will
(10:25):
absolutely go after law-abidinggun owners and gun stores versus
the people who steal these gunsand commit the crimes.
I just have very littleconfidence in their ability and
if you look at clip eight, youknow you guys don't need these
numbers.
Every one of you listening tothis knows this, but here are
the 10 most dangerous states inAmerica.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, this just came out this week.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
There they are and we are number one.
So hardly a surprise here,hardly something.
That I think is where we wouldnot expect to be.
So, paul, as you watch this andyou see where we are, knowing
the environment, are you sensingany change there?
Are you sensing any?
Is there a coalition that couldbe built between, say, all
(11:07):
Republicans because they're allon the side and then 10 or 12
Democrats in the House, five orsix Democrats in the Senate that
that are a little more in theway of of straight thinking on
this?
I think you have to have someDemocrats in the Senate that are
a little more in the way ofstraight thinking on this.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think you have to have some change in the election
, some movement in thelegislature, in order to achieve
anything of substance.
And you know, crime is animportant issue.
We work on the education system, the economy and all of these
other factors within these broadcategories that I think have an
impact on crime.
(11:40):
You know the medical providershortage.
If you're a doctor looking tocome here, you see what happened
in Las Cruces.
You say, well, that's notsomething I want to be a part of
.
And then you see the schoolsbeing the worst in the country
and you say, well, that's asecond strike.
And then you look at the taxsituation, the medical
malpractice situation, you saywell, that's a second strike.
And then you look at the taxsituation, the medical
malpractice situation, you say,well, that's three strikes,
(12:00):
you're out and you just don'thave anything drawing the people
who you want to be here.
I know that sounds bad, butit's a numbers game.
If you chase out all thewealthy, prosperous, ambitious
people, what are you left with?
Well, you're left with whathappened in Las Cruces last
night.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Can I ask a question?
It's kind of just an educationquestion for all of us but does
our governor have kind of anexecutive power order?
Can she, could she write insome some things to really fight
against crime or help with themedical malpractice which the
state legislature voted in favorof?
I know they passed it in 2021,right, which is what we went
after her on with the campaign.
(12:37):
But I'm just curious, like youhear all this on the
presidential side, where youknow I have to, you know Joe
Biden saying I have to have allthis legislation passed before I
can close the border down.
Trump comes in, makes anexecutive order, shuts down the
border crossings fairly quickly.
I'm curious, on a statewidelevel, does our governor have
that kind of power?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
It's impossible to say that, because it's really up
to the courts.
Whatever the courts will standfor, which they'll stand for
anything On the public emergencyorders, that they gave her very
broad leeway on that.
So if they were willing to giveher leeway on some of these
other issues and maybe in a moreconservative direction, yeah
(13:16):
that would be great.
But we haven't seen thisgovernor move in that direction
at all.
And plus, like Richardson,Richardson passed dramatic tax
reductions while he was governor.
All it takes is that leadershipcoming from the executive to
say, all right, my fellowDemocrats, we're going for this.
And this governor has refusedutterly to do anything along
(13:36):
those lines.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, I mean, she had a special session, she called
for a special session, what inthe summer?
And she couldn't get them toeven agree to show up.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That's the thing, that that the relationship
between the governor and thelegislature is poisoned to some
degree.
Richardson had a great deal ofsway with them and was able to.
You're right, but, paul, I alsowould argue that the days have
changed, the days of theRichardson Democrat.
Those are gone.
Very, very true, yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
So a lot of problems and this governor has personally
, I think, annoyed theprogressives.
And yeah, it's an issue thatthe Republicans were willing to
kind of play ball last summer ontrying to address the crime
issues and the progressives said, no, we're not going to do any
of this stuff issues.
And the progressives said, no,we're not going to do any of
this stuff.
And yeah, I mean, it'sdifferent now than it would be,
(14:21):
you know, first or second yearin office for the governor.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
She's definitely poisoned the well with the
progressives, well and plus.
But to answer your pointdirectly on what could she do?
She absolutely could dedicatemore state police resources to
crime hotspots across the state,there's no doubt.
She absolutely could dedicateresources to the border to try
to stem the flow of fentanylinto the state.
She could do all of thesethings and, by the way, she
could also put Democrats in abarrel funding.
(14:48):
Wise to be able to say I needexpanded funding for law
enforcement in the state hereand there's no way they're going
to stop her from getting that.
So there's no question thereare things she can do.
She has not done yet.
We'll wait and see if she doesit, but there are definitely
levers she can pull, and one ofthe things we talked about in
the campaign was we were goingto bring the state police into
Albuquerque for a year andabsolutely lock down the
(15:11):
criminal element in Albuquerqueto get a hold of what happens
here and then increase thefunding and, of course, a border
strike force as well.
So those things can beabsolutely done, especially with
her and being able to stand upand put the legislature over a
barrel.
I think she can absolutely doit.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's just a matter of if she will.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
She said she was going to call a special session
already due to Medicaid, sowe'll see if Medicaid's on the
table or now we're just talkingmore crime and gun grabbing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Okay, so let's talk about that House Bill 318.
So this is kind of ourtransition into some of the
bills that you had somefamiliarity with.
Errors of Enchantment is yourwebsite.
It's great for people who wantto keep an eye on kind of a
running ticker of disastrouspolicies that you end up talking
about.
So talk to us about HB 318 andwhat it would have done or what
it will do.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, broadly speaking, that one would have
attacked gun rights in theSecond Amendment by trying to
put the gun stores out ofbusiness.
So it was using the litigationto actually force gun stores out
of business and it would havebeen terrible.
So a lot of these gun bills area little more, you know,
focused on second amendment.
We do support the secondamendment, but our expertise is
(16:24):
on the economy and whatnot andso that would have been a
dangerous bill for a lot ofdifferent reasons.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, yeah, no, and it talks about it.
I would expand the definitionof uh, uh, uh, unconscionable
trade practices, things likethat.
Just again, a classic NewMexico.
Hey, we're going to make doingbusiness for you virtually
impossible.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Right and a giveaway to the trial attorneys, of
course, which really flexedtheir muscles during this
legislative session.
You know they've been.
They are one of the three legsof the Democratic Party's
special interest groups thetrial attorneys, the public
employee unions and the radicalenvironmentalists.
They form the basis of theDemocratic Party and the trial
attorneys have been front andcenter, both on this gun issue
(17:06):
specifically, but when it comesto health care.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So talk about that, because you know there was a
bill that had 12 Republicansponsors, 12 Democratic sponsors
.
We talked about it a couple ofweeks ago here.
It was a bipartisan bill tofinally try to address the fact
that we just don't have enoughdoctors.
We've raised the caps,obviously, on how much you can
sue a doctor, for.
The trial attorneys are justthreatening to sue and getting
huge settlements.
Every doctor sees this and saysI'm not coming there, Right?
(17:31):
So Republicans and Democrats,both sides of the aisle, realize
this, but the trial attorneyssay oh no, you don't.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
So there was an overtly oriented bill towards
addressing the medicalmalpractice issue.
That was SB 176, bipartisanbill.
Martin Hickey, a Democratsenator, supported it.
Think New Mexico kind of amoderate think tank, that on
this issue we're pretty foursquare in support of what
they're trying to do.
And then you had other billsrelating to medical provider
(18:00):
compacts that essentially, ifyou're licensed to be a nurse in
Texas or New Hampshire orwhatever, you could then
practice in New Mexico and withall the military families and
military bases we have, it's ahuge issue for those people
spouses to be licensed, to beable to make a living but also
alleviate this medical providershortage.
(18:20):
So the trial attorneys didn'tlike any of them and that SB 176
didn't even get a hearing untilthe last week of the session,
which is a great indicator ofhow the legislature feels about
them and the compacts.
To my knowledge, as of the lasttime I checked yesterday, none
of them had gotten through theprocess either.
To my knowledge, as of the lasttime I checked yesterday, none
(18:42):
of them had gotten through theprocess either.
So as far as I can tell,nothing happening significantly
on a medical provider issue.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, and we talked with Nicole Chavez, our rep from
District 31, on our previousshow this week and she said we
asked her we're like whathappens Like when you've got
bipartisanship.
You think this bill is going tolike, come on, we're going to
do this together, and she goesit's not, it gets tabled, she
goes.
Her personal belief is that alot of these issues get tabled
(19:08):
so these legislators don't get abad vote, kind of count on
their, you know, on their tab.
Basically that can be usedagainst them when they're
running for reelect, but theystill don't get anything
accomplished either.
They continue to table that.
Do you see things like thathappening when you're up there?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Oh, absolutely.
A lot of bills get killed incommittee, partially because and
I'll make a plug for it ourRioGrandeFoundationorg, our
Freedom Index, where we trackthe votes and rate them, but we
really only have public recordsof floor votes.
In order to get committee votes, you have to sit there and
review at least the footage ofevery single committee.
(19:41):
I mean, maybe AI will get theresomeday, but they are not a
public record in the same way asthe floor votes are.
So there are strategicdecisions made in Santa Fe to oh
we got to kill this incommittee or slow walk the whole
thing and just could not moveit and not get a floor vote.
That would be seen against them.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, profiles encourage, no question.
So, speaking of something thatgets killed in committee or it
may get a hearing and then justquietly go and die, the
government accountability billthat you testified with with Jay
Block, jay trying to basicallymimic what's going on with Doge,
trying to say, look, let's havesome accountability, because I
think if you think what's goingon in the federal government is
scary, I think if you look deepinside the state budget you
(20:22):
would be shocked at what happensthere.
