Martin Heinrich

As costs rise, the economic impact is forcing residents and business owners to adapt.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., hopes to share the stories of affected New Mexicans with lawmakers and the Trump administration in an effort to ease financial burdens and influence policy changes.

“Being able to hear these stories helps me push back against policies that just don’t make sense,” Heinrich said Thursday during a cost-of-living roundtable at the Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team (WESST) headquarters in Albuquerque.

The senator invited local business owners and residents to share issues affecting them in an unstable market.

“It’s not a secret to anyone that rising costs are the issue holding back our economy and impacting New Mexicans across the board right now,” Heinrich said.

Enchanting Soap Collections owner Chrystal Trykoski said the increase in raw material costs has forced her to shrink the size of her soap bars by half an ounce and to raise the price by $2. Trykoski said from the third quarter of 2023 to now, the cost of coconut oil — which she uses in her soaps — has increased over 126%.

Giovanna Urbina, a film worker and member of IATSE Local 480, said she had to take on additional jobs to support herself and her child due to tariffs and rising costs, which have shifted film productions to foreign countries.

She said that she may lose her health insurance by the end of September if she does not secure a new film production job. At one point, Urbina said, there were between 10 and 15 film productions filming in the state. Now, there’s only one.

“It’s a huge industry and we’ve seen it all but disappear in New Mexico,” she said.

Briana Smith, manager with the South Valley Economic Development Center, said that an aggregation facility the economic development agency was planning to open this month has been pushed back to July due to a tariff that she described as a $47,000 ransom.

Smith said some farmers are not growing crops this year because they don't know their profits after tariffs. She said shoppers can expect to see higher prices at local farmers markets, as the tariffs on fertilizer have caused crops to become more expensive.

One of New Mexico’s agricultural staples, chile, will also begin to feel the heat of the economy, Smith said.

“It takes a lot of fertilizer and nutrients in the ground,” she said. “We’re not going to have the same crops that we had in years past and that is a given.”

Heinrich said that while he’s seen the economy fluctuate many times during his three terms as senator, this time, the issues stem from decisions made by the Trump administration, including tariffs and the war with Iran.

“I think what’s different right now is that so many of the increases in costs that are bearing down on average folks are a matter of policy," he said. “The administration right now is making policy choices that are showing up in our costs.”

Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at [email protected] or at 505-823-3857.