As the leaves are changing and winter approaching in New Mexico our political landscape seems to be on a merry-go-round of changes. With the resignation over the past few months from some of New Mexico’s senior legislators there is a lot of strategy developing to win those seats. There will be a lot of shuffling from House members running for open or resigned seats in the Senate. Read More...

The Land of Enchantment again provided beautiful weather for the 2023 annual convention and golf tournament. With a complete field of 84 golfers, the competition was fun and exciting as always. With a score of 17 under par, our first-place winners were Michael Zapach, Ed DeBruyn, Don Kodl and Mark Zapach. Our second-place winners with a score of 13 under par were James Marker, Dan Delozier, Ryan Geise and Nick Herbert. With a score of 10 under par, our 3rd place winners were Tom Bunting, Kim Gonzales, Nicholas Wagner, and Clint Hampton. The closest to the hole winners were Rodney Reynolds, Vu Nguyen, Steve Ruhl and Mark Zapach. After the tournament lunch was provided and many great raffle prizes were given away. Thanks to all our sponsors and raffle prize donors. Read More...

Please make plans to attend the New Mexico Petroleum Marketers Convention August 21-23 at the Sandia Resort and Casino. Read More...

Legislative Session ended at noon on March 18, 2023. New Mexico is facing the fallout from the 2022 elections with not one republican elected to a statewide office. With 45 democrats and 25 republicans in the House and 27 democrats and 15 republicans in the Senate the state has become even more progressive. Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham won a second term as New Mexico’s thirty-second Governor. Read More...

New Mexico has a new Board of Directors and State Executive. The new President is Judge Dobrient, Vice President is Alexandra Hodges-Swinford, and EMA director is Tom Hennessy. The new State Executive is Leland Gould. I am retiring at the end of the year, and at the Convention, the NM Association presented me with a plaque and a beautiful watch. WPMA gave me a gift box from Omaha Steaks. I want to express my gratitude to WPMA and all the members of our Association for allowing me to serve you this past 24 years. I have always represented the interests of the Association to the best of my ability and I’m sure Leland will provide the same quality of leadership on legislative issues during his tenure. Read More...

Not much has changed in New Mexico since the last magazine article. New Mexico’s overall tax climate scores in the middle of states for its suitability for spurring economic growth, with New Mexico coming in as best for property taxes but among the worst for sales taxes, according to a taxation policy think tank. Read More...

New Mexico’s overall tax climate scores in the middle of states for its suitability for spurring economic growth, with New Mexico coming in as best for property taxes but among the worst for sales taxes, according to a taxation policy think tank.
In a brief on New Mexico tax policy presented to the committee in July, Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) staff says the Tax Foundation in its 2021 State Business Tax Climate Index ranks New Mexico 23rd for overall tax climate, but 41st for sales taxes — essentially the gross receipts tax. Read More...

While New Mexico’s boom-and-bust budget cycle continues — with steep increases in estimated FY23 revenues driven by continued record level oil production, a revived natural gas revenue stream, and a strong, broad-based economy —fiscal stability measures the state implemented a couple of years ago are working as planned. Read More...

HUGE STATE REVENUE SURGE FORECAST; Records Fall as Billions Pour In Astounding sums are accumulating, and if the state's leadership can lay down some markers, we could finally see progress in the social conditions categories where we have languished for generations. Or we could put the money under the mattresses and miss the opportunity of the century, even with surpluses already at historic levels. Read More...

Oil and Natural Gas Prices Trending Ahead of Forecast Oil prices are on track to average $6 more per barrel in FY21 than the $43.50/bbl for FY21 in the February forecast, while natural gas prices are expected to average $3.05 per thousand cubic feet, slightly above the forecast of $2.45/mcf, economists report. A $1 change in the annual average New Mexico price of oil has about a $23 million impact on the general fund, and a 10-cent change in the annual average New Mexico price of natural gas has about a $14 million impact on the general fund. The price of oil is on track to average $57/bbl in FY22, compared with $47/bbl in the forecast, the economists report. In addition, New Mexico is the only top oil-producing state to have recovered to pre-pandemic production levels, despite fewer active drilling rigs. Production is being boosted by output from the completion of wells that were previously “drilled-but-uncompleted.” New Mexico is currently on track to produce about 390 million barrels in FY21, 20 million barrels above the February 2021 projection. Read More...

