Seniors Are an Economic Asset Luna County Isn't Using

A year ago, Commissioner Harvey told me Luna County retirees are a net financial loss to the county, and that she didn't want to consider any plans to bring in more seniors. That is no doubt why she and Com Chandler never spend any time planning for upgraded services for seniors.  I've spent time looking into whether that's actually true — for Luna County specifically, and for places like it. It isn't. And the county's own planning documents already say so.

What retirees actually cost and generate

A New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension analysis found that a representative retiree household generates an estimated $7,465 in state and local taxes in its first year alone — income tax, property tax, gross receipts tax, and excise taxes combined — with that revenue growing every year they stay. On the cost side, the same study is direct: retirees are unlikely to use the K–12 school system, be recipients of Medicaid, or be incarcerated — the three largest categories of local and county service spending. The study also tested and rejected the so-called “Gray Peril Hypothesis” — the fear that retirees won't support local investment. Researchers found little support for it; affluent, well-educated retirees actually tend to advocate for local schools and community infrastructure.

Worth noting: that study used Deming as its example rural New Mexico town when illustrating how home prices and property tax revenue would play out. This isn't an abstract argument — it's calibrated to our county seat.

Luna County's own plan already called this an opportunity

The 2022 Luna County Comprehensive Plan — built with input from 78 community stakeholders, including a dedicated seniors/retirees working group — identified retiree in-migration as one of the county's clearest paths to reversing two decades of flat population growth:

“The potential population growth does exist through increased commerce due to the expansion of the Columbus Port-of-Entry and Deming being the halfway point between Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas...”

That plan was prepared under Christie Ann Harvey's leadership as the county's Community and Economic Development Director at the time. The county's own adopted planning document — produced under her department — already flagged retiree attraction as a growth opportunity. That's worth remembering when the idea gets waved off today.

It's already working next door

Grant County — Luna County's parent county before 1901, and a similarly small, rural, southwestern New Mexico community — actively markets its retiree population as an economic asset. Silver City's own economic development page lists a “large population of retirees”, alongside Western New Mexico University and outdoor recreation, as core community strengths. This isn't a strategy imported from Florida or Arizona. It's already proven in our own region.

 Luna County's numbers

●       About 5,300 residents are 65 and older — 20.6% of the population, above both the state (20.3%) and national (18%) averages.

●       Per the county's own 2022 Comprehensive Plan: roughly 23% of senior households live alone, and only 17% of these seniors have incomes below the poverty level. We have to assume those not below the poverty level, 83%, contribute to our tax base and local retail outlets.

These numbers describe a community that already has a large, growing senior population whether the county plans for it or not. The choice isn't whether Luna County will have retirees — it's whether we build an economy that puts them to work as an asset, or keep treating them as an after-thought that never addresses improvements to their lifestyle.

A life-cycle approach to senior economic development

Retirees don't arrive and stay static — they move through phases, and each phase supports different kinds of local jobs and small businesses. It is an ever expanding cycle of better jobs and new businesses.

Active and mobile. Newly retired residents come for the outdoor possibilities: astronomy, rockhounding, exploring state parks, photography, camping, hiking, and historical exploration around Columbus and Deming. This phase supports Airbnb and short-term rental hosting, home purchases, guided tourism, “taste of Mexico” restaurants, and border-crossing tours, the “cowboy experience”, and local historical tours.

Less mobile, more community-centered. As mobility declines, activities shift toward community meals, gaming groups, swimming, soaking at Faywood, and volunteering through churches and nonprofits as they become established in our community. Along with building a volunteer cadre, this phase supports medical transport to El Paso, Albuquerque, Tucson, or Las Cruces, and shorter local rides to activities and appointments.

Needing professional support. Eventually many of us need help with home health aides, home cleaning, home maintenance, and yard care — and at some point, may need to trade a home for assisted living, a nursing home, or hospice care. These last three stages require trained local workers. This population also includes our own aging family members who also need more supervision and support, not just newcomers.

The county can act now on the third phase specifically: encouraging ordinances that support small local home-care facilities, VA hospice homes run by veterans, and home-care providers who specialize in each stage of this life cycle — and asking directly whether adequate training exists locally for people who want to do this work. Luna County already runs training programs through the Mimbres Valley Learning Center; expanding a similar cohort specifically for elder-care licensing and small-business formation would be a concrete, immediate step.

The bottom line

Unlike a mine or a factory, this is a resource that renews itself every year as more people retire — it isn't a one-time boom, and it doesn't require chasing outside industry that may never come. Luna County doesn't need to invent a new economic development strategy. It needs to stop dismissing one its own planning process already identified, and start building the housing, care infrastructure, and workforce training to make it real.