Enchantment State News

Republicans in New Mexico blasted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) for what they portrayed as going back to the money trough too many times, closing the state, plunging it into debt and then asking the federal government for more COVID-19 bailout money.

“COVID-19 didn’t create this New Mexico crisis,” Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce said on the party website. “The governor is responsible for this complete fiscal mess and economic ruin. She has mishandled our state budget, overspent and caused an economic crisis with her irrational decisions that have damaged our economy and peoples’ livelihoods. She doesn’t know how to control spending and her huge deficits have added fuel to the COVID-19 fire. It’s just wrong to blame other things for her fiscal problems here and ask for additional help.”  

The report said Grisham's Sept. 10 appearance before a U.S. House Financial Services Committee asking for millions more in coronavirus aid while at the same time boasting of the state’s healthy financial picture before the virus was less than honest.

Republicans accused her of wild and reckless spending in pursuit of a “progressive” agenda that left the state a billion dollars in the red. Her administration GOP lawmakers contended raised taxes on New Mexico residents, and depended too heavily on unreliable oil stocks that they said made up 40% of the state’s operating budget.

“Now the governor wants President Donald Trump’s administration to bail her out—again,” the website said. “This request suggests her incompetence after the federal government has already provided hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief to New Mexico.”

Pearce indicated in a response to Grisham's meeting with federal officials that the business shutdowns caused by the pandemic continues to strangle the state’s economy while Grisham is telling federal officials that New Mexico is in a “good place.”

“Governor, is this really a 'good place?'" he asked. “Families are hurting. Each day the economy crumbles more. Restaurants continue to suffer, and Main Streets may not survive. Bars and entertainment venues remain shuttered. Our tourism industry is dying. Travel quarantines remain. Add a billion dollar budget crisis and the governor has created a perfect storm of despair—all the result of her inequitable and unjust actions. It doesn’t feel like a good place if you’re outside Santa Fe. We need to reopen New Mexico now.”

Pearce also said Grisham’s boast that the state has handled the COVID-19 crisis effectively and that student education is a priority rings hollow.

“Most of our students are falling further behind because they still cannot attend school in person,” he said. “Teachers are working late into the night to try to adapt to the many changes coming out of the administration. Many students, whose parents are struggling to make ends meet, are greatly disadvantaged by the governor’s order. Some rural students still have no access to computers or the internet.”