This year’s regular 60-day session was the worst session that I have been through. No one was allowed in the capitol building. All committee hearings were done by Zoom. If you were lucky enough you had one to two minutes for testimony. It was all virtual so there were no legislators in a committee room. As for lobbying, you could not have a meeting with the legislators, so you had to do it by phone, text, or email. Read More...

There won’t be much back slapping, cheek pecking or bear hugs at the opening of today’s 60-day legislative session. The pandemic has benched in-person politicking, replacing it with virtual meetings that eliminate the personal touch. Read More...

A sigh of relief in Santa Fe. Things don't look quite as bad as the bean counters have been predicting. Revenue for fiscal year 2022, which begins in July 2021, is now projected to be between $6.8 billion and $7.6 billion, according to the new estimates. In June, economists had estimated that figure at only $5.9 billion. Read More...

New Mexico is like most states in the Southwest. With the collapse of the oil and gas industries, the unemployment rate is at a record high. Add to that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Governor shutting down most businesses, and it looks like a bleak future for New Mexico. I am hopeful that we can get back to a somewhat normal economic growth for the state. New Mexico did have to call a special session to deal with a budget that was passed last year before the full impact of this shutdown was felt. I have included the results of the Special Session. Read More...

Thanks to the oil and natural gas industry, New Mexico is going into the 2020 30-day Legislative Session with about a one billion dollar surplus. The 30-day session is when the Legislature determines a state budget for FY 2021, but they have managed to introduce 726 bills ranging from Agriculture to Water Rights. This year’s budget, 7.61 billion dollars passed the House on a straight party line vote and is now in Senate Finance, which I am sure, will not look anything like what was sent over by the House. Other bills that affect our industry include: Read More...

The New Mexico Petroleum Marketers Association’s annual convention and trade show was held August 19, 20, and 21st. Unfortunately, this year the attendance was down and I think that the mergers and acquisitions of the members’ businesses have had an effect on the Association, as the meetings I go to in New Mexico are no different than all the other states! We are all struggling to deal with the shrinking membership. Even with a lack of attendance, we were still able to maintain a very nice profit from the convention and we are looking at different things we might change to help the convention succeed. Read More...

The Annual NMPMA Convention and Trade Show was held August 19-21, 2019, at Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks to all our sponsors that helped make this convention possible. Please look for any additional convention highlights in the upcoming Winter issue of the WPMA News. Read More...

In the 2018-19 New Mexico Legislative Session, legislators passed bills with wide-ranging implications for New Mexico’s future. The 2019 legislative session was one of the busiest in recent state history. Here is a summary of some of the legislation debated during the 60-day session: Read More...

After eight years of conservative tax policy, we did double-takes when poring over the details of this session’s major tax package that passed Friday night on a 40-25 vote and is now headed to the Senate. How it will fare in that more conservative body is up in the air, but from where we sit this is quite a sensible piece of legislation that corrects errors of the past and ensures a more reliable revenue stream for state government... Read More...

After several cash-lean budget years that prompted spending cuts and other austerity measures, a big revenue boom has hit New Mexico. State lawmakers will have an estimated $1.2 billion in “new” money available in the coming budget year due to unprecedented oil production levels and overall economic growth, according to new revenue figures released Wednesday by legislative and executive economists. The state is on track to spend $6.3 billion this budget year, while revenues are expected to reach $7.5 billion for the 2020 budget year, which starts next July 1. New money is defined as the difference between projected incoming revenue and current state spending levels. Read More...

Good news for New Mexico! Susan Montoya Bryan from Associated Press released the following article on New Mexico:
"Oil producers have set a record for the number of barrels pumped in New Mexico last year, and industry experts said Monday that output from the basin that straddles the Texas-New Mexico border is expected to double over the next several years.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Association and an industry group that represents hundreds of producers in New Mexico show a record 172 million barrels of oil were produced in 2017. That is double New Mexico's output in 2011 and tops the 147 million barrels set in 2015.

New Mexico also finished the year producing more than 17 million barrels in December to maintain its position as the third-largest oil-producing state. Texas and North Dakota lead the nation. The surge has continued into 2018 as the federal energy analysts estimate that overall U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.3 million barrels a day in February. That's up nearly a quarter-million barrels more than the daily level in January.

