How we make a
better New Mexico.
Dear Friends,
This booklet is about one thing: A plan for a better New Mexico.
Getting Started.
We all love this state. We want our state to be better and do better—in our communities, for our families and for our kids.
It’s worth saying again.
We can make it happen. This booklet describes how we can do it, working together
in three important areas.
First, doing better starts with creating jobs. We need new ideas and sensible solutions that build on our state’s unique strengths. A better New Mexico begins the
moment we get our economy working again.
Second, doing better means taking better care of our people. We must start with the
most vulnerable: Our kids, who look to us for a better future and our single moms,
who work hard every day just to keep their families going.
And third, doing better means investing in our infrastructure. If we improve everything from roads and bridges to high-speed internet connections across New
Mexico we’ll create jobs and open up new opportunities.
These three ways of doing better fit together into a plan for a better New Mexico.
We all love this state. There’s so much
to love.
It’s time for us to make things better.
With sensible choices and workable solutions we can build a better New Mexico.
Endless skies, soaring mountains and
living waters. History that dates back to
before history began. Rich communal
cultures that beat in the hearts of our
people. A heritage of state-wide diversity that anticipates our nation’s future.
Art and agriculture, stories and personalities that are uniquely ours. Values
that are time-honored and enduring.
Here’s how we get started with jobs and
the economy.
As New Mexicans we cherish all of this.
We want to lose none of it.
If you read this booklet and find yourself agreeing with it, please tell your friends
about it. Tell them to get their own booklet. You can download a copy from the One
New Mexico web site: www.onenewmexico.com/abetternm. That’s how we spread
the word. That’s how we make New Mexico better.
But something’s wrong and we all know it.
Yours truly,
Too many New Mexicans can’t find good
jobs. Too many of our kids are leaving
to find work outside New Mexico.
Alan Webber
One New Mexico
www.onenewmexico.com
For too many families life is too hard—
harder than it should be or has to be.
Our state is standing still while others
around us are moving forward.
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Part One:
Creating Jobs.
Our economy is up to us.
We must create jobs based on our
unique strengths.
We end up wasting our tax dollars.
Let’s face facts. Out-of-state corporations won’t create a better New Mexico.
We must grow our economy with homegrown jobs.
It’s our economy. It’s up to us to get it
working again.
Why?
Homegrown jobs last longer. Homegrown jobs are true to our values, our
culture and our communities. Homegrown jobs put New Mexicans to work
using our skills. Homegrown jobs keep
our money here in New Mexico, putting even more of us to work. Homegrown jobs build on all the ways New
Mexico is unique, the strengths we have
that no other state can copy.
The other way?
We continue to throw our tax dollars at
big out-of-state corporations and hope
they come here. But hope isn’t a plan.
We’ve seen what happens when we try
it.
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We must lead the nation
in renewable energy.
It’s one of our strengths: When we
combine all of New Mexico’s energy
resources we’re one of America’s most
energy-rich states.
There’s more money being invested today in wind and solar energy and in renewable energy storage than in oil and
gas. By investing in renewable energy
we’ll create thousands of good, highpaying, sustainable jobs in New Mexico.
Oil and gas have fueled our economy
for decades. Of course, they’re still important. But energy is changing, here
and around the world. We can lead that
change. Renewable energy is the future.
Renewable energy is good business for
New Mexico in all kinds of ways. We’ll
create jobs all over the state. And renew-
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ables touch all kinds of jobs, from manufacturing and assembly to installation
and maintenance. Here are four ways
we can boost renewable energy in New
Mexico:
1. Require utilities to include renewables when they put out requests for
bids to build new generating facilities.
2. Increase our Renewable Portfolio Standards to 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
3. Reinstate the New Mexico solar energy tax credit.
4. Support the Sun Zia transmission line
to sell our surplus renewable energy out
of state.
The other way?
We stay married to oil and gas and continue to ride a cycle of boom and bust.
Instead of being a leader in renewable
energy, we stay stuck in the past. We
watch jobs disappear and end up wondering why we let it happen.
We have the sun. We have the wind.
Other states don’t. Let’s make use of
our unique strengths.
