Press Releases & Media Statements

New Mexico Voices for Children today cheered President Obama’s designation of the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, D.C., as the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. The historic residence was the epicenter of the Suffragist Movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Kim Posich, the executive director of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, will be honored with the Patty Jennings and Polly Arango Citizen Advocacy Award on Friday, April 1 during a comedy benefit.

A new report released by the Western Values Project finds that New Mexico lost upwards of $52.2 million in tax revenue since 2010 due to oil and gas companies wasting several hundred million dollars in natural gas annually.

Despite the fact that a large share of New Mexico’s workforce is employed by small businesses, 70 percent of the state’s economic development subsidies goes to large companies. That’s one of the conclusions of a report released yesterday by Good Jobs First, a Washington, DC-based think tank focused on economic development.

Nearly 50 percent of private-sector workers in New Mexico do not receive paid sick leave benefits at their jobs. This means that these workers cannot stay home or see a doctor when they or a family member are ill without losing wages. This is just one of the many reasons that poverty is so persistent in New Mexico. That’s among the conclusions of the report “Valuing Families at Work: The Case for Paid Sick Leave” being released today by New Mexico Voices for Children.

New Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty, the highest unemployment, and the third highest child hunger. We simply cannot deal with the current revenue crisis by cutting programs and services for children, which would exacerbate these already critical problems.

Veronica C. García, Ed.D., executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, issued the following statement regarding the FY 2017 budget that was passed: "We are gravely disappointed with the budget that was passed in the just-concluded session. We need a budget that prioritizes New Mexico’s children and families."

Dr. Veronica C. García, Ed.D., executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, issued the following statement regarding legislation (SB 281) that would reinstate the gross receipts tax on the purchase of food for consumption at home: “We are deeply concerned that legislation has been introduced that would increase the cost of buying groceries for New Mexico families.

New Mexico has seen some improvement in child well-being—particularly in teen birth rates and on-time high school graduation rates—but not everything is looking up. The state now has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation, according to the 2015 New Mexico KIDS COUNT report, which is set for release at a press conference this morning.

“While we’re pleased with the funding increases in the Legislative Finance Committee’s $6.47 billion budget request, we find that it falls short in the areas of health care and early childhood care and learning. While the budget request increases spending in both areas, these vital services will still fall short of meeting the need.