Daily production is expected to top out around 10.7 million barrels in 2018, which would surpass the highest annual average for crude oil production in the U.S. set in 1970. Analysts say that upward trend is likely to continue in 2019." Read More...

Regarding the annual Budget battles for this year, it turns out that the disagreements between the House and Senate were relatively minor and resolved very quickly. Both houses adopted the proposed conference report and sent the budget to the Governor. As we understand it, the House did not favor using LEDA money for the Roswell hanger since it sets an unfavorable precedent by using LEDA funds for a capital outlay project. Instead, $4 million was taken from the amount of money for refurbishing rest areas and $1 million was reduced from the Concerns of Police Survivors fund so that $5 million could be given back to schools to help replace cash balances taken during the last fiscal year; that represents a $5 million cut from the Senate version. In addition, $1 million was also taken from the rest area money to fund the Roswell hangar, $1 million was provided for tribal and pueblo broadband services, and funding for the Bernalillo County DA remained as proposed in the Senate version of HB 2. The Senate approved the conference report unanimously. The vote in the House was 52-13.... Read More...

The NMPMA Convention and Trade Show was held August 21-23, 2017, at the Sandia Resort and Casino. The convention was well attended and a great success! The convention started with an opening reception for the members, vendors, and suppliers. On August 22nd, there was a golf tournament with an 8:00 shotgun start as the Sandia golf course..... Read More...

New Mexico is showing some signs of recovering from the anemic state of the economy across the state. Job growth has improved by 2% so far this year and hopefully will continue to recover. The state is still losing about 10,000 in population a year as families are going to surrounding states where the economies are growing at a much faster rate than New Mexico's.... Read More...

New Mexico is struggling with a very anemic economy which has not recovered since the 2008 recession. The oil and gas industry and its royalties paid to the state is the main revenue source for the state, and both of these revenue sources are in a very depressed state. But there is some good news - the Department of Finance reports the revenues coming into the state have increased by about 2%, and that is encouraging... Read More...

New Mexico continues to languish in a very weak economy and is rated as the number 2 in the 50 states having the highest unemployment rate at 7%, and because of the decline in the oil and gas industry, some counties in New Mexico have an unemployment rate above 15%. Read More...

The Governor called a Special Session for the Legislators to deal with a massive budget deficit and three crime bills that were added to the Call. Here is a summary of the very contentious session. Read More...

New Mexico is still struggling with the downturn in the economy caused mostly because of the price of gas and oil revenues. The State relies heavily on these revenues to run State government. As it stands right now, I don't believe it will change for the better. The State must fill a hole of $200 million for the budget year that ended June 30th and it faces a possible shortfall of $500 million for the budget year that began July 1st. Then there is the issue of replenishing the State's exhausted reserves. That could be another $300 million; all in all that's a billion dollars. Where in the world are they doing to come up with that kind of money - nobody knows. It is now a reality that the Governor will have to call a Special Session soon. She has stated that it should be very short and that Democrats and Republicans must have an agreement on what to do. That is a reasonable request and the right thing to do. Having a Special Session early in the election cycle is not a very popular thing to do with the Democrats trying to retake control of the House that they lost to the Republicans for the first time in 60 years. With the Democrats trying to keep control of the Senate, I would think they would want to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Read More...

The New Mexico economy is continuing to be on the downside in several counties such as San Juan and Lea, both of which depend on the oil and gas industries which have all but come to a halt, and not looking like there will be a rebound any time soon. The outlook is very bleak; San Juan County is dealing with an unemployment rate of over 15% and Lea County is dealing with an unemployment rate of about 14%. This puts a tremendous burden on the cities and counties to meet their budgets to cover government obligation to the citizens for services such as police and fire. All across the state, cities are looking at budget shortfalls. Santa Fe, for example, has a $15 million shortfall. Santa Fe has not raised taxes yet, but has cut all non-union salaries and has put into place mandatory days off without pay. Read More...

The New Mexico Legislature ended its 30 day session on February 18, 2016, at noon and here are some of the legislative measures that passed:

SJR 1, cosponsored by Senator Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) and Representative Moe Maestas (D-Bernalillo), proposes a constitutional amendment to be voted on at the November election. Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels has been the prime mover behind this effort. The resolution contains two parts: Read More...