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We must be the future
of water management.
From our acequias to the Rio Grande,
we know more about water than any
state in America. We know that water is
life. We’ve known it a long time.
We know how to conserve it, how to
price it, how to manage it, how to develop technology around it, how to make
sound plans about it.
Now the rest of the country is learning
what we’ve always known. When water is scarce, water is sacred. With that
knowledge, we’ve built up centuries of
best practices around water.
Like renewable energy, sensible water
management is certain to become more
valuable. It’s another unique New Mexico strength that we can turn into good
jobs.
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And like renewable energy, water creates all kinds of jobs. Labs, engineers,
universities and entrepreneurs across
New Mexico can work on new ways
to conserve, clean, re-use, measure
and manage water. Manufacturers can
build new water management tools and
workers can install them. Farmers and
ranchers can benefit from better water
use. We can sell our expertise and our
products to other states that need to
catch up to New Mexico.
The other way?
We stick with “business as usual.” We
miss out on a great economic opportunity.
Let’s use common sense and our
strengths to make New Mexico better.
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We must lead in
farming and ranching.
Farming and ranching are at the heart
of New Mexico’s history and way of life.
But like energy and water, food and
food production are changing. Consumers are looking for health and nutrition. They want quality and purity.
They want food they can trace from
farm to table. And they’re willing to
pay more for trustworthy food and authentic flavors.
We’re home to America’s oldest vineyards. Our sheep ranchers created the
first business lobbying group in the
country—before there was lobbying.
When it comes to agriculture, history is
on our side.
Here again we’re staring opportunity
right in the face. We already know how
valuable Hatch chiles are: High quality,
unique flavor, New Mexico branded.
Organic farming, branded food products, sustainable agriculture are all ways
we can turn our agricultural past into a
better farming future.
Here’s the best part: Hemp uses little
water, lots of sun and plenty of land.
And it’s roughly ten times more valuable than other crops. In other words,
hemp isn’t just better for New Mexico.
It’s perfect for New Mexico.
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And it’s more than food. We’re in position to be the national leader in commercializing industrial hemp. All it
takes is legislation and the Governor’s
signature and New Mexico is in the
hemp business. And it’s a growing business. Today hemp is used for more than
20,000 commercial products, from
paper to energy, from cosmetics to textiles.
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We must lead the way in
every kind of tourism.
We all know that tourism is one of the
foundations of our economy.
There are eco-tourists who want to explore our one-of-a-kind environment.
Think of the Gila River or the dark skies
in the southwest corner of New Mexico.
But could we do better? Could we create
more jobs in more places if we thought
about tourism in new ways?
There are cultural tourists who want to
be amazed by unspoiled artifacts and
ancient customs. Think of the drumbeats of tribal dances or the mystery of
Chaco Canyon.
These days tourists aren’t all the same.
What they’re looking for isn’t all the
same.
There are tourists who love art, who
want to roam the galleries on Santa
Fe’s Canyon Road or book a stay at the
Lightning Fields.
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Some tourists want to eat their way
through New Mexico searching for the
perfect breakfast burrito or the best
green chile they’ve ever tasted. Some
want to see what a commercial spaceport looks like. Others want to see
where Billy the Kid was put in jail. Still
others want a chance to soak and heal at
a soothing spa.
We need to turn better tourism into better pay.
We need to create apps—instead of
maps—that allow tourists the freedom
to discover New Mexico on their own.
Every kind of tourism means every kind
of job for our people in every corner of
our state.
A better approach to tourism means
better jobs for New Mexicans.
Because there’s every kind of tourism in
every part of New Mexico.
We need to make hotel and restaurant
management thriving career opportunities and the hospitality industry a center of excellence in our
colleges and
universities.
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We must support and nurture
our own small businesses.
The old way tries to bribe out-of-state
corporations with big tax breaks. It
doesn’t work. Our way supports our
own. It does work. It’s that simple.
And that’s a good thing.
Why?
Because our businesses are part of our
communities. Our business owners live
where they work. They send their kids
to neighborhood schools. They have a
stake in New Mexico.