So tell me your experiences.
You guys sat up and tried toget this thing through.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah, this is SB 484.
And I know Jay introduced thisthing pretty early on in the
session.
As a freshman you got to getyour sea legs and get things
going.
But it would have set up astatewide department to really
use innovative technologies, aiand whatnot to try to stop fraud
(20:50):
as it's in progress.
Before it's happening, anauditor can just look through
the books and basically catchthings after the fact.
This is much more proactive.
Even the Legislative FinanceCommittee, the internal think
tank for the legislature, said,yeah, this is something that we
recommend Now.
This bill didn't get a hearingat all until yesterday.
So as we talk here on Saturday,this was Friday morning and the
(21:13):
committee chair Duhigg was verymuch being pressured to get
people through that committeeout the back door.
It got a hearing, it got tabled.
That was that.
I'm not surprised, it's a newconcept, but they're not
interested in having somebodydigging through the government's
books in a proactive way.
(21:33):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We better wake up on the whole AI thing, cause if,
honestly, if there's ways tostart funneling things I won't
even get into the voterintegrity thing, but can you
imagine if we can start using AIto see, like, who's who's
getting a mail-in ballot?
Are they still alive, do?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
they still live here Like yeah, the large language AI
models are going to change theway assessments are done of
government programs andeverything else.
I mean there's no doubt.
So I want to get into yourthoughts on the budget too,
because you did a post andtalking about how bad our roads
are and and and how rougheverything is and some of the
money being dedicated to placeslike, say, an abortion clinic
(22:08):
$10 million, that that's beenthe governor's pet project.
Been very proud of that one,unfortunately, and you, you
really mentioned here where someof this money goes.
And, by the way, ella, as youput up this slide for number 14,
you may want to grab a littlebit of beaver video, because
I've got some breaking news onthe beavers in just a second.
Okay, so let's go to some ofthe things that Paul mentioned
(22:31):
in his blog.
So Paul talk a little bit aboutsome of the money that is going
to go out the door here andagain, more money than the state
knows what to do with.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So this is specifically the capital outlay
portion of the budget HB 450.
I know all these bill numbers,it just runs together by the end
of the day.
But yeah, as you mentioned,another state's funded abortion
clinic $10 million for that.
$10 million for a film schoolat CNM.
So we're subsidizing them everywhich way from Sunday.
(22:59):
$4 million for a runway atSpaceport America, which Virgin
Galactic God knows if they'llever get back there.
$1.5 million Remember we hadthat and I think it's done.
But the alternative fuel schoolbuses, because, heaven forbid,
we ride in a gas or dieselschool bus.
So now we've got to fund thefueling stations for that and
(23:22):
the capital outlay process is amess.
We've got billions of dollarssitting in accounts just waiting
to be spent because the processis a mess.
It's a grab bag.
I mean they call it theChristmas tree bill and we've
got the worst roads in thecountry.
According to a handful ofstudies now that have said New
Mexico's roads are just decrepitand they're getting worse.
(23:43):
And here we are throwing moneyat abortion clinics and just
throwing ads out there on TV.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There were some legislators who talked about
funding for beavers, and I didhear from a very good source.
So let's just first let's checkin on the beavers.
Yes, they are still.
They're still very destructive,just in case you're curious.
Ok, so originally we heard hereby the way they are kind of I
(24:13):
don't, I am not a fan, but theyare kind of sweet animals, like
when you well, if you look at itor if you're like, oh, it's a
cartoon.
Yeah, they're pretty cute whenyou have them on your property.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Holy Toledo.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Goodness gracious, but anyway.
So New Mexico is trying toexpand the beaver count in the
state Right, and so we had heard$3 million.
Well, I got a call from someonein that world who said the
number's closer to 15 million bythe time you're able.
So that's just breaking beavernews.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I want you to know that, yeah, we don't need a tax
break at all or rebate oranything like that for ourselves
right now.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Speaking of that, yeah, you've been the guy on the
front line of this and we'vealso seen a representative uh,
sena Cortez, or Cortez, cortez,sena no Sena, cortez Sena.
Cortez Sorry, her maiden name,Sena.
Her husband's name is Cortez.
Ok, so she talked about thistoo.
We talked about it during thecampaign in 2022, and that is
(25:06):
eliminating the income tax inthe state of New Mexico.
Is that basically everybody whoearns a salary, anyone who
makes more than about $30,000 ayear, basically pays 5% of their
income to the state of NewMexico.
So we sort of have a flat tax,but it's 5% for everybody, and
(25:27):
if you went in and youeliminated the income tax, you
would help working families moreIn a way that you could not do
any other way with a 5% payincrease.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Well, first and foremost, nine states have no
personal income tax.
I won't name them all off, buttwo of those states New
Hampshire, and let's see one ofthe other states, alaska has no
sales tax either.
None of those states have a $3billion budget surplus, like New
Mexico does and did this yearagain.
So it's easy.
(25:58):
It should be easy.
It's a $2.1 billion tax revenuebuilder to the state, but we've
got enough money to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
We're just not led by good people and you talk about
this all the time.
Let's put up the map again,ella.
Competitiveness we do not livein a vacuum in New Mexico.
We live in a competitiveenvironment.
If you look at Arizona, texas,texas has no income tax,
colorado's is lower than ours.
Utah, nevada has no income.
I mean, if you look at ours,we're in the.
It looks like and I'm justlooking at this off the cuff
(26:28):
here we're in the top 10 ofhighest income taxes, with the
lowest, by the way, income inthe country, I mean.
And then you take on top ofthat the gross receipts tax,
which is at 8%, which regularlyhits business on business, which
is a killer.
So, as you see all of this andI think you've done this before
on Errors of Enchantment, you'vetalked about the fact that if
(26:49):
you take our full tax burden,we're one of the worst in the
country.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, as a percentage of income.
Because we are a poor state,we're a low income state.
So, yeah, the way our taxes arestructured are not helpful.
And taxing income just as areminder.
We want people to work.
We have a low workforceparticipation rate.
We would much rather havepeople in the workforce picking
up a paycheck and buildingskills and responsibility, not
(27:14):
going out in the park andshooting people by the way, and
that's all connected.
It's all well-connected.
So, yeah, we need to removepenalties to hard work in New
Mexico, and eliminating thepersonal income tax is a great
way to do it.
Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It was a win, though, to see that family leave get
killed.
That was a win Because that wasyeah For small businesses
especially.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah it was an 8-3 vote, I think, in finance.
Right, Talk about that.
That was definitely a triumphof a lot of groups coming
together saying wait a minute.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah, everybody on the broad speaking right and
even a lot of the center cametogether.
I mean, this bill passed allbut the last two votes in the
House.
Only two votes stopped it lastyear from becoming law and with
the election results, theRepublicans picked up a seat in
each House, but the Democratsmoved to the progressive left
(28:09):
even further and we're thinking,oh my goodness, this is going
to be a tough, tough battle.
So it was, I'm not going to kidanybody.
This year.
They went through the house,the house passed it, and so we
thought well, we're in trouble.
Obviously it was a changed bill,the welcome family bill with
the $3,000 payouts for the firstthree months of a child's life
(28:30):
or adoption.
It was a very different billand I think that's where they
got caught up, because theyreally didn't put together a
tight, clean bill.
Not that the original conceptwas, but they really ran into
solvency issues Where's themoney going to come from?
How's this fund going to work?
And every committee should beconcerned about that.
They should have enough peoplewho are smart enough to figure
(28:51):
that stuff out and read in afiscal impact report.
But it ultimately came down tothe last committee in the Senate
.
It would have moved to thefloor and it would have probably
passed on the floor of theSenate.
But George Munoz kudos to him amoderate Democrat Not many of
them around these days butGeorge is and he's chair of the
Finance Committee.
So they had a hearing wherethey just had the analysts come
(29:12):
in and they looked at it, theirdetailed approach to that bill,
and I think it was clear fromthe committee's first reaction
that that was not ready forprime time.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Ok, just explain real briefly on this.
You don't need to go in depth,but people hear it and they're
like well, paid medical leave,that sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Explain why this would hurt businesses so much,
Well first and foremost it wouldbe a tax increase on the
individual workers as well asthe businesses themselves.
Then you're talking about.
The revised plan was six weeksfor average people, for 12, for
parents and adopted families,and it's just tough, especially
(29:52):
in rural New Mexico.
You don't have a lot of peoplewilling to work and do the jobs,
especially rural New Mexico,you don't have a lot of people
willing to work and do the jobs.
You don't have a lot of peoplein rural New Mexico but people
who can work on ranches andthose kinds of skilled labor
positions across the state ofNew Mexico.
It's tough to have peoplecoming and going.
You wouldn't even have to usethe leave contiguously.
You could take three weeks hereand then three weeks there and
(30:14):
it just it was going to be atotal administrative disaster in
addition to the tax.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And it protects, yeah , and what it doesn't allow
businesses to do is to move onand hire somebody else for the
position.
They have to guarantee that job.
Correct, correct and good luck.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
I mean finding somebody who's willing to step
in for three weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, right, god, that becomes, that becomes
difficult.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Okay, I do want to just give a quick update because
we've had a lot of people writein about two HP, two 55, which
was the bill that we discussedwith Nicole Chavez last week
really about we're going to givemoney now to juvenile
delinquents that come out ofafter serving detention at the
age of 18, the ripe old age of18, a $24,000 stipend a year to,
(30:55):
you know, quote get their lifeback right Basically even a
paycheck for a violent crime.
