Tax Fairness & Budget Adequacy Blog
This is OBSCENE!
A recent report from the State Investment Council shows that New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund (LGPF) is growing at a robust pace and now exceeds $13.8 billion. It’s the second largest fund of its kind in the nation and we spend a small portion of it every year on education and other important services. Meanwhile, New Mexico remains the worst state in which to raise a child. Only a small fraction of our youngest children have access to the high-quality early childhood care and learning services that are shown to improve their outcomes all the way into adulthood.
How New Mexico has failed its unemployed workers and its economy
Unemployment insurance (UI) has both a moral and an economic dimension—and New Mexico’s UI system has failed on both fronts. From a moral point of view, the intent of unemployment insurance is to keep people who are unemployed through no fault of their own from falling into financial ruin when they lose a job. The economic rationale for the program is that UI, along with SNAP (food stamps), is one of the so-called “automatic stabilizers” that keep the demand side of the economy from collapsing when the nation falls into a recession.
Let’s have a debate about the real deficit
Bloggers and politicos are trading barbs over the truthfulness of the Governor’s repeated claim that she closed the largest budget deficit in the history of the state. (Of course, by constitutional mandate the state cannot run a deficit, so there never was a deficit to close.) We can spend the summer debating the definition of a deficit or we can (and I believe we should) have the more important debate about how we want that budget to look in the future.
Running from the taxman? To what?
Changing tax rates nearly always has consequences, some of which are intended, some of which are not. If we are to believe anti-tax advocates, taxes inhibit economic development, distort our economy, and cause people to “vote with their feet” by moving to a place with lower rates. Usually these claims are mere assertions without data to support them. Could taxes be the reason that New Mexico has seen population growth stagnate in recent years after decades of growth? The answer is a resounding no, according to a new research report.
No Pell Grants for Preschoolers
There are many other reasons legislators should obsess over the high cost of child care: because of our high poverty rates, more of our kids need it and fewer working parents can afford it; because preschoolers don’t get Pell Grants, can’t take out a student loan, and don’t qualify for work-study so their parents are stuck with the cost upfront; and because, arguably, high-quality child care is more important to a person’s development than college.
New Mexico is funding higher education way below pre-recession levels: Why we must reverse the trend
Students in New Mexico and across the country are now facing bigger hurdles than ever when it comes to financing their college educations. As states cut higher education funding, universities raise tuition and fees. As costs go up, students—especially those that are low-income—are forced to finance their education through loans. Growing student loan debt is made more difficult to repay due to rising interest rates. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, these barriers build on one another and are threatening to run over college students.
The elusive cost of job creation
How much is a job worth in New Mexico? In fiscal year 2011 (July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011) New Mexico taxpayers paid out $91.3 million in job subsidies for three “job creation” programs. Was it worth it? Unfortunately, we don’t know because very little information is available to citizens.
Lawmakers approve unlimited investments in overseas corporations, but block a 1% investment in our own children
The Governor has no plan to fully fund early learning. The Legislative Finance Committee says it has a plan to phase in more funding over time, but at the rate they’re going, it will be decades before we achieve universal access and the kids who would benefit from these programs today will be parents themselves.
Legislature fails to increase our most effective anti-poverty tool for working families
Far too many working New Mexicans struggle to support their families and avoid poverty, especially in the current economy and given the prevalence of low-wage jobs. New Mexico not only has one of the highest rates of poverty in the nation, it also has the highest share of working families with low incomes and the worst income gap between the rich and the poor.
Tax credits make life a little easier for working families
People who work full-time should not have to live in poverty. Refundable tax credits like the federal EITC and New Mexico’s WFTC are important boosts to hard-working people and their families, and they allow more funds to flow into New Mexico communities. The credits can and do make working families’ lives a little easier.