SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s nickname is the Land of Enchantment, but it also appears to be the land of dependence.
A study by the financial website wallethub.com looked at which states were most reliant on federal dollars, and New Mexico tied for first with Mississippi.
WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in three key metrics: 1) return on taxes paid to the federal government, 2) federal funding as a percentage of state revenue, and 3) the number of federal employees per capita.
Here’s how New Mexico finished:
- Return on Taxpayer Investment: $2.83 per $1 sent to Washington (44th in the nation)
- Funding as Percentage of Revenue: 37.9 percent (42nd in the nation)
- Federal Employees Per Capita: 15.22 (46th in the nation)
Here the list of the bottom five states:
“I’m not surprised,” said State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.
“This is a concern we’ve had all along. The reliance on the federal government is unreal. I’m not trying to get rid of the federal government, but I’d sure like to find additional contributors to our economy.”
Some of this can be traced to the fact the state is home to federal laboratories, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Lab, in addition to military bases and installations, such as the White Sands Missile Range and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
But much of it comes down to the relatively large number of New Mexicans who live in poverty.
That means the state receives a lot of revenue from government programs such as food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. New Mexico has the sixth-largest percentage of people on Medicaid, and 7 9 percent of the state’s enrollees in the Affordable Care Act will receive federal subsidies for Obamacare. Nearly half the entire state’s population is on Medicare or Medicaid.
What’s more, like a lot of Western states, the feds hold large swaths of land in New Mexico. New Mexico is just the 36th-largest state in the U.S. when it comes to population, but it’s the fifth-largest when it comes to square miles.
Click here to look at the WalletHub rankings.
