Student op-ed on taxes misses the big picture
New Mexico has already been lowering tax rates for the vast majority of its residents over the past several years. Increased and improved tax credits have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to families over the past few years alone. The state has also lowered the gross receipts tax rate, which benefits us all, including small businesses. And just this past session, lawmakers lowered personal income tax rates for everyone.
New Mexico experimented with a basic income program that gave $500 a month to immigrant families. They used the money to pay rent and secure jobs.
Business Insider--"People use the money to feed themselves and to keep a roof over their head," Javier Rojo, senior research and policy analyst with New Mexico Voices for Children and author of the pilot report, told BI. "They use it very wisely to put themselves in a better position economically in the future."
Ideas We Should Steal: Free Childcare For Women’s Health
The Philadelphia Citizen--Advocates say policies like those also help reduce family stress by alleviating parents’ need to scramble for care from family or friends while they are at work. “Families are not dealing with the chronic stress that comes from that uncertainty or financial instability; [it] really results in better health outcomes,” says Jacob Vigil, deputy policy director with New Mexico Voices for Children.
Establishing a Right to Early Education: Part Three of a Four-Part Series
New American--“There was a concerted effort on behalf of advocates to make sure that all this additional funding that was coming from state sources would seamlessly continue the policies that the federal funds had initially paid for. So we've continued the eligibility up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level for subsidized child care, effectively making it universal access here,” said Jacob Vigil, deputy policy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonpartisan, statewide advocacy organization.
A Mother’s Day wish: A better future for moms and kids
Santa Fe New Mexican--Our families deserve more than financial survival. We deserve to thrive. Next year, 2025, will be a powerful chapter of our story, 20 years in the future, in which we tell the story of how we made New Mexico the best place to be a kid. We did it by supporting the people who love them most: moms.
Report: NM Should Reconnect with Kids Disenrolled from Medicaid
New Mexico, along with other states that saw a precipitous drop in children enrolled in Medicaid, should do whatever they can to quickly re-enroll those children – most of whom are likely still eligible for the free health insurance program – to prevent gaps in coverage. That was among the conclusions in a report released today by Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy Center for Children and Families (CCF).