Commentary: In his recent testimony in front of the Senate Finance Committee, Jim Peach, regents professor of economics at New Mexico State University, said, “New Mexico has a failed economic development strategy.”
He was being kind.
The hard truth is New Mexico doesn’t have an economic development strategy. What we have is a random collection of out-of-date tactics, failed ideological nostrums and uncoordinated gestures masquerading as a plan. At a time when our oil and gas industry is being pummeled by global trends outside our control, a real New Mexico economic strategy is desperately needed and long overdue.
The Legislature should be focusing on jobs and opportunity with laser-like intensity. It’s what every city and town across the state should be talking about in council meetings and town halls. It should be the center of media attention. We have got to get beyond outmoded thinking and the failed policies of the past.
Economic development today is much like an Olympic skating competition: There are the “compulsory” investments every state must make just to be in the game, and there are the “freestyle” elements where states get to promote the things that make them special.
New Mexico isn’t doing enough of either.
When it comes to compulsory investments, we’re neither investing enough nor in the right things.
High-speed Internet is a requirement of doing business in the 21st century, but we’re the least-wired state in the country. The most important tool of business today is the mobile phone, but coverage in New Mexico is erratic and spotty. If you want a flourishing economy, tourists and investors need easy air access. But the Albuquerque Sunport has registered year-after-year declines in passenger miles and has lost critically important flights, making it harder to get here and harder to do business here.
Just as urgent as these infrastructure investments are human investments. Today’s economy is a knowledge economy; every worker is a knowledge worker. Competition today is about talent. But just as we are underinvesting in 21st century infrastructure, we are underinvesting in our people.
We all know the requirements: Former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt spelled them out when he visited Las Cruces for the Domenici Public Policy Conference. We must make a statewide commitment to early childhood education for every baby born in New Mexico. Researchers agree: The years between 0 and 3 determine the long-term intellectual capacity of a baby. Because we lead the nation in children living in poverty, we need to lead the nation in early childhood education.
In fact, we need to invest in education at all levels and of all kinds, from vocational training to high-level advanced research. In the new economy, learning is earning. A better future for all New Mexicans demands dramatic changes in our educational investments.
As we do better in the compulsory part of the competition, we’ll have more confidence in our ability to compete in the freestyle area. And the good news is, that’s where we get to strut our stuff! Because when it comes to having the culture, history, style and natural endowments to build our economy from the grassroots-up and from the inside-out, New Mexico has unlimited potential.
Unlike some states that are locked into a single dominant make-it-or-break-it economic profile, New Mexico is blessed with a variety of micro-economies. These are individual economic sectors, each of which can be grown and promoted, all of which can be woven into a consistent statewide economic fabric. Together they become The New Mexico Story.
These micro-economies are hiding in plain sight: We can be the nation’s leader in renewable energy — solar, wind and geothermal will both create new jobs and also preserve our unmatched quality of life. We can be the nation’s leader in water management techniques and technology, taking advantage of our experience with water scarcity. We can have value-added ranching and agriculture, producing food that is healthy, sustainable and branded “Made in New Mexico.”
We can lead the nation in eco-tourism and cultural tourism. We can be the state on the cutting edge of “the new aging”— seniors living longer, healthier and more engaged lives and contributing to their communities. We can do more to grow trade with Mexico and build that relationship into a thriving partnership. We can make New Mexico “the next cool place” for entrepreneurship, innovation and startups.
But to win in the freestyle, we also need to shine in the compulsory part of the competition. We need both working together — and we all need to be working together.
We can do this. We have what it takes to excel in both parts of the new economic competition. It’s right there in front of us, waiting for us to see it, embrace it and do it.