A national business publication has ranked Gov. Susana Martinez next to last among governors in terms of job creation.
The Business Journals -- the online media division of American City Business Journals, which consists of 40 weekly print papers around the country specializing in business news -- published what they call an On Numbers report last week.
Martinez's page is HERE.
Report author G. Scott Thomas cautions, "Experts can (and do) argue about the the ability of any governor to manipulate a state's economy. Many are downright skeptical. Economist Justin Wolfers, for instance has written that governors often benefit from lucky breaks such as the energy boom that is driving the current growth in North Dakota and Texas."
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple was ranked number one in the job-creation report, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry was number two. (Both are Republicans,)
"But the On Numbers study reflects a basic fact of political life," Thomas said. "Governors routinely take credit for economic growth (regardless of their actual level of involvement) and are equally certain to be blamed for economic decline."
The five governors who took office this year aren't rated, Thomas explained. The overall rankings were based on the difference in private-sector employment growth rates.
UPDATE: 4:45 pm Here's the response from the Governor's Office:
For too long, New Mexico's economy has been far too dependent on federal spending. This is why Gov. Martinez is determined to diversify our economy. Gov. Martinez took office during a period of financial turmoil. In her first legislative session, she showed job creators that we could balance the budget with no tax increases and without doing it on their backs. For her second session she reformed the gross receipts tax by eliminating the double taxation on our construction and manufacturing industries. And in her third and most recent session, we successfully enacted game-changing tax reform to make New Mexico more competitive with our neighbors.
Unemployment remains below national average, we’ve seen unprecedented border development, and are now first in the nation in export growth, up from 38th.
We face challenging times as we recover from the national recession, with federal budget cuts making recovery even more difficult. ... we’ve sustained a steady loss of federal government jobs, at the rate of at nearly 4 percent monthly. At the same time, we’ve experienced flat or incremental private sector job growth, which is remarkable given that in New Mexico so much of our private sector is tied to federal spending.
Gov. Martinez is dedicated to creating jobs in New Mexico and will continue working with the Legislature to strengthen our state’s economy.
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