The natural beauty found throughout the Land of Enchantment has so much to offer our children while they grow and develop. Our youngest New Mexicans should also have equitable access to clean air and a healthy environment while they do so.
Bill Jordan, of New Mexico Voices for Children, said the additional tax would hurt those who could least afford it. “Adding a 7 or 8 percent tax is not a solution for obesity,” he said. “New Mexico also has a problem with childhood hunger. Adding a $100 million tax a year is not a solution to hunger.”
Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman notes that New Mexico could save $38 million annually on incarceration costs and crime-related expenditures by boosting the high school graduation rate of male students by just 5 percent. If that same 5 percent also went to college at the same rates as typical male high school graduates, their cumulative income would be $20 million higher than if they hadn’t attended college.