By: Senator Nicole Tobiassen, District 21
New Mexico has a business climate problem — and the Attorney General’s recent lawsuit against Meta Platforms makes that problem impossible to ignore. Meta has invested more than $2.5 billion in our state and employs approximately 400 New Mexicans in high-paying jobs, with the potential for significant future growth. That kind of investment doesn’t happen by accident. Companies like Meta choose locations based on regulatory predictability, workforce quality, and confidence that the rules won’t change overnight. When the AG responds to that investment with a $3.7 billion lawsuit and demands that no reasonable legal framework could satisfy, we should be asking ourselves: what message does that send to the next company considering New Mexico? I’ve spent my career working to build a policy environment where businesses can invest, grow, and create opportunities for working New Mexicans. I believe strongly that consumer protection — especially protecting children from online exploitation — is a legitimate and important function of state government. But there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish that goal.
The right way is through deliberate, well-crafted legislation that establishes clear standards, gives companies a reasonable path to compliance, and actually solves the problem. The wrong way is a headline-grabbing lawsuit that seeks billions in damages, duplicates mental health funding the legislature has already appropriated, and signals to the national business community that major investments in New Mexico come with an unpredictable legal target on their back.
This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern.
Electric vehicle mandates are being imposed on New Mexico consumers and dealers without the infrastructure to support them. Energy policy proposals like the Clear Horizons Act threaten one of our state’s most vital and longstanding industries — oil and gas — without a credible transition plan that protects the jobs and revenues that fund our schools and public services. Industry after industry is being asked to navigate an environment where the regulatory ground shifts without warning and where political considerations appear to drive policy decisions that should be grounded in data and stakeholder input.
The cumulative effect is measurable. New Mexico consistently struggles to attract the kind of broad-based economic investment that builds lasting prosperity. We celebrate wins in film and cannabis, and those industries matter — but a healthy economy requires diversification, and diversification requires trust.
Trust that the rules are stable. Trust that compliance is achievable. Trust that state government views private investment as a partner in building prosperity, not a target for enforcement actions or a source of revenue through litigation. Rebuilding that trust requires more than rhetoric from either side. It requires a genuine commitment to collaborative policymaking — engaging industries early, crafting regulations that achieve real public benefits without unnecessary economic harm, and recognizing that protecting New Mexicans and supporting New Mexico businesses are not opposing goals. They are, in fact, the same goal.
New Mexico has extraordinary assets: our energy resources, our research institutions, our people, and our geography. We have every reason to compete aggressively for investment and opportunity. But we will not reach our economic potential as long as major employers have reason to wonder whether their investment here was a mistake.
We can and must do better. In the meantime, stay informed on what the next anti-business moves will be by checking out my Facebook page… while you still can.
