WASHINGTON, DC — On Friday, Piñon Post editor and owner John Block sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services to urge them not to consider Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s September 10, 2020 testimony requesting a government bailout.
During the Governor’s testimony, she requested funds due to the low oil prices and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite her unilaterally closing down the state and punishing small business owners and local governments who defied her orders.
Block’s letter focuses on the Governor’s inappropriate use of government funds without the state Legislature’s permission, and about the careless spending by the Administration on “whimsical” and “far-out” social programs that are eating away at hundreds of millions of dollars in the state’s once-full coffers.
“Lujan Grisham claims, ‘We all know, and I know that tightening our belts in the coming months, and years, is critical. And in some places like New Mexico, we already have.’ But her all-out assault on the oil and gas industry, which contributes 39% of our budget, by signing the radical anti-oil ‘Energy Transition Act,’ is already causing oil and gas producers to flee our natural resource-rich state — something that began far before oil prices dipped and COVID-19. Her wasteful spending on unnecessary and unwanted social programs is not ‘tightening our belt,’ especially when in a crisis,” writes Block.
Block continues:
“As a native New Mexican, I see the state I know and love hurting due to the fiscal irresponsibility of Gov. Lujan Grisham. While other states are back open, the Governor has repeatedly weaponized her office to play politics with this deadly pandemic, militarize her Attorney General as her attack dog to go after local leaders, and use her platform to belittle our citizens with personal attacks.
Once a great example of growth and prosperity, our state has been flushed away by years of failed leadership and heavy federal reliance, with not much to show for it. Our state is number 50th for child well-being, 49th for Crime and Corrections, 48th for Opportunity, 47th for Fiscal Stability, etc.
New Mexico is the third most federally dependent state. Despite the massive influx of government funds, the state’s leaders, led by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rep. Ben Ray Luján, Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, Rep. Deb Haaland, Sen. Tom Udall, Sen. Martin Heinrich, and others have squandered the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
And so I humbly request that you dismiss the New Mexico Governor’s September 10th testimony and do not further fund the supposed public servant who continues only to serve her special interests and political connections while ignoring the small businesses and working families of the Great State of New Mexico.”
