> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.newmexicomadness.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The $75 Billion Question: Does New Mexico Vote to Stay 50th—or Finally Build a Growth Machine? - URL: https://www.newmexicomadness.com/new-mexico-election-day-75-billion-question-poverty-or-growth/ - Published: 2026-11-03T13:59:35.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-03T13:59:35.000Z - Description: New Mexico is sitting on a $75.8 billion sovereign wealth fund and an $11.2 billion annual general fund—yet 30 of our 33 counties remain poorer than the national average. Today's vote comes down to one choice: keep funding a broken model, or try something new. - Author: Reid Rothchild - Tags: State As New Mexicans head to the polls today, most of the political coverage will focus on the names at the top of the ticket—Deb Haaland versus Gregg Hull for Governor, Ben Ray Luján versus Larry Marker for the U.S. Senate, and every legislative seat down the ballot. Step past the yard signs and campaign commercials for a moment and look at the actual balance sheet of the state you live in. Today is not just another midterm election. It is an audit of a governing philosophy that has dominated Santa Fe for nearly a century—and a decision on whether New Mexicans are willing to keep paying a rising price in dollars, human lives, and lost potential for a system that keeps finishing dead last. ### Follow the Money: New Mexico Is Not a "Poor State" For generations, politicians in Santa Fe had a convenient excuse whenever New Mexico landed at the bottom of a national list: *We are a poor state. We just need more money.* That excuse is dead and buried. Look at the three numbers that define New Mexico's finances right now in 2026: 1. **$75.8 Billion in the Vault:** Thanks to oil and natural gas royalties from the Permian and San Juan basins, New Mexico's State Investment Council now holds **$75.8 billion** in permanent and sovereign wealth funds—the second-largest sovereign wealth fund in America behind Alaska, and on pace to top $100 billion by 2030. 2. **$11.17 Billion in Annual General Fund Spending:** For Fiscal Year 2027, lawmakers are spending a record **$11.17 billion** in recurring general fund dollars on annual state operations while still sitting on more than 30 percent in cash reserves and another $1 billion-plus surplus. 3. **$24.79 Billion in Total Annual State Spending:** When you add federal matching funds and earmarked state accounts on the New Mexico Sunshine Portal, total annual state government spending now approaches **$24.8 billion a year** in a state of just 2.1 million people. New Mexico is not a poor state. New Mexico is one of the richest resource states in the Western Hemisphere. ### The Return on Investment: Higher Costs, Worse Outcomes In any private business—or any military unit—if you triple the bank account, hike the annual operating budget every single year, and the results on the ground stay terrible, you do not give management a bonus. You admit the strategy is broken. Look at what New Mexicans actually get in return for record spending, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau, USDA, FBI, and Kids Count data: - **Statewide Poverty:** New Mexico's overall poverty rate sits at **17.8 percent** versus **12.5 percent** nationally, leaving **30 of our 33 counties** poorer than the country they belong to . Eleven counties still sit at or above the 21.9 percent mark that made 2013 the state's worst year on record . - **Child Poverty:** Some **90,276 New Mexico children (20.5 percent)** live in poverty, and **30 of 33 counties** are worse for kids than the 15.5 percent national average . In **10 counties**, at least one in three children lives below the poverty line, peaking above 36 percent in San Miguel, Socorro, and Catron counties. - **#1 in SNAP Dependency**: New Mexico ranks #1 in America for food stamp enrollment at **21.9 percent of residents** and **19.2 percent of households** . Twenty-nine of 33 counties top the national rate, and in eight counties—including Chaves County in Roswell at **25.0 percent**—at least one in four households relies on SNAP. - **Majority of Kids on Medicaid:** An estimated **283,403 New Mexico children (57.3 percent)** are on Medicaid, making public coverage the majority across **28 of 33 counties**. - **Bottom in Education, Top in Crime:** Despite billions poured into public systems without structural reform, New Mexico remains #50 in child well-being, #50 in education, #49 in child food insecurity, #1 in property crime, and #2 in violent crime. Every year the price tag goes up—in tax dollars, social service caseloads, crime, and families moving away—while the outcomes