Tax Fairness and Budget Adequacy
The institution of government is the means by which we do things collectively that we could not do as individuals. One of the main functions of government—written into the Constitution—is to promote the general welfare by collecting revenue that is spent on public structures like schools, roads and bridges, and services like public safety, public health, and much more. How we collect and spend public money says a great deal about our moral objectives. Our tax and budget policies should be fair, responsible, and transparent, address income inequality, and generate sufficient revenues to support programs and services that improve our quality of life. Children and families should be a high priority in federal, state, and local budgets.
Featured Content
New Mexico’s Working Families Tax Credit and the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit
Tax credits for low- and moderate-income working families are a common-sense way to spur economic activity by putting money into the hands of consumers who will spend it. They have also been shown to improve health outcomes. These are just some of the reasons New Mexico should increase its Working Families Tax Credit.
Investing in a Healthier New Mexico: The Economic and Fiscal Benefits of the Medicaid Expansion in New Mexico
The Medicaid expansion, as part of the Affordable Care Act, has been very good for New Mexico. Not only are tens of thousands of New Mexicans able to access health care, the program has brought billions into the state that has created thousands of jobs, economic activity, and tax revenue. (Report)
Roadmap to a Stronger New Mexico
New Mexico’s unique cultural diversity, great natural beauty, and strong sense of community make it an enchanting and resilient state, but there’s more work to be done to achieve our full potential. Tax cuts for the well-connected have bled New Mexico of crucial funding for public programs in education, health care, and other services for children. Now we’re 50th in the nation for child well-being. It’s time to make New Mexico’s children and families the highest priority, grow good-paying jobs by investing in our people, and more. Check out our Roadmap to a Stronger New Mexico here.
Recent Publications
Restoring fairness to the personal income tax
Fact Sheet In 2003, the Legislature gave big tax cuts for those with the highest incomes. This, along with tax cuts for corporations that were passed later, has made us too reliable on revenue from oil and gas. It’s also made our tax system less fair. This fact sheet explains.
Big corporations must pay their fair share
Fact Sheet Ten years after slashing income tax rates for the well-connected, the Legislature compounded this failed strategy by passing tax cuts for out-of-state corporations. This failed miserably and resulted in a huge loss of revenue. This fact sheet explains the problem and the fix.
Recent Blog Posts
Not the New Mexico tax return you were hoping for? Wait till 2020
When you filed your tax return this year, you may have noticed some changes. Maybe you got a smaller refund than usual or you owed more in state taxes. So what happened to the big fairness measures that the state Legislature just passed?
Capital Gains GIF-splained: What’s Wrong with This Deduction and Why it Needs to Go
This tax cut was sold to New Mexicans as the next great job-creator. But, like most trickle-down economic strategies, it failed on a massive scale. It's past time to repeal this ineffective give-away that mostly benefits those at the very top.
Recent News Coverage
Not the New Mexico tax return you were hoping for? Wait till 2020
When you filed your tax return this year, you may have noticed some changes. Maybe you got a smaller refund than usual or you owed more in state taxes. So what happened to the big fairness measures that the state Legislature just passed?
School funding in New Mexico lower than a decade ago
New Mexico is one of many states that have failed to increase per-student funding compared to a decade ago, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). There are 26 states that have made larger investments in K-12 students since 2008, per-student funding in New Mexico remained at nine percent less in 2016 than in 2008, after considering inflation.
Current Initiatives
Fiscal Policy Project provides timely and credible analysis of budget, tax and related issues in New Mexico so we may educate lawmakers and advocate for an equitable tax system and responsible spending.
New Mexico Fairness Project is an alliance of nearly 40 small businesses and faith-based, advocacy and labor organizations calling for a balanced approach to the state’s taxation and budget policies.
State Priorities Partnership (SPP) & Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) are two national initiatives in which we take part. SPP is a program of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) and includes 31 state-level groups nationwide. EARN is a program of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and includes 55 groups from across the nation.
Resources
A Basic Family Budget Calculator is an important tool in determining if a family lives in poverty, because the system currently in place to do that is completely outdated.
Federal poverty guidelines, which dictate whether a family is eligible to receive assistance such as Medicaid and Food Stamps, are tied to a formula that was created in the 1960s. It was based on what the typical family spent on groceries because that was a family’s biggest expense at the time. Today, necessities like housing, childcare and health care take up a far greater share of most family incomes than groceries. Not only do the guidelines not take these changes into account, they do not take into account regional differences in the cost of living.
Because the federal guidelines are so inaccurate, families are generally considered low-income when they earn up to twice (or 200 percent) the poverty level. This makes up for some shortfalls in the guidelines, but they are still nowhere near as accurate as a Basic Family Budget.
Click here to find out the minimum amount families need to earn in order to live at a basic, no-frills level in New Mexico’s cities and counties.