Enchantment State News

The Rio Grande Foundation (RGF) said they have a way to safely reopen the state of New Mexico.

It's called Fairly Open New Mexico, an idea those at the foundation along with the folks at Power the Future, came up with back in April. The organization detailed the plan's key points in a blog called Errors of Enchantment, where they wrote they still feel their plan is "relevant."

Fairly Open New Mexico would allow small businesses to reopen under the same conditions as the big box stores. It also included a detailed overview of what's needed, including health requirements, in order for a business to open back up, a document that the RGF believes should be public record. The RGF also said they believe Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) should share the formula her administration is using to determine quarantine and business restrictions. 

"We haven't seen this," the foundation wrote in the blog. "Instead, New Mexico's reopening has been painfully slow and haphazard despite the fact that we are now coming up on our seven months of being locked down."

The foundation said they were puzzled over Grisham's announcement in early September to keep movie theaters, bars and casinos closed until there's a vaccine to protect people against COVID-19 when they were supposed to open back up in June. Although the foundation did not, some "tribal casinos" are open because they are "outside the governor's control."  The foundation also compared the "haphazard" reopening of businesses could also be said for the administration's plan to reopen schools. 

The blog post comes in response to a reader's request for the foundation's plan following an article written by Paul Gessing, RGF president, that appeared in several print publications across the state questioning Grisham's decision to keep the economy closed for more than half the year.