A recent study presented to state lawmakers in May found that many state tax incentives – particularly the Film Production Tax Credit – generate pennies on the dollar for every dollar the state invests. Productions have slowed, too. Recently, Netflix announced it was canceling “The Boroughs,” which filmed on locations across the state and supported hundreds of local vendors, just weeks after it premiered on the streaming service.
On Tuesday, though, Black cited several successes for the state’s economy.
While New Mexico’s median household incomes remain low compared to the rest of the nation, U.S. Census Bureau data from late last year showed that the state was first in the U.S. for family income growth, he said.
Five years ago, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation to expand the Local Economic Development Act by allowing a portion of state and local gross receipts tax on construction projects to go into a state Local Economic Development Act Fund. LEDA, as it’s known, has helped to create more than 7,000 jobs across the state and has generated $17 billion in economic output, according to Black’s presentation.
Black said the state Economic Development Department has recently prioritized “shovel-ready” projects in virtually every corner of the state and that his department’s Technology and Innovation Office has specifically focused on investing in quantum technology, advanced energy and aerospace and defense industries.
Despite the improvements for family income and prioritization of shovel-ready projects, some lawmakers said developing a reliable workforce remains a persistent challenge.
“The thing I keep hearing about from companies again and again and again is workforce, workforce, workforce,” Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) told Black.
Black responded that he believes state investments such as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s new universal childcare program will go a long way in supporting workforce development as it can free up people in two-parent households to more easily work outside the home.
Black said the state is targeting industries like quantum computing that can draw from New Mexico’s existing workforce. In particular, he pointed to the state’s large number of existing engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. He spoke before the interim Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee in Los Lunas, after hours of testimony from quantum computing companies.
Ryan McKenney, the director of government relations for the U.K. and Colorado-based Quantinuum, told state lawmakers that the U.S. is competing with China to build quantum computing infrastructure and he believed New Mexico’s wide open land and relatively cheap electricity rates made the state a good fit to host a quantum supercomputer.
Quantum computing promises to solve the difficult equations that currently power encryption in medical records and smartphone messaging apps. Officials in the U.S. and China for years have been locked in a race to build quantum computers and get an edge in cracking the other country’s protected secrets.
President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order aimed at the “next frontier of quantum innovation.” The next day, the U.S. Department of Energy announced its goal to build such a computer by 2028.
“There’s no reason why New Mexico should not be the beating heart of the quantum industry for years and decades to come,” McKenney said.
State officials have increasingly identified the quantum industry as a priority. Earlier this year, for example, state leaders traveled to the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin to promote New Mexico as the “next frontier for building the industries of the future.”
“These are investments that are creating opportunities that I didn’t have when I was a kid. I left New Mexico after graduating from UNM because I didn’t want to work in an oil field and I wasn’t smart enough to work at the labs,” Black, who is from Lovington, told lawmakers Tuesday. “I want our kids to have the cool jobs here in New Mexico, whether it’s making rockets … making movies, making salsa.”
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