That was voted down on theSenate floor.
It is dead.
Thank the Lord that that isdone.
So that was a win, I think.
Or are there any other winsthat you saw Paul Like?
Did you see anything thatyou're like, yes, it's worth.
Like let's have that oldfashion, let's celebrate session
being done.
Is there anything that we sawthat we're like hallelujah.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Between paid family leave, and that I mean you had
some really crazy bills comingafter oil and gas that did die,
I mean.
Senate bill four was a was avictory, no question.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
That would have destroyed energy in the state,
and that was the net zero bill.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
And the governor did specifically call that out and
support that in her state of thestate address at the outset.
So there's always thatadditional weight of the
governor's really explicitendorsement.
She never did explicitlyendorse paid family leave, which
is interesting, but the SB4,defeating that one was really
huge.
And yeah, they also tried amile wide perimeter around oil
(31:57):
and gas facilities between anychild-related Setback spill yeah
that was another one.
So oil and gas definitely gotthe royalties Increased, so that
royalties increase, which didgo through.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
That's going to hurt the small producers.
So if you wonder why the smalldriller that has a history in
New Mexico is being pushed outof business the IPANMs of the
world, the smaller producersthat make up the independent
petroleum producers in NewMexico they're hurt very badly
by that.
There was another big $500million tax increase that would
(32:30):
have gone in and hit all oil andgas and therefore raising
energy prices in New Mexico.
That ended up being strippedout, thankfully, but I will tell
Mexico that ended up beingstripped out, thankfully so.
But I will tell you, I think,from a broader sense, the
withering assault on oil and gasin this legislative session I
think is a wake-up call to a lotof people in this state that
you better wake up and supportthe very industry that makes
(32:53):
doing business in this statestill possible, because without
it I don't know where we wouldbe.
Paul, I can't imagine theeconomy of the state of New
Mexico if they achieved whatthey wanted to in driving oil
and gas out.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
It would be completely devastated, and I
just hope that they would figureout that they have to do things
a lot differently without oiland gas, and that's something
that I don't want to see.
I would be much more interestedin seeing a shrinking federal
government and seeing how theyreact then, because of course,
this state is a two-legged stoolstate, which those don't work
(33:26):
very well, those two legs beingoil and gas and the federal
government.
And definitely I'm eager to seeDoge and what the Trump
administration does and whetherhe comes back with a plan to
address Medicaid, which that one, you know, there was nothing
good in terms of game changing,moving the needle forward.
There was a lot of bills thatdied that would have done a lot
(33:49):
of harm.
I could go chapter and verse ona lot of those things, but
unfortunately we're not movingthe needle in a positive
direction in New Mexico onvirtually anything.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
That's encouraging.
Well, can I just ask?
I know we're going to dive intosome Tesla news, sorry, yeah,
you can do that in one sec.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Just one thing, yeah, this reminds me of the fact
that it's like we're a hockeyteam and we're constantly
shorthanded and they're on thepower play every time.
So they're just launching pucksat our goalie and the goalie's
like, has a good game, stops alot of the pucks.
A couple of them get through.
We occasionally will get ashorthanded goal, but pretty
rarely.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Well, I just think it's interesting because when
you watch these legislators runfor reelect, all they're going
to do is say crime is bad, andyou know, and our schools are
bad and you need to help us.
You know we need to bebasically reelected to get
things in order.
And I'm thinking the Democraticside has held control basically
for 80 years in this state andnothing gets better.
(34:43):
And I just keep thinking.
I don't know what's going tomake voters wake up to that, but
it's just—.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
They keep getting reelected, so for them, the
system is working.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, which is so sad .
Speaker 2 (34:53):
For the powerful.
It's working For the workingfamily.
It's not.
And I think that's the partthat's scary and the thing you
start to wonder now, and withthe Holland race coming up here
and whoever's running againsther, it is what you wonder is
can we even win?
A good candidate can get withinsix points or so in New Mexico,
but can you actually win now Idon't know.
(35:14):
And she's already raised $2million.
As you look at this, the stateis much more hardcore left than
it was 10 years ago and I don'tthink Bill Richardson could get
out of a primary in the state ofNew Mexico anymore.
He wouldn't.
It would be tough.
Yeah, there's no doubt.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I was just curious, though, going into this Tesla
news, the EV mandate stuff thatthe governor put into impact.
I think it's going to bekicking in in 2026 or something
to that degree.
Has any of that changed?
Has any of that been shut down?
Saying that car manufacturersor car dealerships here in the
state of New Mexico have to sellX amount of EV cars?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
43% on their lots.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And I know we've gotten a lot of emails.
There's construction crews thatare having to put these EV
charging stations that are anastronomical expense into
commercial buildings andresidential buildings, and you
know they're like we have towake up and change this mandate.
Is there any movement there?
Or is that just like hey, it'ssigned, sealed and delivered and
you know we're going to put cardealerships out of business?
Speaker 5 (36:11):
Well, first and foremost, that mandate kicks in
later this year because it's2026 model year, which those
cars start showing up on lotslater this summer.
And there was a couple billsintroduced and I'm going to
surprise absolutely no one hereand say that they died a swift
and painful death.
(36:32):
I was there for one HB I wantto say 270, which would have
overturned the EV mandate andprohibited bodies like the EIB
and any local bodies here inAlbuquerque from doing a mandate
on electric vehicles in thefuture.
Now I know you're going to talkabout Tesla in a second, but if
(36:55):
I had this mindset before thesession, I would have introduced
a Elon Musk is a really meanand bad man and, by the way,
teslas are 50% of EVs sold inthe United States.
Subsidy and mandate repeal bill, because maybe that would have
gotten some traction among thepolitical left, because they're
(37:17):
obviously not interested indealing with the governor and
the mandate and trying tooverturn that, even though some
Democrats did publicly say thatthey disagreed with the governor
pushing the mandate through theEIB unelected body.
No legislative support for it,so yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
No, it will.
Something has to change, itcan't happen.
I can just tell you, physicallycannot happen, has to change,
it can't happen.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I can just tell you physically cannot, it cannot
happen.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So the auto dealership I was talking to a
guy who runs a runs a new cardealership here, and he said he
has one EV on the lot right now,one.
And there's no way and this is,by the way, a a dealership that
runs very air, that sells veryfuel efficient cars, right.
And so again, there's a placefor EVs.
It's going to continue toexpand.
I think there's good thingsahead.
(38:01):
It just mandating it throughgovernment right now is a
mistake.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
It's crazy, it's crazy.
Well, here we go, let's, let'sjump into old Tim Waltz.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, we'll do a little national stuff for you.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, he's celebrating the fact that what
he believes is that Tesla'sstock is dropping down.
So here's a little Tim Waltz.
We've missed him since thecampaign days.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's good to have him back.
It's good to have Tim back.
See what he says To make fun ofthis guy.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Let's listen to this clown.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Hang on my phone.
I know some of you know this.
On the iPhone They've got thatlittle stock app.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during
the day $2.25 and dropping, andif you own one, if you own one,
we're not blaming you.
You can take dental floss andpull the Tesla thing off, you
(38:51):
know, and take out.
Just telling you.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, so here's a great example of what happens
when you react emotionally toevery single policy thing.
That happens because that's allhe's doing.
He's emotionally, justreflexively, just pouring his
heart out, as only Tim Walsh cando.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Okay, so just look at himself.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
What did he call himself?
In the debate there was like aword he used he's a knucklehead.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
And so let's look here If you are invested in Els,
let's just tighten in on thatblue line.
If you are part of theinvestment structure for the
state of Minnesota and you're,say, part of the retirement
program in the state ofMinnesota, you have roughly Els,
let's go in there, is it you?
Yeah, you have roughly $319million invested in Tesla.
(39:40):
So when Tesla tanks turns out,so does your retirement, and
your governor stands up therelike a fool and cheers it on.
What an idiot, right.
And it's just not them.
It's just not the retirement,by the way, the normal pension
program as well.
And let's see what their other.
There are more Teslainvestments.
This one is for the publicmarkets, asset living.
(40:03):
Look at this, we'll just goahead.
And that's 41 million they haveinvested in Tesla.
So congratulations, governor.
You are in the process oftrying to bankrupt your own
people's retirement.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
He's really got his finger on the pulse of his
community.
I mean, he's really sticking upfor those people.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Well, up until five minutes ago, all the blue states
were eagerly buying Tesla stockbecause they support electric
vehicles and the environment andall this stuff.
And now they're burning themand vandalizing the cyber trucks
and whatnot.
It's amazing.
The left can do amazingbackflips with their brains and
not flinch, they just do it.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
They're the party of tolerance, Paul.
I don't know if you've got thator not, but they're the party
of the environment.
And so lighting a lithiumbattery and throwing a Molotov
cocktail at that thing reallysafe?
Really helping people out upthere.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
So, speaking of backflips, let's get your take
on this.
Gavin Newsom stood up andbasically he took a swipe at
Kamala Harris in an interviewwith Charlie Kirk.
So now he's going on withRepublican MAGA people to try to
appeal to them, which I willtalk about that in a second.
