Tea Party Tax Day protests are planned across the country today, including a few in New Mexico, but some analysts say the common claim associated with the group — that the Obama administration is raising taxes as part of a “socialist agenda” — doesn’t square with reality.

Gerry Bradley is a research director for New Mexico Voices for Children, which does tax policy work through its Fiscal Policy Project. He says the fact is that 99 percent of New Mexicans have actually received tax cuts through last year’s stimulus package.

“Just take the middle 20 percent of the taxpayers in New Mexico. They’re getting an average tax cut of about $650 a year. So, it’s a significant amount of tax relief.”

Bradley says nearly every working New Mexican received some benefit on 2009 income taxes, with the overall average amount being about a thousand dollars.

Bradley says many economists agree that the administration took steps that were necessary given the economic situation.

“Possibly what the Tea Party people don’t understand is that in a recession, it’s a good thing to increase government spending and cut taxes on consumers. And the Obama administration has increased government expenditures and cut taxes.”

Bradley says the study also shows that New Mexicans across a wide spectrum of income levels received tax relief in 2009, from tax credits for low-income households to alternative minimum tax benefits for higher-income earners.

The figures on tax relief in the stimulus package come from a new report by Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington-based think tank.

Listen to the New Mexico News Connection by Eric Mack.

Drive through most any city in America and the offers will leap out at you: “Repair Your Credit!” “Modify Your Loan!” “Sell Your House Quick!”

The creators of these signs — Hard Times Profiteers, as we at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund have dubbed them — are moving to capitalize on the financial troubles of others. They are posting advertisements on walls, street lamps and bus shelters. The ads range from handwritten cardboard cutouts to printed plastic signs.

The Investigative Fund has begun collecting photographs of these ads in the Washington D.C. area. Now we’d like you, our readers, to help us find them across the country. Have you spotted suspicious signs in your neighborhood, or on your way to work? Snap a photo and send it to us, and we’ll post it on our interactive map.

We’re also still collecting the stories of people who have been victims of real estate schemes. We’re looking for your tips and stories to help us investigate.

As for the roadside signs, during the boom times, these magic-marker notices often advertised: “We buy houses.” These days, with a record number of homeowners defaulting on loans, they are giving way to signs that pitch mortgage modification and foreclosure rescue schemes.

Law enforcement groups warn that companies charging upfront fees could be behind the ads. This practice is illegal in some states and the Federal Trade Commission has proposed outlawing it nationwide. Also, in many U.S. towns, it’s illegal to post these so-called “bandit signs” without a permit.

James McNeill, a real estate agent in Mesa, Ariz., took to tearing down signs when he noticed that many didn’t include business names or licensing logos, as required by local law. “I call and get a recording, usually an information gathering type — leave your name, number, email, date of birth, do you own a home, and on at least one occasion asking for [a social security number] — so that was a scam for sure,” McNeill told the Investigative Fund.

In Baltimore, Robert Strupp, director of research and policy at the Community Law Center, says he has collected about 1,200 signs posted throughout the city since 2006. “People were actually calling the numbers on the signs and falling victim to some of these scams,” Strupp said in a recent interview. “We hear it in their voice — we hear their stories of people who bought a house to live in and someone talks them into selling it – leaving them with nothing. It’s very sad.”

This story was was published by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City knocks down a perception that energy states could recover from the recession faster than non-energy states.

The report, by Mark C. Snead of the bank’s Denver office, says that energy states typically enter recessions late and exit early as energy prices recover along with the rest of the overall national economy. But he concludes that “continued weakness in natural gas prices suggests that a rapid recovery well ahead of the non-energy states seems unlikely in the current cycle.”

Nowhere is that more true than in Oklahoma, which is confronting the worst budget crisis in modern history, according to The Oklahoman newspaper. The state has been battered by the decline in natural gas prices. Other major natural gas-producing states whose revenues have affected by low prices are Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Louisiana and Colorado.

Snead, the assistant vice president, branch executive and economist at the Kansas City Fed, does a nice job defining which states are energy states and how they have fared historically in economic downturns.

He identifies a “top tier” of energy states: Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. The second tier is New Mexico, Colorado, West Virginia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Utah. Snead says Kansas and Mississippi have limited exploration opportunities and are “slowly shedding” energy state status while Utah has all but lost its position. New energy states on the horizon with immense shale gas formations are Arkansas and Kentucky, the report says.

Though not all energy states are positioned to lead the nation in the recovery, several of them are financially stronger than non-energy states, especially Texas, North Dakota, Alaska and Montana. In fact, North Dakota and Alaska were the top two states in job growth during the recession.

Source: The Adversity Index compiled by msnbc.com and Moody’s Economy.com. Click the image to activate the map.

While the rest of the Rocky Mountain states remain mired in recession, Montana and Idaho appear to be turning the corner according to the Adversity Index, a measure of economic health prepared by msnbc.com and Moody’s Economy.com:

On this map you can explore changes in the four components of the index: employment, housing starts, housing prices and industrial production, each shown as a percentage change from a year earlier. (The change in housing prices will be updated at the end of the quarter.) Roll over a state to see its numbers. Click on a state to see details for its metro areas. Slide left or right to see data for different months. Click play to see all the months. Use the forward and back buttons to step a month at a time.

Definitely take a spin through the time line to see the effects of the last 15 years on the state’s economies and the fits and starts of recovery over since 2008.