New Mexico politics will be getting an extreme makeover this year. It’s not just a presidential year. Four of the five members of our congressional delegation are being chosen and all 112 members of the state legislature are up for election. Nearly 20 current state legislators have chosen to give up their seat this year, and that alone will mean big changes are coming.
Dr. Garcia began her lifetime of service to children as a classroom teacher, eventually working her way into leadership roles first as a principal, regional superintendent in the Albuquerque Public Schools, then associate superintendent and superintendent of the Santa Fe Public Schools. In 2003 she was tapped to serve as the state’s first Cabinet Secretary of Education. During her tenure as Secretary she advocated for the creation of the state’s pre-kindergarten program as well as the Hispanic Education Act, among other initiatives.
Both budget proposals claim to balance the federal budget within 10 years, however, a new report released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that while Ryan’s budget reduces the deficit over the short term, it increases it over the long term. The CPC’s budget does the opposite.
Imagine New Mexico as a community with 33 different neighborhoods. Then imagine yourself as a business leader looking to locate your company in one of those neighborhoods. As you consider what qualities each locality offers your firm—and your employees, many of whom have families and children—you may be surprised to discover that in 16 of these neighborhoods as many as half of the children live in poverty, roughly half of the families are headed by single parents, and half of the residents have limited access to healthy foods.
March madness is upon us—and no, I don’t mean the Lobos going to the Big Dance. Rather, later this month the Supreme Court will finally hear legal challenges to the federal health care reform law, aka the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Remember the March madness of two years ago when the law was passed?
As the Board deliberated on its decision, we were mindful that we were setting precedence, so we weighed the issues very carefully. We were also mindful that NM Voices does not have endless financial resources. Above all, we wished our decision to be transparent, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and to reflect the organization’s core values. We believe we succeeded and that our decision was the right one.
A whopping 90 percent of the small business owners surveyed nationally said that large corporations use loopholes to avoid paying taxes that the small businesses pay. They also view this as a problem, saying it harms their business. When it comes to corporate tax loopholes, New Mexico has a doozy. What’s more, New Mexico is the only state in the western U.S. that allows multi-state corporations to have this particular advantage over its home-grown businesses. And that is shameful.
Each month, the Human Services Department posts figures showing the number of people in different categories enrolled in Medicaid (with a four-month lag). They just released the numbers for October 2011, broken down by adults and children and by various categories. Once again, children’s enrollment was down to 336,436. This is about the same as October 2010 (336,034), even though the number of New Mexico children has grown almost 2 percent over the year.
Would you want to be heard saying, “I can’t believe I pay for roads when I fill my gas tank”? Or, “first responders really hike up the cost of my mortgage.” Or, “my water bill wouldn’t be so bad if I could get out of paying for public safety.” It might make us sound stupid or shallow but we would, at least, be speaking more honestly about taxes than we do now.
Two governors named Scott are proposing changes to their states’ Medicaid program that will be devastating for their kids. Governor Rick Scott is proposing a plan for Florida that could result in 800,000 people, most of them children, losing their health care. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker (who faces a recall election for implementing other unpopular policy changes) is calling for a plan that could result in 64,000 losing their health care coverage.