But just listen to Gavin Newsomstick a knife in Kamala Harris
(41:12):
and then the K file on CNN callshim out for it Trump's, for you
, she's for them and devastatingAgain devastating, devastating,
devastating and she didn't evenreact to it, which was even
more.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
So he's referring to the ad that they put out using
the clip from when when you werehere only a handful of years
ago, though, he agreed withKamala Harris on this very issue
.
Yeah, and it has been the lawin California to allow
transition care for prisonerssince 2017.
Gavin Newsom didn't speak outor say anything about it until
now, five years later, when itbecame a political liability,
(41:50):
and, in fact, he signed alandmark transgender rights bill
for prisoners that affirmedtheir right to have this type of
care, and he approved a stateMedicaid expansion that also
extended gender affirming careto undocumented immigrants.
So his record on this is reallynot matching the rhetoric that
(42:12):
he was putting out in thatpodcast.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
No, gavin Newsom is a slick, cynical shyster.
Are you serious?
Unbelievable.
So you see this and just kindof, where are the Democrats
right now?
Still trying to get theirfooting after the election?
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Well, gavin, Newsom is very much on the path to
getting his footing and tryingto portray himself as somebody
who will say and do anything,which is kind of par for the
course.
But yeah, he was probably thehappiest guy in America after
President Trump and JD Vanceafter election day.
Because, yeah, Kamala got inthere at least four years, maybe
(42:48):
eight years.
She was probably the nominee atleast two cycles in a row.
So he's looking at it now andsaying now he's the standard
bearer for the Democratic Partyfor 2028.
And it's hard to argue with him.
I think this strategy couldbackfire because he's telling
everybody what they want to hear.
I mean, yeah, Charlie Cook andKirk and Bannon he was on with.
(43:09):
So yeah, Gavin's really layingit on thick right now.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Well, and the thing is, I don't think he gets past a
Democratic primary with tryingto be more of a centrist right,
Like trying to go more moderate.
There's no way that theDemocratic Party is going to let
him.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
And he's not Plus.
He's a white guy.
That has to be a strike againsthim in today's Democratic Party
.
But he is slick, there is.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
No one carries their message better than him.
I will say that I mean I thinkhe comes into the room, he
slithers into the room, right,but he's still better at it,
he's an actor.
There are guys like Wes Moore,though, that I think will be
more effective carriers of themessage down the road.
We'll have to wait and see, allright guys.
Last thing we're going to dohere Lobos win on Saturday, no
(43:53):
Friday excuse me.
Lobos went on Friday, first timein 13 years that they advanced
to the second round.
And Donovan Dent goes here andjust puts the Lobos into the
second round against MichiganState.
Huge win for them, huge win forthe program.
No question If they could beatMichigan State.
Unbelievable.
Dent didn't have his best gamebut overall the Lobos did a
(44:16):
really good job winning thatgame against Marquette Good
stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Well, they have so much heart.
I think that's the whole thing.
You talk to the folks that wentto the Mountain West tournament
out in Las Vegas and they'relike we have the most fans that
ever show up for anybody inMountain West and there's just
so much passion behind theseguys, so it's so good.
I mean, of course, we had himpicked on our bracket.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
So that's always helpful as well, and they play
really good defense they do.
They play really, really soliddefense.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And it's going to be interesting to see they have a
shot against Michigan State.
Right, Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (44:44):
First time ever they would be in the Sweet 16 for the
program.
That would be amazing.
That would be a hugeaccomplishment.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I remember last time they won a game, though Do you
remember who that that was?
That was our coach, and wherehe yep, and he left for UCLA
right after, so what?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
I hope is that the same thing doesn't happen with
Patino, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
We got to keep him on .
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Yeah, okay, so we're going to wrap up our show, but
tell everybody against one moretime, paul, where people can
find you and sign up fornewsletters, things of that
nature.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
A lot of our writing is at errors of enchantmentcom
by volume.
That's the most of our writing.
Then Rio Grande foundationorgis our flagship website and our
freedom index where you can goand track those legislative
votes, and we'll wrap that upcompletely and finalize all
those votes in a week or two ofthe end of the session.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Okay, and then, by the way, you also have your
podcast tipping point in MexicoAlso a great one.
If you like policy discussionsabout the state of New Mexico,
it's the best out there, socheck it out.
We will see you back here aweek from now, as we just put
the girls to work here at thehouse, we're thinking about
Spring cleaning everybody.
Yeah, I feel like they shouldbe Clean that garage girls,
repainting their rooms, thingslike that, ella, okay, so we
(45:49):
need to smile on this.
That's how spring break shouldbe spent.
Good old core hard work, allright.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Thanks for joining us .
You guys have a great week.
We'll see you back here nextweek.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
See ya.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
We know we had a blast.
Make sure to like, rate andreview.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, you can find us on
Instagram and Facebook, at noDoubt About it.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
The no Doubt About it podcast is a Choose Adventure
Media production.
See you next time on no DoubtAbout it.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
There is no doubt about it.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose
between a left or right.
Well, I'd like to suggest thereis no such thing as a left or
right.
There's only an up or down.
This is the no Doubt About it.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No doubt about it Now your hosts.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Christy and Mark Runcany.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, special edition .
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, saturday special session edition
basically.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we're going to wrap up the legislative session
which is going on right now, orwrapping up right now as we
speak.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, they're patting themselves on the back.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, they are.
There's a lot of glad-handinggoing on for not much
accomplished, but that's why webring in Paul Guessing from the
Rio Grande Foundation, one ofthe very best when it comes to
policy, especially economicpolicy in the state of New
Mexico, and we're going to getinto what happened in the
session and, paul, what didn'thappen in the session, and one
of those things being a taxbreak for working people in the
(01:00):
state of New Mexico.
That did not necessarily godown.
Apologies for the dress.
I'm a little.
I didn't get a chance to shaveor do anything.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
You're looking rough.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's like this is you think this is a radio show guy
and it's not like it's not aradio.
I'm sorry, Paul, I apologizefor my ready for vacation.
I am ready for vacation.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He grows a beard in like 20 seconds when he can.
Easy, easy, let's take it easy.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, by the way, just a quick reminder, this will
be our only show this week,meaning this next coming week,
because the girls are on theirspring break, so we're going to
hang out with them here.
So we will not be doing a showon Wednesday into Thursday, just
so you know.
So that's why we brought inPaul to add some extra juice to
this baby.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, so we're ready to go.
Paul, first of all, thanks fortaking the time.
We're going to get to a bunchof economic stuff too, but we
want to start with what happenedin Las Cruces, because this is
breaking news going down rightnow.
There was a shooting last nightat Young Park in Las Cruces.
Three people are dead, fifteenpeople are injured from this
event, and we do have some videothat we can show you what went
(02:00):
down with this and a horrificevent.
It was a pop-up car show.
Basically, this was notsomething that was, you know,
passed through, you know LasCruces and permitted and
everything else.
They all just showed up thereand started doing this car show
and this is what unfolded aspeople were showing off their
cars I mean, people hidingunderneath their cars just a
(02:28):
very difficult situation andobviously scary, no question
about it.
And so a couple of things Iwant to talk about with this and
you guys, what's interestingabout this is, if you watched
online throughout the morning onSaturday morning, you saw
pictures start to pop upeverywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Right, this kid with an AR AR 15 with an AR 15.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So we'll show you.
We'll show you the picture here, and I want to make something
extremely clear the person thatyou see here holding an AR 15,
he's not the gunman.
He is not the gunman.
He's already been spoken to byLas Cruces police department
officials.
But he did bring an AR 15 toa15 to a car show and started
pointing it around, which isstupidity beyond belief, right,
(03:09):
but he is not the gunman.
Okay, so a couple things.
That's, when you start lookingonline, you start grabbing
little pieces of information.
They identified who this personwas and they went and said you
know, he's the person they'relooking for as the shooter.
He's not.
He's already been spoken to.
It was not an AR-15 that wasused in this shooting.
Those were handguns.
So I want to get to the policechief.
(03:30):
It's Las Cruces Police Chief,jeremy Story, who talks about
what's going on right now andwhat they're trying to do, and
he first kind of referenced someof the stuff happening online
that you want to make sure thatyou disregard.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I correct a few things that are circulating,
especially on social media.
The person holding an AR-15 inthe photo that's being
distributed has already beeninterviewed.
At this time we do not believehe was involved in the shooting,
although it's obviously aproblem that he's out there with
an AR-15 in his hand, but atthis time we do not believe he
was involved in the shooting.
He has been contacted already.
(04:03):
Casings have been locatedthroughout the park and parking
lot.
Again, it's a huge scene.
All the casings located so farare handgun caliber casings.
There are no rifle casingsconsisting with an AK or AR
style rifle.
In fact, there's no riflecasings that have been located
at all so far.
They're all handgun casings.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So just a quick thing , because we're going to tie all
this into New Mexico in abroader sense, the legislative
session and how things are dealtwith in this state.
But I think one of thearguments we've always made is
look, you currently have asituation in the state of New
Mexico with safety that has notbeen addressed by this
legislature.
They have been in charge of thelegislature for basically
(04:46):
uninterrupted for 80 years andoccasionally they'll get
Republican governors, butrealistically, this state is not
a safe state.
We're the most violent state inthe union, okay, and you saw it
basically show itself here inwhat happened in Las Cruces.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I mean, it just feels like the sad part is is
like even the kid that has theAR-15 or the adult young adult
that has the AR-15, it justfeels like there's, you know and
I think this police chief isgoing to discuss this a little
bit just on, there's no recourse, right.
So there's no like anythinggoes, right.
