SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Soon, you could be paying more for groceries and lawmakers say it’s part of a plan to boost the state’s economy. It’s been about ten years since New Mexicans had to pay taxes on food. In a meeting Thursday, Representatives Bill McCamley and Jason Harper introduced a bill to bring back the food tax.
WASHINGTON — With two months left in President Barack Obama’s term, his administration issued a rule Tuesday intended to clamp down on oil companies that burn off natural gas on public lands. The new rule seeks to reduce waste and harmful methane emissions as part of a strategy to address climate change.
New Mexico’s small population stretches over a big state, so we have taken higher education to the students, with 32 colleges and universities. Nearly every sizable community has a branch or an independent institution. For our students, who tend to be older and need to hold a job while they take classes, this is a good thing.
Legislators on opposing sides of the aisle are using remarkably similar arguments on two bills that would delay tax breaks and subsidies to businesses to help balance New Mexico’s projected $460 million shortfall between last year and this year. One would delay incoming corporate tax cuts for two years, saving the state an estimated $13.8 million this fiscal year, according to the Legislative Finance Committee.
Gov. Susana Martinez agreed to a special legislative budget session — a half-day session to finalize “pre-approved” measures without tax increases. Are participatory public budget discussions inconvenient? Martinez prefers secrecy, cutting taxes, ripping education and other governmental services, corporate giveaways, even voter ID. She’s proven her priorities — people get as little as possible.
A public policy group that looks at the social costs of excessive drinking is asking Gov. Susana Martinez and legislators to increase the alcohol tax by 25 cents a drink to sustain state services amid spending cuts. Peter DeBenedittis of Alcohol Taxes Save Lives & Money said Tuesday the increase would raise $154 million a year — a fraction of what the state spends on police, courts, jails, emergency response and medical treatment in cases related to alcoholism.
A Wednesday press release from New Mexico Voices for Children said a recent study done by the organization shows that student population growth outweighs New Mexico public education funding. “New Mexico was still spending less per student on K-12 public education in 2015 than it did before the recession (in 2008),” said the release.
Children from low-income families who were enrolled in the state-funded New Mexico PreK program as 4-year-olds outperformed their peers a few years later, as third-graders, on the state’s standardized PARCC tests in 2015, a new legislative study says.
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico state budget officials project a $150 million to $200 million deficit this fiscal year due to falling oil prices; and advocates say Gov. Susana Martinez's order for a five percent spending cut by state agencies could hurt New Mexico's most vulnerable children. Critics blame the state's business development policies for putting New Mexico in the hole.
If we’re going to be successful in fixing this thing before it crashes and burns, we need to look at the other failing pieces. Namely, that the state hasn’t been collecting enough money to cover all of our important expenses like education, health care, and public safety. We’ve been passing big tax cuts since 2003. Income tax cuts have been thrown at profitable corporations and the people earning the most money. These tax cuts were supposed to “create” jobs. They didn’t.