Tax Fairness and Budget Adequacy2024-02-06T15:23:36-07:00

Tax Fairness & Budget Adequacy

The institution of government is the means by which we do things collectively that we could not do as individuals. One of the main functions of government – written into the Constitution – is to promote the general welfare by collecting revenue that is spent on public structures like schools, roads and bridges, and services like public safety, public health, and much more. How we collect and spend public money says a great deal about our moral objectives. Our tax and budget policies should be fair, responsible, and transparent, address income inequality, and generate sufficient revenues to support programs and services that improve our quality of life. Children and families should be a high priority in federal, state, and local budgets.

Featured Content

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New Mexico has the Most-Improved Tax Fairness of Any State

New Mexico now has the ninth most progressive tax system in the nation as ranked by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s recently updated Who Pays? report on tax incidence. That same report showed New Mexico as making the most progress toward tax fairness in the nation! This fact sheet explains why.

 

Revenue We Can Rely On

In order to build a strong economy, New Mexico must be able to reliably fund the services – like education, health care, and public safety – that our families and businesses rely on. Our over-reliance on revenue from the boom-or-bust oil industry makes that impossible. Here are the top 5 reasons we must change. Updated October 2022.

 

Tax Policy: A Powerful Tool to Advance Racial Equity in New Mexico

While we all contribute to the revenue the state uses to provide education, health care, public safety, and more, some pay a higher price than do others. Sadly, this inequity tends to fall on racial lines. Our state and national tax systems benefit those at the top (who are mostly white) while disadvantaging people of color. This report looks at concrete ways New Mexico can make our tax system more equitable.

 

Your Go-To Guides on How the State Collects and Spends Money

Our state’s tax system and budget are a reflection of what we value most and an illustration of the kind of communities we wish to create. Who pays taxes and how much, and how we spend and allocate that funding – basically, how we make our values a reality – are decided by the lawmakers we elect to represent us in Santa Fe. They create the annual budget that the state uses to provide services that benefit us collectively, like education and health care.

Recent Publications

New Mexico has the Most-Improved Tax Fairness of Any State

February 6th, 2024|

Fact Sheet New Mexico now has the ninth most progressive tax system in the nation as ranked by ITEP’s recently updated Who Pays? report on tax incidence. That same report showed New Mexico as making the most progress toward tax fairness in the nation! This fact sheet explains why. (State-level data on effective tax rates by income group.)

Income-Support Programs Show Success in Reducing Poverty in New Mexico

January 29th, 2024|

Fact Sheet In recent years, increases and expansions of income supports have made a big difference for families who are working their way out of poverty. When the value of these programs are taken into account it is clear that families earning low incomes are receiving the supports needed to help lift them out of poverty in New Mexico. (State-level data on poverty and labor force participation rates.)

All publications

Recent Blog Posts

Move toward a healthier New Mexico

January 27th, 2024|

Santa Fe New Mexican--Nothing is more foundational to one’s well-being than one’s health. Lawmakers can help people be and stay healthy by making strong investments in programs that address health threats and inequities.

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Recent News Coverage

Move toward a healthier New Mexico

January 27th, 2024|

Santa Fe New Mexican--Nothing is more foundational to one’s well-being than one’s health. Lawmakers can help people be and stay healthy by making strong investments in programs that address health threats and inequities.

All news coverage

Programs, Coalitions & Networks

Economic Relief Working Group A coalition of several grassroots and advocacy organizations – many of them focused on immigrant rights – ERWG was formed in 2020 initially to secure pandemic relief for those New Mexicans who did not qualify for federal relief due to their immigration status. ERWG worked on getting an accurate 2020 Census count for the state, and has also worked on wages, voting rights, tax credits and child care assistance, and currently runs a guarantied basic income (GBI) pilot project for families with mixed immigration status.

New Mexico Fairness Project A coalition of more than 30 organizations, NMFP works to ensure that New Mexico collects tax revenue in a way that is equitable and sustainable, and that is adequate to fund the programs, services, and infrastructure that New Mexico’s children, families, communities, and businesses rely upon. Run by NM Voices, NMFP also fights for fair wages and working conditions, and other issues central to family economic security.

State Priorities Partnership (SPP), Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), and State Revenue Alliance (SRA) are three national initiatives in which we take part. SPP is a program of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) and includes 31 state-level groups nationwide. EARN is a program of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and includes 55 groups from across the nation. A network of state-based community, labor, and policy advocates from across the country. SRA works with on-the-ground advocates, giving them the strategic resources they need to build intersectional, people-powered campaigns that transform revenue policy – ensuring our states fully fund communities and that corporations and the ultra rich pay what they owe.

New Mexico Civic Engagement Table A project of the Center for Civic Policy, NMCET unifies more than 40 diverse organizations from different sectors around a common agenda to strengthen our democracy. Among its issues are economic justice, early childhood education, climate justice, immigration reform, and economic development.

Resources

A Basic Family Budget Calculator is an important tool in determining if a family lives in poverty, because the system currently in place to do that is completely outdated.

Federal poverty guidelines, which dictate whether a family is eligible to receive assistance such as Medicaid and Food Stamps, are tied to a formula that was created in the 1960s. It was based on what the typical family spent on groceries because that was a family’s biggest expense at the time. Today, necessities like housing, childcare and health care take up a far greater share of most family incomes than groceries. Not only do the guidelines not take these changes into account, they do not take into account regional differences in the cost of living.

Because the federal guidelines are so inaccurate, families are generally considered low-income when they earn up to twice (or 200 percent) the poverty level. This makes up for some shortfalls in the guidelines, but they are still nowhere near as accurate as a Basic Family Budget.

Click here to find out the minimum amount families need to earn in order to live at a basic, no-frills level in New Mexico’s cities and counties.

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