Like criminals, they know theycan get.
You know, if they even getcaught, it's a revolving door,
(05:22):
they're put right back out.
There's slaps on the wrists,there's things that you know
it's like crime isn't takenseriously here, and so instead
our you know, our legislaturecontinues to go after rightful
gun owners, missing the wholemark here, instead of like,
really, let's go after theseviolent offenders or those that
are actually committing thesecrimes, keep them behind, you
know, behind bars, and punishthem.
(05:43):
But that doesn't seem to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, paul, did you see anything?
Before we get to what the LasCruces police chief has to say
here in a second, is there any?
Did you see any change in theway crime was dealt with in this
session?
You were up there a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Not really.
Obviously, the red flag bill Ithink that is already law, if
not, or becoming a law very soon.
We're still waiting for a fewbills, but obviously the idea of
putting gun stores out ofbusiness through litigation is
not really the solution to ourcrime problems.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So no, I don't think anything happened this session
that changed the needle andwe'll get to that 318 here in
just a second.
Let's get to the Las Crucespolice chief talking about crime
in New Mexico, because I thinkhe said it without saying it,
and he said I don't want to getpolitical on this, and he
shouldn't be.
This shouldn't be a politicalissue.
That's what's so crazy.
And so again chief storytalking about the lack of
(06:38):
accountability and how nobodyfears law enforcement in the
state of New Mexico.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Thank you, chief.
This horrendous, senseless actis a stark reminder of the
blatant disregard people in NewMexico have for the rule of law
and order.
It's also a reminder of justthe utter lack of fear of
accountability in New Mexico.
As angry as I am right now,this news conference will not be
political.
(07:03):
There will come a time to talkabout the failures that led to
this tragedy and so many othersin New Mexico, but now is not
that time.
There are three prioritiesright now.
The first priority is tosupport the families and loved
ones of those who are affected.
Some of them need prayers asthey go through the loss of a
loved one and they grieve.
(07:23):
Others need your prayers astheir loved ones fight for their
lives in hospitals throughoutthe borderland.
There are a lot of hurtingpeople right now in our
community.
Our next focus is theapprehension of those involved
and those responsible for thisatrocity.
We will find each and every oneof them and we will hold them
accountable to the criminaljustice system.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, so, just so you know, as of noon on Saturday,
when we are putting this out,they have not been around.
There's nobody that's beenarrested for this.
They do believe it was ashootout between two different
groups, but, but?
But the police chief makes theexact point that we've been
talking about for the longesttime.
We live in a state where thereis no fear of the rule of law,
(08:03):
and if there is no fear of therule of law, you get wild crimes
which are incredibly hard toprocess.
And we go back to the last showwe had.
In fact, we can show the videoright now.
This is the video of the kidsthat were driving in the car a
13 year old, an 11 year old anda 15 year old go out on a
joyride, decide that they wantto run down a cyclist on his way
(08:26):
to work at Sandia labs and theykill him, and they kill him,
and they kill him, and so andthese guys post this on social
media- and, by the way, the 15year old, as far as as of right
now, has still not been caught.
Okay and you can see it pulledthere.
So this sort of stuff you watchand it's absolutely horrifying
to see what the state has become.
(08:47):
I mean, we have kids that wedon't let out past nine o'clock
at night anymore, and there arecertain areas of the city that
used to be places where youcould go and hang out, and
they're not anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Right, I mean we would say automatically no
parking lots after 9 PM for ourkids, not even any place close
by to our house.
It it is.
You have no idea what's goingon and, honestly, like these
kids, like we've talked about itwith the parents as well
Parents should absolutely beresponsible for these 11, 13 and
15 year olds, and I certainlyhope that our justice system
holds them accountable as well.
(09:16):
But who knows what's going tohappen?
Because I still feel like wehave all these bleeding hearts
for criminals, regardless oftheir age, that are up in the
legislature right now.
I mean, it blows my mind thatwe can't just wake up and say
and number one, put this back onour leadership too, not just
our state legislature, but ourmayor and our governor and you
know, the folks that actuallymake the calls on this stuff.
(09:38):
I don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Well, speaking of the governor, she did just put out
a tweet.
Daniel Chacon showed this.
It's let's clip nine, and youcan see she just put this out.
So now, does this inspireconfidence?
I don't think it does.
But she says after the massshooting in Las Cruces, governor
MLG says in a statement thelegislature should expect a
special session to address ourongoing public safety crisis.
(10:01):
Again, if she's going to addressthe people who are committing
the crimes, I'm all for it.
Good for you, mlg.
I hope you're right.
I hope you can get this and getmeaningful legislation passed
to keep violent criminals behindbars.
But I fear because it happensin every legislative session and
their solution always seems tobe and we'll talk about some of
the bills Paul has been pushingback against that they will
(10:25):
absolutely go after law-abidinggun owners and gun stores versus
the people who steal these gunsand commit the crimes.
I just have very littleconfidence in their ability and
if you look at clip eight, youknow you guys don't need these
numbers.
Every one of you listening tothis knows this, but here are
the 10 most dangerous states inAmerica.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, this just came out this week.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
There they are and we are number one.
So hardly a surprise here,hardly something.
That I think is where we wouldnot expect to be.
So, paul, as you watch this andyou see where we are, knowing
the environment, are you sensingany change there?
Are you sensing any?
Is there a coalition that couldbe built between, say, all
(11:07):
Republicans because they're allon the side and then 10 or 12
Democrats in the House, five orsix Democrats in the Senate that
that are a little more in theway of of straight thinking on
this?
I think you have to have someDemocrats in the Senate that are
a little more in the way ofstraight thinking on this.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think you have to have some change in the election
, some movement in thelegislature, in order to achieve
anything of substance.
And you know, crime is animportant issue.
We work on the education system, the economy and all of these
other factors within these broadcategories that I think have an
impact on crime.
(11:40):
You know the medical providershortage.
If you're a doctor looking tocome here, you see what happened
in Las Cruces.
You say, well, that's notsomething I want to be a part of
.
And then you see the schoolsbeing the worst in the country
and you say, well, that's asecond strike.
And then you look at the taxsituation, the medical
malpractice situation, you saywell, that's a second strike.
And then you look at the taxsituation, the medical
malpractice situation, you say,well, that's three strikes,
(12:00):
you're out and you just don'thave anything drawing the people
who you want to be here.
I know that sounds bad, butit's a numbers game.
If you chase out all thewealthy, prosperous, ambitious
people, what are you left with?
Well, you're left with whathappened in Las Cruces last
night.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Can I ask a question?
It's kind of just an educationquestion for all of us but does
our governor have kind of anexecutive power order?
Can she, could she write insome some things to really fight
against crime or help with themedical malpractice which the
state legislature voted in favorof?
I know they passed it in 2021,right, which is what we went
after her on with the campaign.
(12:37):
But I'm just curious, like youhear all this on the
presidential side, where youknow I have to, you know Joe
Biden saying I have to have allthis legislation passed before I
can close the border down.
Trump comes in, makes anexecutive order, shuts down the
border crossings fairly quickly.
I'm curious, on a statewidelevel, does our governor have
that kind of power?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
It's impossible to say that, because it's really up
to the courts.
Whatever the courts will standfor, which they'll stand for
anything On the public emergencyorders, that they gave her very
broad leeway on that.
So if they were willing to giveher leeway on some of these
other issues and maybe in a moreconservative direction, yeah
(13:16):
that would be great.
But we haven't seen thisgovernor move in that direction
at all.
And plus, like Richardson,Richardson passed dramatic tax
reductions while he was governor.
All it takes is that leadershipcoming from the executive to
say, all right, my fellowDemocrats, we're going for this.
And this governor has refusedutterly to do anything along
(13:36):
those lines.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, I mean, she had a special session, she called
for a special session, what inthe summer?
And she couldn't get them toeven agree to show up.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That's the thing, that that the relationship
between the governor and thelegislature is poisoned to some
degree.
Richardson had a great deal ofsway with them and was able to.
You're right, but, paul, I alsowould argue that the days have
changed, the days of theRichardson Democrat.
Those are gone.
Very, very true, yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
So a lot of problems and this governor has personally
, I think, annoyed theprogressives.
And yeah, it's an issue thatthe Republicans were willing to
kind of play ball last summer ontrying to address the crime
issues and the progressives said, no, we're not going to do any
of this stuff issues.
And the progressives said, no,we're not going to do any of
this stuff.
And yeah, I mean, it'sdifferent now than it would be,
(14:21):
you know, first or second yearin office for the governor.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
She's definitely poisoned the well with the
progressives, well and plus.
But to answer your pointdirectly on what could she do?
She absolutely could dedicatemore state police resources to
crime hotspots across the state,there's no doubt.
She absolutely could dedicateresources to the border to try
to stem the flow of fentanylinto the state.
She could do all of thesethings and, by the way, she
could also put Democrats in abarrel funding.
(14:48):
Wise to be able to say I needexpanded funding for law
enforcement in the state hereand there's no way they're going
to stop her from getting that.
So there's no question thereare things she can do.
She has not done yet.
We'll wait and see if she doesit, but there are definitely
levers she can pull, and one ofthe things we talked about in
the campaign was we were goingto bring the state police into
Albuquerque for a year andabsolutely lock down the
(15:11):
criminal element in Albuquerqueto get a hold of what happens
here and then increase thefunding and, of course, a border
strike force as well.
So those things can beabsolutely done, especially with
her and being able to stand upand put the legislature over a
barrel.
