Fact Sheet Climate change puts New Mexicans’ health and well-being at risk. We must take action to help our communities adapt and build a healthy future. (State-level data on problems related to climate change.)
NM KIDS COUNT Data Book Child well-being continues improving in New Mexico, thanks to investments by our lawmakers. This annual report provides data on numerous child well-being indicators related to economic security, education, health, and family and community, and includes policy solutions. (State-, county-, tribal- and school district-level data on child well-being.)
The state of New Mexico returned $132 million to 239,000 households this year via the state’s new Child Tax Credit (CTC). The state CTC is the latest in a series of tax credits that New Mexico has enacted, increased or expanded to help New Mexicans who earn the lowest incomes. That’s one of the data points in a new report, “How Tax Credits Impact Child Poverty and Well-being,” which is the second in the “From Poverty to Prosperity” series.
Report The second in the "From Poverty to Prosperity" series, this report looks at how refundable tax credits help families and children, especially those earning low incomes. (State-level data on several tax credits impacting families as well as tax incidence by income group.)
El Semanario--While it’s great to know that the expansion of universal child care has such a dramatic effect on lowering poverty in New Mexico for the children and families who receive the program, there is one significant way in which the CA program falls short: wages for child care and other early care and education (ECE) workers remain unacceptably low. If we can use our CA program to lift kids and families out of poverty, why don’t we use it to lift the people who provide that care out of poverty as well?
NM Political Report--Chavero cited the report “Essential but Excluded” that was completed during the pandemic by New Mexico Voices for Children and other advocacy groups. “We have a robust immigrants’ rights movement in New Mexico,” Chavero said. “Bigger and stronger than we were eight years ago during the first Trump administration.”
NM Political Report--Jacob Vigil, deputy policy director for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report that Head Start is “crucial” to enabling many women in New Mexico to stay in the workforce. “It’s one of the most effective anti-poverty programs for the most vulnerable kids in our country. Head Start continues to be a huge part of the rural childcare system,” Vigil said.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“New Mexico is home to an estimated 60,000 undocumented immigrants,” said Zulema Chavero, citizenship coordinator for Somos Un Pueblo Unido. She said they “pay more than $67.7 million annually in state and local taxes,” citing a 2020 report from New Mexico Voices for Children.
NM Political Report--“We haven’t done enough and we could be doing way more but [the recent policy changes] do have positive impact. We have to push harder to improve those programs,” Wildau said.
Santa Fe New Mexican--“Far too many families are living in poverty, when we look at the [official poverty measure],” Voices for Children research and policy analyst Emily Wildau said. “But the [official poverty measure] doesn’t actually show us the also very real impact of those programs that do lift many kids and families out of poverty.”