Category: Commentaries

Walt Rubel Commentary: New city crime in search of a victim

8/27/2024

There’s an old joke that ends with the punchline, “we’re from the government and we're here to help.” I fear that applies to the city’s new shopping cart ordinance.

I still don’t know who is the victim that this new law is trying to save. It certainly isn’t the store owners. They have just been handed a new, burdensome government mandate that they didn’t want or ask for.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Ellins brought professionalism to county

8/20/2024

This has been a rough year for elderly politicians. But the contributions of former county clerk and County Commission member Lynn Ellins, who died recently at the age of 87, should serve as a reminder of the valuable role older leaders play at the local level.

Ellins will be best remembered as the first county clerk in the state to have the courage to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2013. As he explained at the time, Ellins wasn’t trying to make a social statement about same-sex marriage. He was simply trying to apply the law as he and his staff believed it to read.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Inspections show need for ombudsmen

8/13/2024

The number of New Mexico residents aged 85 and older will double in the next 20 years, according to updated projections by demographers at the University of New Mexico. I turned 66 last month, and plan to be one of them.

The number of residents aged 65 and older is expected to increase by 200,000 during that same time period. It’s estimated that the state’s senior population will grow from 13 percent in 2010 to nearly 23 percent by 2040.

Walt Rubel Commentary: An argument for more arguments

8/6/2024

My best friend Kelly and I frequently had loud, boisterous arguments over politics that led folks to believe that we disagreed about everything.

They were mistaken.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Town hall should alert lawmakers

7/30/2024

If the town hall meeting on public safety called by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week was intended to demonstrate the public’s concern about crime, it was a huge success.

They expected it to draw about 200 people and take two hours to complete. Instead, a crowd of more than 500 packed the Convention Center ballroom for a discussion that lasted long into the night.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Telshor Fund has come at a high cost

7/25/2024

The Telshor Fund was created by the city in 2004 to bank its share of the revenue from the 40-year lease on Memorial Medical Center to Lifepoint Health, a corporation with 62 hospitals in 16 states.

Net proceeds to the city were $26.1 million, with another $4.2 million in additional escrow funds for a total of $30.3 million, according to the city’s website.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Special sessions show flaws in system

7/18/2024

A recent town hall meeting in Las Cruces hosted by the Foundation for Open Government focused on the need for greater transparency at the Legislature during the budget-making process.

There is, perhaps, no process at the Legislature that is more secretive and less transparent than the special session about to begin on Thursday, July 18. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants legislation passed dealing with panhandling, criminal defendants judged to be incompetent to stand trial and felons in possession of guns.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Overdue plan for state’s water future

7/4/2024

For the past five decades or longer, the state Legislature has been planning for what we will do when the oil runs out. We’ve set up permanent funds to ensure we’ll be able to keep our schools open and provide other essential services, tucking away money that is needed now.

We haven’t planned nearly as well for the depletion of an even more precious resource - water.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Spaceport needs reliable partners

6/20/2024

Expectations were sky high in 2005 when British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson inked a 20-year lease on a new spaceport that had yet to be built in Southern New Mexico.

The lease called for Virgin Galactic to pay $1 million a year for the first five years, with payments after that dependent on the company’s success in developing an industry for space tourism.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Governor playing politics on border

6/13/2024

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham flew to Washington D.C. last week so she could stand behind President Joe Biden as he announced a new crackdown on asylum seekers, just in time for the election.

“As a border state governor and former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I’m encouraged by President Biden’s plan to rein in illegal border crossers and help our nation’s immigration officers manage this challenge,” she said in a prepared statement.

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