I think she can absolutely doit.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's just a matter of if she will.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
She said she was going to call a special session
already due to Medicaid, sowe'll see if Medicaid's on the
table or now we're just talkingmore crime and gun grabbing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Okay, so let's talk about that House Bill 318.
So this is kind of ourtransition into some of the
bills that you had somefamiliarity with.
Errors of Enchantment is yourwebsite.
It's great for people who wantto keep an eye on kind of a
running ticker of disastrouspolicies that you end up talking
about.
So talk to us about HB 318 andwhat it would have done or what
it will do.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, broadly speaking, that one would have
attacked gun rights in theSecond Amendment by trying to
put the gun stores out ofbusiness.
So it was using the litigationto actually force gun stores out
of business and it would havebeen terrible.
So a lot of these gun bills area little more, you know,
focused on second amendment.
We do support the secondamendment, but our expertise is
(16:24):
on the economy and whatnot andso that would have been a
dangerous bill for a lot ofdifferent reasons.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, yeah, no, and it talks about it.
I would expand the definitionof uh, uh, uh, unconscionable
trade practices, things likethat.
Just again, a classic NewMexico.
Hey, we're going to make doingbusiness for you virtually
impossible.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Right and a giveaway to the trial attorneys, of
course, which really flexedtheir muscles during this
legislative session.
You know they've been.
They are one of the three legsof the Democratic Party's
special interest groups thetrial attorneys, the public
employee unions and the radicalenvironmentalists.
They form the basis of theDemocratic Party and the trial
attorneys have been front andcenter, both on this gun issue
(17:06):
specifically, but when it comesto health care.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So talk about that, because you know there was a
bill that had 12 Republicansponsors, 12 Democratic sponsors
.
We talked about it a couple ofweeks ago here.
It was a bipartisan bill tofinally try to address the fact
that we just don't have enoughdoctors.
We've raised the caps,obviously, on how much you can
sue a doctor, for.
The trial attorneys are justthreatening to sue and getting
huge settlements.
Every doctor sees this and saysI'm not coming there, Right?
(17:31):
So Republicans and Democrats,both sides of the aisle, realize
this, but the trial attorneyssay oh no, you don't.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
So there was an overtly oriented bill towards
addressing the medicalmalpractice issue.
That was SB 176, bipartisanbill.
Martin Hickey, a Democratsenator, supported it.
Think New Mexico kind of amoderate think tank, that on
this issue we're pretty foursquare in support of what
they're trying to do.
And then you had other billsrelating to medical provider
(18:00):
compacts that essentially, ifyou're licensed to be a nurse in
Texas or New Hampshire orwhatever, you could then
practice in New Mexico and withall the military families and
military bases we have, it's ahuge issue for those people
spouses to be licensed, to beable to make a living but also
alleviate this medical providershortage.
(18:20):
So the trial attorneys didn'tlike any of them and that SB 176
didn't even get a hearing untilthe last week of the session,
which is a great indicator ofhow the legislature feels about
them and the compacts.
To my knowledge, as of the lasttime I checked yesterday, none
of them had gotten through theprocess either.
To my knowledge, as of the lasttime I checked yesterday, none
(18:42):
of them had gotten through theprocess either.
So as far as I can tell,nothing happening significantly
on a medical provider issue.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, and we talked with Nicole Chavez, our rep from
District 31, on our previousshow this week and she said we
asked her we're like whathappens Like when you've got
bipartisanship.
You think this bill is going tolike, come on, we're going to
do this together, and she goesit's not, it gets tabled, she
goes.
Her personal belief is that alot of these issues get tabled
(19:08):
so these legislators don't get abad vote, kind of count on
their, you know, on their tab.
Basically that can be usedagainst them when they're
running for reelect, but theystill don't get anything
accomplished either.
They continue to table that.
Do you see things like thathappening when you're up there?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Oh, absolutely.
A lot of bills get killed incommittee, partially because and
I'll make a plug for it ourRioGrandeFoundationorg, our
Freedom Index, where we trackthe votes and rate them, but we
really only have public recordsof floor votes.
In order to get committee votes, you have to sit there and
review at least the footage ofevery single committee.
(19:41):
I mean, maybe AI will get theresomeday, but they are not a
public record in the same way asthe floor votes are.
So there are strategicdecisions made in Santa Fe to oh
we got to kill this incommittee or slow walk the whole
thing and just could not moveit and not get a floor vote.
That would be seen against them.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, profiles encourage, no question.
So, speaking of something thatgets killed in committee or it
may get a hearing and then justquietly go and die, the
government accountability billthat you testified with with Jay
Block, jay trying to basicallymimic what's going on with Doge,
trying to say, look, let's havesome accountability, because I
think if you think what's goingon in the federal government is
scary, I think if you look deepinside the state budget you
(20:22):
would be shocked at what happensthere.
So tell me your experiences.
You guys sat up and tried toget this thing through.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah, this is SB 484.
And I know Jay introduced thisthing pretty early on in the
session.
As a freshman you got to getyour sea legs and get things
going.
But it would have set up astatewide department to really
use innovative technologies, aiand whatnot to try to stop fraud
(20:50):
as it's in progress.
Before it's happening, anauditor can just look through
the books and basically catchthings after the fact.
This is much more proactive.
Even the Legislative FinanceCommittee, the internal think
tank for the legislature, said,yeah, this is something that we
recommend Now.
This bill didn't get a hearingat all until yesterday.
So as we talk here on Saturday,this was Friday morning and the
(21:13):
committee chair Duhigg was verymuch being pressured to get
people through that committeeout the back door.
It got a hearing, it got tabled.
That was that.
I'm not surprised, it's a newconcept, but they're not
interested in having somebodydigging through the government's
books in a proactive way.
(21:33):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We better wake up on the whole AI thing, cause if,
honestly, if there's ways tostart funneling things I won't
even get into the voterintegrity thing, but can you
imagine if we can start using AIto see, like, who's who's
getting a mail-in ballot?
Are they still alive, do?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
they still live here Like yeah, the large language AI
models are going to change theway assessments are done of
government programs andeverything else.
I mean there's no doubt.
So I want to get into yourthoughts on the budget too,
because you did a post andtalking about how bad our roads
are and and and how rougheverything is and some of the
money being dedicated to placeslike, say, an abortion clinic
(22:08):
$10 million, that that's beenthe governor's pet project.
Been very proud of that one,unfortunately, and you, you
really mentioned here where someof this money goes.
And, by the way, ella, as youput up this slide for number 14,
you may want to grab a littlebit of beaver video, because
I've got some breaking news onthe beavers in just a second.
Okay, so let's go to some ofthe things that Paul mentioned
(22:31):
in his blog.
So Paul talk a little bit aboutsome of the money that is going
to go out the door here andagain, more money than the state
knows what to do with.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So this is specifically the capital outlay
portion of the budget HB 450.
I know all these bill numbers,it just runs together by the end
of the day.
But yeah, as you mentioned,another state's funded abortion
clinic $10 million for that.
$10 million for a film schoolat CNM.
So we're subsidizing them everywhich way from Sunday.
(22:59):
$4 million for a runway atSpaceport America, which Virgin
Galactic God knows if they'llever get back there.
$1.5 million Remember we hadthat and I think it's done.
But the alternative fuel schoolbuses, because, heaven forbid,
we ride in a gas or dieselschool bus.
So now we've got to fund thefueling stations for that and
(23:22):
the capital outlay process is amess.
We've got billions of dollarssitting in accounts just waiting
to be spent because the processis a mess.
It's a grab bag.
I mean they call it theChristmas tree bill and we've
got the worst roads in thecountry.
According to a handful ofstudies now that have said New
Mexico's roads are just decrepitand they're getting worse.
(23:43):
And here we are throwing moneyat abortion clinics and just
throwing ads out there on TV.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There were some legislators who talked about
funding for beavers, and I didhear from a very good source.
So let's just first let's checkin on the beavers.
Yes, they are still.
They're still very destructive,just in case you're curious.
Ok, so originally we heard hereby the way they are kind of I
(24:13):
don't, I am not a fan, but theyare kind of sweet animals, like
when you well, if you look at itor if you're like, oh, it's a
cartoon.
Yeah, they're pretty cute whenyou have them on your property.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Holy Toledo.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Goodness gracious, but anyway.
So New Mexico is trying toexpand the beaver count in the
state Right, and so we had heard$3 million.
Well, I got a call from someonein that world who said the
number's closer to 15 million bythe time you're able.
So that's just breaking beavernews.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I want you to know that, yeah, we don't need a tax
break at all or rebate oranything like that for ourselves
right now.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Speaking of that, yeah, you've been the guy on the
front line of this and we'vealso seen a representative uh,
sena Cortez, or Cortez, cortez,sena no Sena, cortez Sena.
Cortez Sorry, her maiden name,Sena.
Her husband's name is Cortez.
Ok, so she talked about thistoo.
We talked about it during thecampaign in 2022, and that is
(25:06):
eliminating the income tax inthe state of New Mexico.
Is that basically everybody whoearns a salary, anyone who
makes more than about $30,000 ayear, basically pays 5% of their
income to the state of NewMexico.
So we sort of have a flat tax,but it's 5% for everybody, and
(25:27):
if you went in and youeliminated the income tax, you
would help working families moreIn a way that you could not do
any other way with a 5% payincrease.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Well, first and foremost, nine states have no
personal income tax.