stay glued to the floor. ### Nearly 90 Years of One Approach How did a state with $75.8 billion in the bank end up with 90,276 children in poverty? You cannot blame outsiders when one party has held the steering wheel for almost a century. Since 1933, Democrats have controlled the New Mexico Legislature for nearly 90 years—losing the State House for just two years (2015–2016) since the 1950s and holding complete trifecta control over the Governor's Mansion and both legislative chambers for the past eight years. The governing model in Santa Fe measures compassion by **enrollment** rather than **escape**. When a higher percentage of New Mexicans signs up for Medicaid, SNAP, or state subsidies, politicians hold a press conference and call it progress. It is not progress. Expanding the safety net while killing the private-sector ladder does not lift families out of poverty—it traps them there. ### Buttoning Up a Gold Mine Look closely at the only counties in New Mexico that approach or beat national poverty numbers: Los Alamos (**3.5% poverty**), Sandoval (**10.0%**), Santa Fe (**12.0%**), and Eddy County (**13.8%**) in the heart of the Permian Basin. New Mexico possesses everything required to become an economic powerhouse in the modern era: - **World-Class Oil and Natural Gas:** The Permian and San Juan basins that single-handedly built that $75.8 billion wealth fund and pay for the state budget. - **Uranium and Critical Minerals:** Massive uranium reserves sitting across McKinley and Cibola counties—two places where roughly a third of all children currently live in poverty—at the exact moment the world is racing to power AI data centers and next-generation nuclear grids. - **National Labs, Land, and Sunshine:** Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, wide-open corridors for advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, and energy infrastructure, and a workforce hungry for real careers. Instead of unleashing those assets to create $100,000-a-year private-sector jobs, Santa Fe's regulatory machine spends its time buttoning up our land, slow-walking permits, piling mandates onto energy producers, and locking away our resources. We treat the industries that pay our bills like enemies, and then act surprised when 30 of our 33 counties are poorer than the rest of America. ### The Choice Today History and hard data could not be clearer. We already know where the current road leads. We have decades of evidence, a $24.8 billion annual price tag, and 50th-place rankings to prove it. As you step into the voting booth today, the question isn't which politician has the nicer smile. The question is whether New Mexicans are going to vote to stay at the bottom of every national list—or whether we are finally ready to try something new, unlock our resources, demand accountability for every dollar spent, and turn New Mexico into a growth machine. --- #### Endnotes & Sources 1. ****New Mexico Sovereign Wealth / Permanent Funds:** New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) portfolio reporting and October 2026 disclosures showing $75.8 billion in total managed net assets across the Land Grant Permanent Fund, Severance Tax Permanent Fund, and related state trusts. [abqjournal](https://www.abqjournal.com/business/state-investment-council-invests-120-million-in-lightspeed-despite-activists-objections/3152444?ref=newmexicomadness.com) 2. ****State Budget & General Fund Spending:** New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) **FY27 Budget Overview* ($11.17 billion recurring general fund appropriations; \~$13.9 billion recurring revenues) and New Mexico Sunshine Portal FY27 total operating budget data ($24.79 billion). 3. ****County & Statewide Poverty Data:** U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE, released January 2026, ages 0–17: 20.5% NM child poverty, 90,276 children, 30 of 33 counties above the 15.5% U.S. rate) and American Community Survey (ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates, Table B17001: 17.8% NM overall poverty vs. 12.5% U.S.). 4. ****SNAP & Medicaid Dependency Data:** USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FY2025 state rank: 21.9% of NM residents, #1 in U.S.); U.S. Census Bureau ACS Table S2201 (19.2% of NM households on SNAP vs. 12.1% U.S.) and Table S2704 (57.3% of NM children under 19—283,403 children—on Medicaid/means-tested public coverage). 5. ****National Rankings & Legislative Control:** Annie E. Casey Foundation **Kids Count Data Book* (#50 child well-being, #50 education, #49 economic well-being), FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (#1 property crime, #2 violent crime), and New Mexico Legislature **Political Composition Handbook* (1912–2026).