We don’t have big corporations in New
Mexico. We aren’t beholden to huge
conglomerates and Wall Street titans.
Our economy is built on the only part of
the economy that’s actually adding new
jobs and creating new opportunities:
small and medium-sized businesses.
As they add jobs, those jobs go to New
Mexicans. As they grow, we grow.
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Here are four ways we can support New
Mexico’s small and medium-sized businesses:
1. Pass an internet sales tax. It will generate revenue we can use to help our
companies and workers and level the
playing field with the giant on-line retailers.
2. Put small-business “navigators” in
every county—specialists who can cut
red-tape, speed up permit requests, get
funding and solve problems.
3. Create a state government “help
desk”—a “genius bar” that advocates for
our small and medium-sized businesses.
4. Keep our dollars at home with buylocal campaigns. New Mexico businesses should have the first shot and
the best shot at every contract with our
large-scale public institutions.
These are New Mexico’s own.
When they do better, we all do better.
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We must support our
innovators and entrepreneurs.
All over America entrepreneurs and
innovators are creating the future.
They’re the ones disrupting old companies with new ideas. They’re the ones
trying new approaches, exploring new
technologies, creating new startups and
producing new jobs.
Here’s the good news: They’re right
here, in every part of New Mexico. And
in every part of our economy.
We have entrepreneurs who are reimagining biochar as an agricultural
startup and ancient organic blue corn
as a business innovation.
From Silver City to Los Alamos, from
Hobbs to Grants, up and down I-25,
New Mexico is teeming with accelerators and incubators.
We have entrepreneurs producing cutting-edge medical products, advanced
cyber-security systems, aerospace innovations and world-class cultural offerings.
We have talented New Mexicans experimenting in labs and universities and
tinkering at old-fashioned workbenches. New Mexicans know how to think
differently.
Here are four ways we can promote entrepreneurship and innovation in New
Mexico:
1. Teach coding in every public school
in New Mexico. Encourage our kids to
start entrepreneurship clubs as their
own extra-curricular activity.
2. Create a New Mexico Entrepreneurship Corps—our own successful innovators who can promote New Mexico as a
great place for startups.
3. Make our entrepreneurial eco-system
visible and connected. The power is in
the network—but only if the network is
connected up.
4. Encourage and reward spinouts from
our colleges and universities. We have
entrepreneurs on campus who can
jumpstart our economy.
The more companies we start here, the
more jobs we keep here. It’s another
way we make our future homegrown.
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We must make exports
a bigger part of our future.
We live in an international economy.
And we live in a state that’s international as a matter of geography, history
and culture.
New Mexico is one of only three states
without their own United States Export
Assistance Center. (New Mexico’s is in
El Paso, Texas.) Meanwhile, Tucson,
Arizona gets $1 billion every year from
Mexican tourists. New Mexico? No direct flights for Mexican tourists who
want to come here.
The fact is, we share more than a border
with Mexico. We share language, history, culture and understanding. What we
don’t share is enough trade.
It’s hard to promote trade and grow foreign investment when you don’t work at
it. It’s hard to promote tourism when
there aren’t any flights. It’s hard to sell
things across the border when potential
customers don’t know you exist.
Why does it matter?
Because exporting what we make and
grow will diversify our economy. New
markets will help our small and medium-sized businesses grow. We’ll build
the New Mexico brand and create new
jobs using other people’s money.
2. Work to get direct flights between
New Mexico and Mexico. Make it easier for them to get here and us to get
there.
5. Make Santa Teresa more than a convenient crossing point for goods made
outside New Mexico. Identify New
Mexico-based businesses that complement the businesses on the Mexico side
of the border and help them locate
there.
3. Do more to promote all of the products and services we have that they
need: Alternative energy, aerospace
and advanced manufacturing are a few
places to start.
We don’t want to build a wall.
We want to build a better economy.
4. Create a government supported nonprofit export promotion program to
help our companies enter foreign
markets.
Here are five simple things we can do
to start doing better in trade and investment:
How are we doing right now?
1. Open a state-sponsored office in
Mexico City. Showcase New Mexico
products and tourist destinations. Put
New Mexico on the map.