I won't name them all off, buttwo of those states New
Hampshire, and let's see one ofthe other states, alaska has no
sales tax either.
None of those states have a $3billion budget surplus, like New
Mexico does and did this yearagain.
So it's easy.
(25:58):
It should be easy.
It's a $2.1 billion tax revenuebuilder to the state, but we've
got enough money to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
We're just not led by good people and you talk about
this all the time.
Let's put up the map again,ella.
Competitiveness we do not livein a vacuum in New Mexico.
We live in a competitiveenvironment.
If you look at Arizona, texas,texas has no income tax,
colorado's is lower than ours.
Utah, nevada has no income.
I mean, if you look at ours,we're in the.
It looks like and I'm justlooking at this off the cuff
(26:28):
here we're in the top 10 ofhighest income taxes, with the
lowest, by the way, income inthe country, I mean.
And then you take on top ofthat the gross receipts tax,
which is at 8%, which regularlyhits business on business, which
is a killer.
So, as you see all of this andI think you've done this before
on Errors of Enchantment, you'vetalked about the fact that if
(26:49):
you take our full tax burden,we're one of the worst in the
country.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, as a percentage of income.
Because we are a poor state,we're a low income state.
So, yeah, the way our taxes arestructured are not helpful.
And taxing income just as areminder.
We want people to work.
We have a low workforceparticipation rate.
We would much rather havepeople in the workforce picking
up a paycheck and buildingskills and responsibility, not
(27:14):
going out in the park andshooting people by the way, and
that's all connected.
It's all well-connected.
So, yeah, we need to removepenalties to hard work in New
Mexico, and eliminating thepersonal income tax is a great
way to do it.
Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It was a win, though, to see that family leave get
killed.
That was a win Because that wasyeah For small businesses
especially.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah it was an 8-3 vote, I think, in finance.
Right, Talk about that.
That was definitely a triumphof a lot of groups coming
together saying wait a minute.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah, everybody on the broad speaking right and
even a lot of the center cametogether.
I mean, this bill passed allbut the last two votes in the
House.
Only two votes stopped it lastyear from becoming law and with
the election results, theRepublicans picked up a seat in
each House, but the Democratsmoved to the progressive left
(28:09):
even further and we're thinking,oh my goodness, this is going
to be a tough, tough battle.
So it was, I'm not going to kidanybody.
This year.
They went through the house,the house passed it, and so we
thought well, we're in trouble.
Obviously it was a changed bill,the welcome family bill with
the $3,000 payouts for the firstthree months of a child's life
(28:30):
or adoption.
It was a very different billand I think that's where they
got caught up, because theyreally didn't put together a
tight, clean bill.
Not that the original conceptwas, but they really ran into
solvency issues Where's themoney going to come from?
How's this fund going to work?
And every committee should beconcerned about that.
They should have enough peoplewho are smart enough to figure
(28:51):
that stuff out and read in afiscal impact report.
But it ultimately came down tothe last committee in the Senate
.
It would have moved to thefloor and it would have probably
passed on the floor of theSenate.
But George Munoz kudos to him amoderate Democrat Not many of
them around these days butGeorge is and he's chair of the
Finance Committee.
So they had a hearing wherethey just had the analysts come
(29:12):
in and they looked at it, theirdetailed approach to that bill,
and I think it was clear fromthe committee's first reaction
that that was not ready forprime time.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Ok, just explain real briefly on this.
You don't need to go in depth,but people hear it and they're
like well, paid medical leave,that sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Explain why this would hurt businesses so much,
Well first and foremost it wouldbe a tax increase on the
individual workers as well asthe businesses themselves.
Then you're talking about.
The revised plan was six weeksfor average people, for 12, for
parents and adopted families,and it's just tough, especially
(29:52):
in rural New Mexico.
You don't have a lot of peoplewilling to work and do the jobs,
especially rural New Mexico,you don't have a lot of people
willing to work and do the jobs.
You don't have a lot of peoplein rural New Mexico but people
who can work on ranches andthose kinds of skilled labor
positions across the state ofNew Mexico.
It's tough to have peoplecoming and going.
You wouldn't even have to usethe leave contiguously.
You could take three weeks hereand then three weeks there and
(30:14):
it just it was going to be atotal administrative disaster in
addition to the tax.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And it protects, yeah , and what it doesn't allow
businesses to do is to move onand hire somebody else for the
position.
They have to guarantee that job.
Correct, correct and good luck.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
I mean finding somebody who's willing to step
in for three weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, right, god, that becomes, that becomes
difficult.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Okay, I do want to just give a quick update because
we've had a lot of people writein about two HP, two 55, which
was the bill that we discussedwith Nicole Chavez last week
really about we're going to givemoney now to juvenile
delinquents that come out ofafter serving detention at the
age of 18, the ripe old age of18, a $24,000 stipend a year to,
(30:55):
you know, quote get their lifeback right Basically even a
paycheck for a violent crime.
That was voted down on theSenate floor.
It is dead.
Thank the Lord that that isdone.
So that was a win, I think.
Or are there any other winsthat you saw Paul Like?
Did you see anything thatyou're like, yes, it's worth.
Like let's have that oldfashion, let's celebrate session
being done.
Is there anything that we sawthat we're like hallelujah.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Between paid family leave, and that I mean you had
some really crazy bills comingafter oil and gas that did die,
I mean.
Senate bill four was a was avictory, no question.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
That would have destroyed energy in the state,
and that was the net zero bill.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
And the governor did specifically call that out and
support that in her state of thestate address at the outset.
So there's always thatadditional weight of the
governor's really explicitendorsement.
She never did explicitlyendorse paid family leave, which
is interesting, but the SB4,defeating that one was really
huge.
And yeah, they also tried amile wide perimeter around oil
(31:57):
and gas facilities between anychild-related Setback spill yeah
that was another one.
So oil and gas definitely gotthe royalties Increased, so that
royalties increase, which didgo through.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
That's going to hurt the small producers.
So if you wonder why the smalldriller that has a history in
New Mexico is being pushed outof business the IPANMs of the
world, the smaller producersthat make up the independent
petroleum producers in NewMexico they're hurt very badly
by that.
There was another big $500million tax increase that would
(32:30):
have gone in and hit all oil andgas and therefore raising
energy prices in New Mexico.
That ended up being strippedout, thankfully, but I will tell
Mexico that ended up beingstripped out, thankfully so.
But I will tell you, I think,from a broader sense, the
withering assault on oil and gasin this legislative session I
think is a wake-up call to a lotof people in this state that
you better wake up and supportthe very industry that makes
(32:53):
doing business in this statestill possible, because without
it I don't know where we wouldbe.
Paul, I can't imagine theeconomy of the state of New
Mexico if they achieved whatthey wanted to in driving oil
and gas out.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
It would be completely devastated, and I
just hope that they would figureout that they have to do things
a lot differently without oiland gas, and that's something
that I don't want to see.
I would be much more interestedin seeing a shrinking federal
government and seeing how theyreact then, because of course,
this state is a two-legged stoolstate, which those don't work
(33:26):
very well, those two legs beingoil and gas and the federal
government.
And definitely I'm eager to seeDoge and what the Trump
administration does and whetherhe comes back with a plan to
address Medicaid, which that one, you know, there was nothing
good in terms of game changing,moving the needle forward.
There was a lot of bills thatdied that would have done a lot
(33:49):
of harm.
I could go chapter and verse ona lot of those things, but
unfortunately we're not movingthe needle in a positive
direction in New Mexico onvirtually anything.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
That's encouraging.
Well, can I just ask?
I know we're going to dive intosome Tesla news, sorry, yeah,
you can do that in one sec.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Just one thing, yeah, this reminds me of the fact
that it's like we're a hockeyteam and we're constantly
shorthanded and they're on thepower play every time.
So they're just launching pucksat our goalie and the goalie's
like, has a good game, stops alot of the pucks.
A couple of them get through.
We occasionally will get ashorthanded goal, but pretty
rarely.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Well, I just think it's interesting because when
you watch these legislators runfor reelect, all they're going
to do is say crime is bad, andyou know, and our schools are
bad and you need to help us.
You know we need to bebasically reelected to get
things in order.
And I'm thinking the Democraticside has held control basically
for 80 years in this state andnothing gets better.
(34:43):
And I just keep thinking.
I don't know what's going tomake voters wake up to that, but
it's just—.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
They keep getting reelected, so for them, the
system is working.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, which is so sad .
Speaker 2 (34:53):
For the powerful.
It's working For the workingfamily.
It's not.
And I think that's the partthat's scary and the thing you
start to wonder now, and withthe Holland race coming up here
and whoever's running againsther, it is what you wonder is
can we even win?
A good candidate can get withinsix points or so in New Mexico,
but can you actually win now Idon't know.
(35:14):
And she's already raised $2million.
As you look at this, the stateis much more hardcore left than
it was 10 years ago and I don'tthink Bill Richardson could get
out of a primary in the state ofNew Mexico anymore.
He wouldn't.
It would be tough.
Yeah, there's no doubt.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I was just curious, though, going into this Tesla
news, the EV mandate stuff thatthe governor put into impact.
I think it's going to bekicking in in 2026 or something
to that degree.
Has any of that changed?
Has any of that been shut down?
Saying that car manufacturersor car dealerships here in the
state of New Mexico have to sellX amount of EV cars?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
43% on their lots.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And I know we've gotten a lot of emails.
