Objectives
Who decides who benefits?
A curiosity or puzzle for the students is: How can it be that a state such as New Mexico, with rich oil, gas and mineral reserves, and some of New Mexico's wealthiest per capita earners in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, have the ignominious distinction of being ranked the state with the third highest number of persons living at or below poverty?9 What are state and local governments doing about this?
The task is to learn how legislative decisions are made in New Mexico, the Pueblo of Pojoaque and Santa Fe. Examining corporate tax breaks for the film industry in Santa Fe and New Mexico, we will trace the costs and benefits of the creation of jobs in the film sector.
This analysis fosters an understanding of the interrelation of public policy and resource distribution. New Mexico's $ 1 billion budget surplus and its expenditure is a political and economic interplay of competing priorities. Taxation of resources to attract capital, create jobs and develop local businesses cannot all be equal. Santa Fe's local government and Pojoaque's move to invest in a spa-resort-golf club-casino do not benefit their populations equally across the board. Students will know and analyze the cost and benefit of these programs by dividing it into parts to make it simpler. The summary of this twofold analysis appears as Grid A in the Appendix. They will come up with underlying concerns of their own and create a score card for ranking their representatives' decisions.
To arrive at this level of analysis, they will have to have an understanding of democratic foundations, policy making and undertake values-based deliberations using Concepts 1-4:
1. Students will know that the New Mexican government and constitution closely mirrors the US Constitution. They will know that the US constitution has been influenced by the Iroquois League, its confederation and constitution. They will learn who their representatives are, and that they are citizen legislators. They will study how the governor and legislators are elected. What the party system is like in New Mexico and which party is concerned with which priority issues. They will know the role of the governor in New Mexico and, in particular this governor, Bill Richardson, who has prioritized attraction of investment in the film industry.
2. Our class will take a focused look at New Mexico's demographics and distribution of wealth through the US Census bureau data. Analyzing the per capita income of the US $ 36,714, New Mexico's $ 29,929, Santa Fe's $ 35,964, they will see that New Mexico is well below the US' and ranks 46 in the US. Students will have an answer to the questions. "How have state resources been spread by county in New Mexico. Is there equality of distribution? Which counties have the highest per capita income? Why? They use demographic maps for this work.
3. Students will know that the Pueblos and Native American lands are sovereign nations and what that implies. They will learn how a Pueblo government's resources are spent and how wealth or profit is distributed. They will use an example of the Pueblo of Pojoaque which recently borrowed $ 400 million dollars to create a partnership with the Hilton Hotel chain to build a spa, casino, golf course and hotel. Pojoaque, one of the smallest but an activist Pueblo government has used its local land resources to create jobs, invest in the arts, culture and tourism.
4. Regarding Santa Fe's economy, my class will summarize Cultivating Santa Fe's Future: Economic Development Strategy 2004;10 look at the growth of specific sectors such as tourism, the environment and funding for vocational and technical training. Students will answer questions such as "What impact does the investment of the Film Industry have in Santa Fe? Because education is a fundamental concern of the Santa Fe city government, they will inquire of the Mayor and City Councilors "What impact have decisions had on the school system and in particular Capital High School?"
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