New Mexico continues to languish in a very sluggish economy, and with the decline in the oil and gas industry (which accounts for 36% of the State's General Fund), I don't see any fast remedies. The price of oil is going between $43 and $45 a barrel, and unfortunately the 2015 Legislature used $53 a barrel when they passed the budget. For every dollar it drops the State loses $9,000,000, so as you can see that by the time the 2016 Legislature meets in January, the State will face a very serious deficit, and will be looking at some very serious budget costs. With the House controlled by the Republicans, the Senate controlled by the Democrats, and a Republican Governor, it will surely be a very contentious session. Read More...

New Mexico after five long years is now not in a severe draught situation and you can drive from North, South, East and West in New Mexico and it is green, what a relief and a very welcome site. The 2016 State elections are already heating up with Senators and Representatives all holding fund raisers. The Republicans in the House are determined to hold their majority that they gained for the first time in 60 years and the Democrats are determined to regain their majority that they held for 60 years. They have learned that being in the minority is not any fun. Read More...

New Mexico's economy continues to be less than ideal and with the decline of the price of oil, what small gains we saw are now showing signs of decline. The latest figures are that we are at about 7% unemployment rate. The State of New Mexico has become very dependent on Federal dollars and with government trying to deal with a trillion dollar debt, and having to reduce spending, this has had a very big impact on New Mexico. Read More...

The 2015 Legislative Session began on January 19th at noon and ended on March 21st at noon. The session started out making history. For the first time in 62 years, the Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives and now have a 37-33 majority. This means a new Speaker of the House was elected, Rep. Don Tripp, and a new Majority Leader, Rep. Nate Gentry was also elected. Rep. Alonzo Baldonado was elected Majority Whip and Rep. Kelly Fajardo is now Caucus Chair. Read More...

The 2014 New Mexico Convention and Trade Show was held August 19th and 20th at the Marriott Pyramid in Albuquerque. (For color photographs of the golf event please go to page 28 of this magazine.) It was a very good convention. The convention attendance was the biggest we have had in the last five years. The convention started with a golf tournament at the Isleta Golf Club. We had 92 golfers signed up to play, which is also the most we have had in 5 years, and all were pleased with the course. It was in great condition and everyone had a good time. The winners of the tournament were the team of Leland Gould, Bill Fortner, and Brandon Drake. Read More...

The race for Governor of New Mexico is heating up, with Governor Martinez running some very negative ads about Gary King. So far he has not responded very forcefully, but he has pumped another $500,000 into the race; however, Martinez has over $4 million in her war chest and she will be using a large amount of that money to help Republican House members keep their seats and to try and unseat at least four Democrats. They would then take control of the House, which they have not done in 65 years. There is a very real chance that when it's all over, it could end up in a tie (35 - 35), and then it is going to be very interesting on who will end up in control, the Democrats or the Republicans. Read More...

New Mexico is still in the worst drought in the last 50 years. The rivers and reservoirs are all drying up and we have not even started the planting season, when the farmers need the water to irrigate their crops. It is comical that the Government has asked that water be released from Cochiti Dam above Albuquerque so that the endangered silvery minnow can survive. Never mind what is going to happen to the farmers along the Rio Grande Valley, and how they are going to grow crops. Read More...

New Mexico, like many of our surrounding states, is still in a drought with the snowfall far below what it should be; this only means the spring runoff that our farmers and ranchers depend on to feed the rivers and streams will not be enough, and will mean another year of struggling to survive. With a very depressed economy in New Mexico, this does not point to a very bright future for our state. Read More...

New Mexico had its annual convention and trade show August 27 and 28 at the Marriott North Pyramid Hotel in Albuquerque. This was a very successful convention. All the vendor booths were sold out and we had to turn down vendors that wanted to come to the show. The convention started on the 27th with a golf tournament and I am happy to say there were more golfers than we have had in the last five years. Although the greens were in just terrible condition, everyone still had a great time. - Read More...

The 2013 60-Day Legislative Session came to an end on March 16th at noon. This 60-day session, the Legislature set a record for the least amount of bills introduced as there were only 675 House Bills and 642 Senate Bills.

The list of bills that affect our industry:
There were 14 Bills that were introduced that would create new liquor licenses; this will continue to be a trend because of the lack of licenses and the prices exceeding $700,000 per license. Read More...