A leading state economist told lawmakers Monday that New Mexico and the nation are in “a crisis like no other experience in our lifetime.”

“It’s bleak ... a debacle, if you will,” said Christopher Erickson, a professor and interim head of New Mexico State University’s College of Business.

The villain? COVID-19.

Experts from various sectors of the state’s economy painted a bleak portrait of how the viral illness has affected New Mexico during a daylong virtual hearing before the legislative Economic and Rural Development Committee.

Their testimony once again highlighted the difficulty of battling a public health enemy that is wreaking havoc in ways that go beyond how many residents have tested positive or how many have died.

Kathy Komoll, CEO of the New Mexico Hospitality Association, said it will take an estimated four to five years for those businesses to recover.

And Carri Phillis, an Albuquerque bar and restaurant owner, said the only way the state Legislature can save the dining industry is through “some sort of bailout. ... If we must remain closed, it’s time for the state to step up and pay us to be closed.”

Worse yet: Both Erickson and Janie Chermak, a professor of economics at the University of New Mexico, said no economist can predict when the crisis will come to an end.

Any financial expert claiming to know what will happen next “is not telling you the truth,” Erickson said.

The numbers are becoming all too familiar to those following COVID-19’s path: Well over 97,000 New Mexico residents are receiving unemployment benefits, with a total of nearly 261,000 new claims filed since March 15; nearly 30 companies in the state have declared bankruptcy; some 40 percent of the state’s 3,500 restaurants are temporarily closed and 3 percent are permanently closed.

Consumer spending has dropped by 12 percent from this time last year, said Alicia Keyes, the state’s Cabinet secretary of economic development.

Keyes said New Mexico is nonetheless poised to draw in new businesses and economic resources because people want to relocate to a more rural setting.



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