There's construction crews thatare having to put these EV
charging stations that are anastronomical expense into
commercial buildings andresidential buildings, and you
know they're like we have towake up and change this mandate.
Is there any movement there?
Or is that just like hey, it'ssigned, sealed and delivered and
you know we're going to put cardealerships out of business?
Speaker 5 (36:11):
Well, first and foremost, that mandate kicks in
later this year because it's2026 model year, which those
cars start showing up on lotslater this summer.
And there was a couple billsintroduced and I'm going to
surprise absolutely no one hereand say that they died a swift
and painful death.
(36:32):
I was there for one HB I wantto say 270, which would have
overturned the EV mandate andprohibited bodies like the EIB
and any local bodies here inAlbuquerque from doing a mandate
on electric vehicles in thefuture.
Now I know you're going to talkabout Tesla in a second, but if
(36:55):
I had this mindset before thesession, I would have introduced
a Elon Musk is a really meanand bad man and, by the way,
teslas are 50% of EVs sold inthe United States.
Subsidy and mandate repeal bill, because maybe that would have
gotten some traction among thepolitical left, because they're
(37:17):
obviously not interested indealing with the governor and
the mandate and trying tooverturn that, even though some
Democrats did publicly say thatthey disagreed with the governor
pushing the mandate through theEIB unelected body.
No legislative support for it,so yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
No, it will.
Something has to change, itcan't happen.
I can just tell you, physicallycannot happen, has to change,
it can't happen.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I can just tell you physically cannot, it cannot
happen.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So the auto dealership I was talking to a
guy who runs a runs a new cardealership here, and he said he
has one EV on the lot right now,one.
And there's no way and this is,by the way, a a dealership that
runs very air, that sells veryfuel efficient cars, right.
And so again, there's a placefor EVs.
It's going to continue toexpand.
I think there's good thingsahead.
(38:01):
It just mandating it throughgovernment right now is a
mistake.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
It's crazy, it's crazy.
Well, here we go, let's, let'sjump into old Tim Waltz.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, we'll do a little national stuff for you.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, he's celebrating the fact that what
he believes is that Tesla'sstock is dropping down.
So here's a little Tim Waltz.
We've missed him since thecampaign days.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's good to have him back.
It's good to have Tim back.
See what he says To make fun ofthis guy.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Let's listen to this clown.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Hang on my phone.
I know some of you know this.
On the iPhone They've got thatlittle stock app.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during
the day $2.25 and dropping, andif you own one, if you own one,
we're not blaming you.
You can take dental floss andpull the Tesla thing off, you
(38:51):
know, and take out.
Just telling you.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, so here's a great example of what happens
when you react emotionally toevery single policy thing.
That happens because that's allhe's doing.
He's emotionally, justreflexively, just pouring his
heart out, as only Tim Walsh cando.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Okay, so just look at himself.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
What did he call himself?
In the debate there was like aword he used he's a knucklehead.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
And so let's look here If you are invested in Els,
let's just tighten in on thatblue line.
If you are part of theinvestment structure for the
state of Minnesota and you're,say, part of the retirement
program in the state ofMinnesota, you have roughly Els,
let's go in there, is it you?
Yeah, you have roughly $319million invested in Tesla.
(39:40):
So when Tesla tanks turns out,so does your retirement, and
your governor stands up therelike a fool and cheers it on.
What an idiot, right.
And it's just not them.
It's just not the retirement,by the way, the normal pension
program as well.
And let's see what their other.
There are more Teslainvestments.
This one is for the publicmarkets, asset living.
(40:03):
Look at this, we'll just goahead.
And that's 41 million they haveinvested in Tesla.
So congratulations, governor.
You are in the process oftrying to bankrupt your own
people's retirement.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
He's really got his finger on the pulse of his
community.
I mean, he's really sticking upfor those people.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Well, up until five minutes ago, all the blue states
were eagerly buying Tesla stockbecause they support electric
vehicles and the environment andall this stuff.
And now they're burning themand vandalizing the cyber trucks
and whatnot.
It's amazing.
The left can do amazingbackflips with their brains and
not flinch, they just do it.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
They're the party of tolerance, Paul.
I don't know if you've got thator not, but they're the party
of the environment.
And so lighting a lithiumbattery and throwing a Molotov
cocktail at that thing reallysafe?
Really helping people out upthere.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
So, speaking of backflips, let's get your take
on this.
Gavin Newsom stood up andbasically he took a swipe at
Kamala Harris in an interviewwith Charlie Kirk.
So now he's going on withRepublican MAGA people to try to
appeal to them, which I willtalk about that in a second.
But just listen to Gavin Newsomstick a knife in Kamala Harris
(41:12):
and then the K file on CNN callshim out for it Trump's, for you
, she's for them and devastatingAgain devastating, devastating,
devastating and she didn't evenreact to it, which was even
more.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
So he's referring to the ad that they put out using
the clip from when when you werehere only a handful of years
ago, though, he agreed withKamala Harris on this very issue
.
Yeah, and it has been the lawin California to allow
transition care for prisonerssince 2017.
Gavin Newsom didn't speak outor say anything about it until
now, five years later, when itbecame a political liability,
(41:50):
and, in fact, he signed alandmark transgender rights bill
for prisoners that affirmedtheir right to have this type of
care, and he approved a stateMedicaid expansion that also
extended gender affirming careto undocumented immigrants.
So his record on this is reallynot matching the rhetoric that
(42:12):
he was putting out in thatpodcast.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
No, gavin Newsom is a slick, cynical shyster.
Are you serious?
Unbelievable.
So you see this and just kindof, where are the Democrats
right now?
Still trying to get theirfooting after the election?
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Well, gavin, Newsom is very much on the path to
getting his footing and tryingto portray himself as somebody
who will say and do anything,which is kind of par for the
course.
But yeah, he was probably thehappiest guy in America after
President Trump and JD Vanceafter election day.
Because, yeah, Kamala got inthere at least four years, maybe
(42:48):
eight years.
She was probably the nominee atleast two cycles in a row.
So he's looking at it now andsaying now he's the standard
bearer for the Democratic Partyfor 2028.
And it's hard to argue with him.
I think this strategy couldbackfire because he's telling
everybody what they want to hear.
I mean, yeah, Charlie Cook andKirk and Bannon he was on with.
(43:09):
So yeah, Gavin's really layingit on thick right now.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Well, and the thing is, I don't think he gets past a
Democratic primary with tryingto be more of a centrist right,
Like trying to go more moderate.
There's no way that theDemocratic Party is going to let
him.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
And he's not Plus.
He's a white guy.
That has to be a strike againsthim in today's Democratic Party
.
But he is slick, there is.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
No one carries their message better than him.
I will say that I mean I thinkhe comes into the room, he
slithers into the room, right,but he's still better at it,
he's an actor.
There are guys like Wes Moore,though, that I think will be
more effective carriers of themessage down the road.
We'll have to wait and see, allright guys.
Last thing we're going to dohere Lobos win on Saturday, no
(43:53):
Friday excuse me.
Lobos went on Friday, first timein 13 years that they advanced
to the second round.
And Donovan Dent goes here andjust puts the Lobos into the
second round against MichiganState.
Huge win for them, huge win forthe program.
No question If they could beatMichigan State.
Unbelievable.
Dent didn't have his best gamebut overall the Lobos did a
(44:16):
really good job winning thatgame against Marquette Good
stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Well, they have so much heart.
I think that's the whole thing.
You talk to the folks that wentto the Mountain West tournament
out in Las Vegas and they'relike we have the most fans that
ever show up for anybody inMountain West and there's just
so much passion behind theseguys, so it's so good.
I mean, of course, we had himpicked on our bracket.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
So that's always helpful as well, and they play
really good defense they do.
They play really, really soliddefense.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And it's going to be interesting to see they have a
shot against Michigan State.
Right, Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (44:44):
First time ever they would be in the Sweet 16 for the
program.
That would be amazing.
That would be a hugeaccomplishment.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I remember last time they won a game, though Do you
remember who that that was?
That was our coach, and wherehe yep, and he left for UCLA
right after, so what?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
I hope is that the same thing doesn't happen with
Patino, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
We got to keep him on .
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Yeah, okay, so we're going to wrap up our show, but
tell everybody against one moretime, paul, where people can
find you and sign up fornewsletters, things of that
nature.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
A lot of our writing is at errors of enchantmentcom
by volume.
That's the most of our writing.
Then Rio Grande foundationorgis our flagship website and our
freedom index where you can goand track those legislative
votes, and we'll wrap that upcompletely and finalize all
those votes in a week or two ofthe end of the session.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Okay, and then, by the way, you also have your
podcast tipping point in MexicoAlso a great one.
If you like policy discussionsabout the state of New Mexico,
it's the best out there, socheck it out.
We will see you back here aweek from now, as we just put
the girls to work here at thehouse, we're thinking about
Spring cleaning everybody.
Yeah, I feel like they shouldbe Clean that garage girls,
repainting their rooms, thingslike that, ella, okay, so we
(45:49):
need to smile on this.
That's how spring break shouldbe spent.
Good old core hard work, allright.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Thanks for joining us .
You guys have a great week.
We'll see you back here nextweek.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
See ya.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
We know we had a blast.
Make sure to like, rate andreview.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, you can find us on
Instagram and Facebook, at noDoubt About it.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
The no Doubt About it podcast is a Choose Adventure
Media production.
See you next time on no DoubtAbout it.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
There is no doubt about it.
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