Right now the state government’s international trade program consists of the
salary of one man sitting at a desk in
Santa Fe.
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Digital entertainment must be
a key part of our economy.
In 1898, the Edison Manufacturing
Company made a one-minute film at
the Isleta Pueblo.
Part Two:
Taking better care of our people.
Right now we make the films and TV
shows here. But because we haven’t invested in high-speed internet, the postproduction work goes back to California. We need to do that here. The jobs
that come from making the films and
TV shows are good. But so are the jobs
writing them, financing them, developing them, promoting them. We need to
do every part of the film and TV industry here.
In 2015, 23 feature films and television
programs were made in New Mexico.
In the last 118 years New Mexico has
become a center of one of America’s
most celebrated products: digital entertainment. We’ve seen thousands of
good jobs created. We’ve seen careers
launched. New Mexicans have won
awards. All with an industry that’s clean,
doesn’t need water and brings work to
communities all over the state. But we
can do more and we can do better.
And today there’s more than film and
TV. America’s largest export is video
games. We need to create those here,
too.
Here’s another thing to think about:
These are the kinds of jobs that will
keep our kids here.
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We must do a better job of
supporting our people.
The evidence all says the same thing:
Kids who start school behind tend to
stay behind. Every New Mexico child
deserves a fast start.
Get our economy working again.
That’s one part of a plan to make New
Mexico better.
But there’s more to do. There’s a second part of our plan: We need to invest in our people.
Then we make K-12 public education
better.
We all know the truth: Right now we
test too much and teach too little. We
act like every child learns the same way
and at the same rate, when common
sense says that’s not true. We’ve taken
away art and music and gym and expect our kids to learn by sitting all day
at their desks. We hold our teachers accountable, but we don’t let them teach.
We have tests that were written in Connecticut by for-profit corporations that
have never set foot in New Mexico.
We all do better when we all do better.
New Mexico does better when we invest
in New Mexicans.
We need to invest in our kids. We need
to make education the priority for our
state. We need to feed and shelter our
kids. We need to protect and nurture
our kids. We need to show our kids that
they have a shot at a good life if they
stay here in New Mexico.
We make life better for all New Mexicans when we make life better for our
kids. We start by investing in early childhood learning for every child.
We need to do more for vocational education. A college degree isn’t right for
everyone. A steady job working with
your hands is still the fastest way to a
good paycheck and a ticket to the middle class.
They can teach our young people the
skills they need for good jobs with good
wages.
We need an educational plan created
in New Mexico by New Mexicans for
New Mexicans. A plan that is studentcentered and teacher-led, with high engagement and high standards. Our plan
must be based on five enduring learning skills: scholarship, leadership, stewardship, citizenship and entrepreneurship.
We’ve allowed ourselves to walk away
from the trades and the skills and the
hard work of making and fixing and
building and repairing things. High
schools and community colleges need
to be the springboard they used to be.
It’s a unique path for New Mexico—
and a better path for our kids.
It’s a system designed to fail.
Here’s what we do instead.
We do it ourselves.
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We need to do more for
higher education.
Colleges and universities produce graduates—and more. They’re idea factories where entrepreneurs are made
and startups invented. In an economy
where everyone is a knowledge worker
we need to equip our young people so
they can compete and win.
teachers where they belong: At the top
of the list of people we appreciate, recognize and reward for the work they do.
We need to stop thinking it’s ok that
more than half of our kids aren’t even
in school.
We need to do more for our school principals.
We need to stop thinking it’s ok that
more than three out of every four kids
in fourth grade aren’t proficient at reading. More than three out of every four
kids in eighth grade aren’t proficient at
math.
They’re the leaders who set the tone
in our schools. We need a New Mexico
Leadership Academy to develop principals who can lead our schools all across
New Mexico.
We need to do more for our educators.
We need better training, better coaching and better pay. We need to put
Here are some things
we need to stop doing.
Roughly one out of every four kids isn’t
graduating high school on time.
We need to stop thinking that it’s ok
that almost one out of every three kids
in New Mexico goes to bed hungry.
