The poverty rate for New Mexico climbed by two percentage points between 2009 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released new data from its American Community Survey today. During this same time frame, the employment rate decreased by two percentage points. The poverty rate for New Mexico went from 18 percent to just over 20 percent, while employment—specifically the rate of persons over the age of 16 who have a job—fell from 56 to 54 percent.

New Mexico will come out millions of dollars ahead when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented in 2014. The Act will bring in between $6 and $8 billion in federal funding for the expansion of Medicaid between 2014 and 2020. The NM Human Services Department has estimated that it will cost the state as much as $797 million for the expansion during those years. But a new report, released today by New Mexico Voices for Children, shows that the state will take in as much as $1.2 billion in new tax revenue from the economic activity generated by the new federal Medicaid funding, tax credits and premium subsidies.

Recent data confirm that the current recession has had a negative impact on America’s children, and New Mexico’s kids are no exception. Across the country—and here in New Mexico—the percentage of children living in poverty and in single-parent households has risen. Since 2007, 17,000 New Mexico children have been affected by foreclosure, and the unemployment rate for parents has almost tripled. This effectively erases the economic gains made since the late 1990s.

Nominations are being sought for the Third Annual Alice King Public Service Award and the First Annual Patty Jennings and Polly Arango Citizen Advocacy Award. The winners of the awards will be honored at New Mexico Voices for Children's Spirit of Hope Celebration in September at the Rio Grande Zoo.

Federal health care reform, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), will generate more than $18 billion in economic activity in New Mexico by 2020. That economic activity will include the creation of 38,000 jobs—in the health care sector and beyond. That’s the conclusion of the report “The Economic Benefits of Health Care Reform in New Mexico” by New Mexico Voices for Children. The report is being released today in conjunction with the meeting of the Legislature’s interim Health and Human Services committee.

Racial and ethnic minorities in New Mexico, who tend to have lower levels of income and higher rates of poverty than Whites, can blame it, at least in small part, to the demographics of age. New Mexico’s Hispanic, Native American and Black populations are, on the whole, younger than the White population and, therefore, fewer are in what are considered the prime working years.

The unemployment rate for Hispanics is significantly higher than it is for non-Hispanic whites, according to a new issue brief from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The report, Distressed New Mexico: An ongoing and uneven employment crisis by Douglas Hall and Algernon Austin, finds that in 2010, the Hispanic unemployment rate was 12.5 percent, while non-Hispanic white unemployment rate was 8 percent.

Despite popular perception, undocumented immigrants working and residing in the U.S. pay billions in taxes every year. That’s the conclusion from a report released yesterday by the American Immigration Council. The report (available online) concluded that nationwide, households headed by unauthorized immigrants contributed $11.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2010. New Mexico received $101 million in state and local income, sales, and property taxes from these households.