A Democratic senator told me this afternoon that he thought the plan for the day was that the senate would come in, vote for the house stuff, and the house would come in and vote for the senate stuff. Any details would be reconciled and that would be that for the special session.

Every time a party would have a caucus (A caucus is a meeting of the members of one party from either the house or senate), things seemed to unravel even more, I was told. This was about ten hours after the house had worked until 3 AM this morning.

The comments seem to explain my sense, developed from watching the house for an hour around noon today, that no commitment existed to getting the job done. But then why break precedent. After all, it’s been five or six sessions, regular and special, since the legislature got the job done.

The debate I watched was about the general obligation bond measure to be considered by the voters this fall. The matters were trivial, consuming time as the state’s massive deficit continues.

One legislator asked about an Eastern New Mexico University project being moved from to G.O. bond slate from severance tax financing in order to entice more people from Curry County to support the G.O. bond. Apparently this move hadn’t been executed and the legislator asked that it be done.

The second topic was even less important on the scale of things. It had to do with bumping the allocation for a project back to $1.5 million from $350,000. A amendment was proposed. Then Rep. Keith Gardner, Roswell Republican, initiated a discussion about whether the amendment was amending an amendment. (Don’t ask.)

Mostly I celebrate our citizen legislature. Not today.

Once again New Mexico is an exception. So far as I know the informal rule among states is that a sign is placed at the state border to welcome travelers as they enter the state. The rule is described as informal because I had never thought about traveler greeting communications until entering New Mexico on Interstate 40 from Texas earlier this week.

New Mexico still has a sign, but it isn’t just any sign. The difference stands as a modest monument to the excesses of the Richardson administration.

The sign is the top part of a sally port-type structure. That means the sign sits on top of two pillars, so that the entire structure forms a gate. The pillars are on either side of the highway. The sign stretches across the road.

The lower part of the pillars have a façade of the sandstone that offers today’s total cliché surface facing. Think banal. Stucco wouldn’t do.

In one sense, the structure is pretty cool; it is striking and interesting. It also had to cost much, much more than the mere sign it replaced, and, as such, is testimony to the massive state deficits. The structure also must send an invitation to every graffiti vandal in Quay County and the Texas Panhandle.

Imagine removing spray paint from the sandstone. That has to be a chore, if possible at all. Of course, this may not be an issue, as maintenance never seems to happen on our painted bridges.

Even if maintenance is budgeted, consider the cost. San Jon, the closest New Mexico community, is 18 miles from the border. Tucumcari is another 24 miles away.

“It’s not the time to raise people’s taxes,” says Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Speaking early this afternoon to an economic development conference in Albuquerque, Denish said it is time for state government to be lean and efficient. She offered to no specifics on achieving the leanness.

Average and median home prices in metro Albuquerque continue to nudge down. But that’s about the only less than cheery news from the January sales report from the Greater Albuquerque Association Realtors. GAAR released the report Wednesday. See www.gaar.com.

Even the sales price news isn’t all bad, because the declines are only a few percent on a year over year basis. Albuquerque just hasn’t had the price collapses of Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, and much of California. The January 2010 median price was $172,240, down 1.6% from January 2009 for a single family detached home. The average price was $205,624, a 4.3% drop from January 2009.

There were 349 single family detached homes sold in Albuquerque during January. That’s a 7.7% increase from January 2009. The January sales figure, well down from December’s 543 sales, appears to be the cold-weather low. That’s because January’s figure for pending sales—740—is a 55% jump from December. Pending sales in one month provide a leading indicator for sales closed the following month.

The number of homes offered for sales, called the “inventory,” continues to drop. The metro inventory was 4,766 in January, down 10% from January 2009 and down 14% from 5525 in January 2008.

To be sure, some of these sales are pushed by the tax credit for first-time home buyers. Others are sales of foreclosures. But whatever the source, people who buy houses tend to buy furniture and appliances and pay gross receipts taxes, behavior our state and local governments covet.

A numbers nerds rule is that never a single data point shall a trend make. But five numbers? Maybe.