We need to stop thinking that it’s ok
that almost one out of every three kids
in New Mexico lives in poverty.
We need to stop thinking it’s ok. We
need to start doing better.
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We need to do better for
everyone in New Mexico.
That’s clear. But there’s one group
that deserves special attention—single
moms.
Part Three:
Investing in our infrastructure.
We need to raise the minimum wage.
We need more day care, better job
training, more women’s health care. We
need to put more social services into
our schools, so moms can get their kids
medical care and dental care all in one
place. We need to protect single moms
from domestic violence. We need to
protect them from loan sharks and payday lenders.
Single moms have to work two or three
jobs to make ends meet. They put food
on the table for their family, keep a
roof over their heads, find money for
clothes, handle doctor appointments
and pay doctor bills. They have to find
some way to get one kid to school and
one kid to day care and then get to the
first of several jobs.
These are our families.
Life shouldn’t be that hard for them.
Life is too hard for too many of the single moms in New Mexico. And it makes
life too hard for their kids.
We have to make it better.
Four of every ten kids in New Mexico
live in a family with just one parent—
usually a mom. And almost half of the
single moms in New Mexico live in poverty.
It’s common sense. If we want New
Mexico to do better, we need them to
do better.
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A 21st century economy needs
a 21st century infrastructure.
We’ve been standing still.
Today business travelers, investors, financial partners and tourists expect
convenient and efficient airplane service. If we want people to come to New
Mexico we need to make it easy for
them to get here.
All around us the world has been changing.
Business has gotten faster. It’s gotten
smarter. It’s gotten more connected.
Ideas, people, money, products and services travel to all parts of the world.
This is the infrastructure of the 21st
century business world.
First, the internet changed everything.
Then the smart phone changed the internet.
We need to build it if we want New
Mexico to do better.
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We still need high quality roads, highways, bridges, sewer and water systems.
Too much of our old infrastructure is
badly in need of repair and reconstruction. And it takes money—which is why
we need our own Bank of New Mexico.
We need to invest New Mexico’s dollars
in New Mexico.
Take a look back at the plan for jobs and
the economy. From energy and water to
farming and tourism, from digital entertainment to entrepreneurship and
small and medium-sized businesses, every piece needs high-speed internet, reliable mobile phone service and better
airplane service.
It’s common sense. We can’t create a
New Mexico economy without these investments.
When we invest in ourselves we do better. And every one of these investments
creates new jobs. They’re all win-win.
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Our brand is resilience.
It’s been said before:
New Mexico: America’s most sustainable state.
We New Mexicans are a resilient people.
It’s not just a goal.
It’s how we live.
It’s how we do business.
It’s who we are.
Hard times can knock us down. We
always get back up.
Now we can do even better.
It’s how we make New Mexico better.
We can take our core strengths and
make them our brand.
What do we do now?
Our families are struggling to make
ends meet.
“Above all, try something.”
In 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered the White House. America was
mired in the depth of the Great Depression. People were out of work, out of
money and out of hope. He replaced a
do-nothing administration that seemed
frozen, stuck in neutral, unable to come
up with a plan.
Too many of our kids go to bed hungry. Too many of our kids are dropping out of school.
Too many of our working men and
women are out of work.
But we keep slashing the state budget
to the bone rather than investing in our
future.
FDR spoke of optimism and pragmatism. Here’s what he said: “It is common sense to take a method and try it.
If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
We can make our values the basis of our
economy.
Renewable energy. Sensible water use.
Healthy farming and ranching. Improved welfare and education of our
people. An infrastructure that supports modern businesses.
None of this has to be this way.
A better New Mexico is within our
reach.
Here’s the truth about New Mexico.
We have ancient history. Deep culture.
Enduring values. Breathtaking beauty.
Great resources. Remarkable talent.
All it takes is leadership, vision and hard
work.
But our children are leaving the state to
find work.
All it takes is us.
Together we can make a better New
Mexico.
So are our skilled tradesmen.
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Alan Webber, founder
To contribute to One New Mexico, to download this booklet or
to add your support for this plan for a better New Mexico, go to
www.onenewmexico.com/abetternm.