The “five” is the number of consecutive weeks that the number of people filing new claims for unemployment compensation has dropped from the year before. The “trend,” if that’s what it is, began the week of December 26 and continued through the week of January 23, the most recent data posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are the number of new claims by week with the year-over-year change.

Week Ending                                    New Claims                        Change From 2009

January 2, 2010                        1,617                                                -2

January 9                                    2,479                                                -686

January 16                                    2,144                                                -665

January 23                                    1,671                                                -402           

If you want to check for yourself, go to www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims_arch.asp. Inconveniently located waaayyyy at the bottom of the page is a box headed, “Choose a Weekly Report.” Pick “Regular State Data.”

New Mexico is among the elite when it comes to taxing services. With 158 different services taxed, New Mexico ties with Washington, not D.C., the state, for second place in taxing services. Only six states tax more than 100 services.

The data, for 2007, is from the Federation of Tax Administrators (www.taxadmin.org). To compile the report, FTA sent states a list of 168 services and asked the tax status. New Mexico misses ten services. Clearly opportunity knocks.

Professional services get special attention in New Mexico. Nine are taxed. West Virginia, Hawaii and Delaware are the other states with taxes on nine service categories. Only two other states tax services.

With state budgets well crunched around the country, more states are considering taxing more services, a Wall Street Journal report said yesterday.

Raising state-level sales tax rates “appears to be running out of steam,” the article said. Not here, though, where the legislature is considering a gross receipts tax hike. Local governments in New Mexico have raised tax rates steadily the few years, as we have noted here.

All numbers here are either December 2009 or December 08 to December 09. 

 NM total wage jobs: 820,500, -25,900 jobs.

Government, statewide:  Total: 203,700. +2,500. (25% of NM total wage jobs)

State + local total: 172,400. (21% of NM total wage jobs.

 Government: +2,500 jobs total. Thus: private sector: -28,400 jobs. 25,900 + 2,500)

 Federal*: 31,300, +400.   State: 60,600, -500.   Local: 111,800, +2,600.

 State government jobs are not necessarily employees of state government. For example, employees of tribes and tribal enterprises such as casinos are counted in local government.

 State jobs in metros:

Albuquerque +300.  Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Farmington, no change.

To net the 500 job decline statewide, rural areas lost 800 state jobs.

 State + local jobs, % by metro:

Las Cruces: 27%. Santa Fe: 26%. Farmington: 20%. Albuquerque: 18%.

 * Federal figure does not include national laboratories, which are considered private sector, and the military.

 Chairs, Selected Permanent Committees, Regular Session, 2010

All those listed here are Democrats. The choice of committee is arbitrary. The item was to spotlight the more powerful committees. There are nine Senate committees. Conservation, Indian and Cultural Affairs, and Public Affairs are omitted.

The House has 16 permanent committees. Committees not included in this analysis include Agricultural and Water Resources, and Printing and Supplies. This is not meant as a slight to Rep Lucky Varela, chair of the printing committee, though it should be noted that Varela is a very senior and powerful Democrat, chair of the Legislative Finance Committee during the 2009-10 interim. So even if the printing committee doesn’t count, Varela certainly does.

 Senate

Committees Committee: Tim Jennings, Roswell

 Education: Cynthia Nava, Las Cruces

 Finance: John Arthur Smith, Deming

 Judiciary: Cisco McSorley, Albuquerque

 Public Affairs: Dede Feldman, Albuquerque

 Rules: Linda Lopez, Albuquerque (South Valley)

 House

 Speaker of the House: Ben Lujan, Santa Fe

 Appropriations and Finance: Henry “Kiki” Saavedra, Chair, Albuquerque

Danice Picraux, Vice Chair, Albuquerque

Luciano “Lucky” Varela, Deputy Chair, Santa Fe

 Business and Industry: Debbie Rodella, Espanola

 Consumer and Public Affairs: Gail Chasey, Albuquerque

 Education: Rick Miera, Albuquerque

Rhonda King, Vice Chair, Stanley

 Health and Government Affairs: Mimi Stewart, Albuquerque

 Judiciary: Al Park, Albuquerque

 Labor and Human Resources: Miguel Garcia, Albuquerque

 Rules and Order of Business: Nick Salazar, Ohkay Owingeh

 Taxation and Revenue: Ed Sandoval, Albuquerque

Jim Trujillo, Vice Chair, Santa Fe

 Transportation and Public Works: Roberto “Bobby” Gonzales, Taos

Optimism reigns in the December job report from the Department of Workforce Services. DWS released the report this morning.

DWS does admit, “December was not a good month for employment in New

Mexico, with the seasonally adjusted series showing a decline

of 4,800 jobs.” Statewide, 25,900 seasonally unadjusted wage jobs went away from December 2008 through December 2009.

Reduced holiday hiring may explain December, DWS speculates. DWS’ hopes hang on September, October, and November being “three consecutive months of seasonally adjusted increases” before the December downer.

DWS “still believe(s) that we are several months into a slow recovery. There are typically a number of setbacks in any recovery, as we take two steps forward and one step back. December appears to one of those steps back.”

We hope.

The state now has five counties with more than 10% unemployment—Catron, Grant, Luna, Mora and Torrance. In December 2008, Luna County stood along in the elite group.

Here are the metros.

At 8.7% in December, Albuquerque’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate beat the state’s 8.3%. Albuquerque dropped 1,000 wage jobs from November to December and 13,900 year over year. Of the 12 employment sectors, only government and the combined education/health services sector grew during 2009. Metro Albuquerque government employment is up 1,400, year over year. The feds added 800 with 300 more each in the state and local sectors. Federal employment will continue to grow, temporarily, with census workers.

Las Cruces lost 1,700 wage jobs during 2009. That net includes gains of 100 each in government and education and health services. The Las Cruces unemployment rate was 8.5% during December.

In Santa Fe, the unemployment rate grew to 7.2% in December. Santa Fe lost 3,500 wage jobs during the year, a 5.4% decline. Even state government employment in the capitol city held at 8,300 year over year. The state did add 100 employees during November.

San Juan County (metro Farmington) lost 3,300 wage jobs during 2009, a 6.2% drop. Local government added 200 jobs during the year. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 10.1% with the seasonally unadjusted rate at 9.4%.

The latest is from the Tax Foundation. The foundation’s newest was released January 14. The summary is below. For your convenience the report is posted on the Articles / Issues section of this site. Look under Documents. For more see: www.taxfoundation.org.

“Film Credits

“In the last decade, state governments have enacted numerous movie production incentives (MPIs), including tax credits for film production. MPIs are popular with state officials and many of their constituents but often escape routine oversight about benefits, costs and activities. Based on fanciful estimates of economic activity and tax revenue, states invest in movie production projects with small returns and take unnecessary risks with taxpayer dollars.

“MPIs fail to live up to their promises to encourage economic growth overall and to raise tax revenue. States claim MPIs create jobs, but the jobs created are mostly temporary positions—often transplanted from other states—with limited options for upward mobility. Furthermore, the competition among states transfers a large portion of potential gains to the movie industry, not to local businesses or state coffers.

 ”Additional questions about film tax credits? Contact us at (202) 464-6200.”

New Mexico’s unemployment rate stepped up another half a point in December over November. The December unemployment rate was 8.3%. The November rate was 7.8%. The December 2008 rate was 4.7%.

New Mexico lost 26,000 wage jobs during December 2008 to December 2009 year. From November to December, 4,800 seasonally adjusted wage jobs went away. Statewide, there were 817,100 wage jobs in December 2009.

The civilian labor force dropped by only 2,700 year over year. The labor force was 962,200 in December 2009. Of course, this is a net figure with graduating students, for example, entering the labor force and retirees, voluntary or otherwise, leaving the labor force.

Employment, a different figure from wage jobs, was 882,400 in December, a decline of 37,400 from December 2008.

For several months the Department of Workforce Services has offered the notion that New Mexico’s job situation had hit bottom in August. Next week DWS will detailed December numbers for the state and, perhaps, an amended analysis.