I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Federal legislation that would help New Mexico cleared an important congressional hurdle Wednesday, the Washington Post is reporting.
The U.S. Senate voted 61 to 38 to avert a GOP filibuster of legislation that would send $16 billion in extra Medicaid dollars to states, the paper reported. That money is direly needed in New Mexico, state officials have said. Wednesday’s vote means it’s plausible for the Senate to vote on the legislation this week, which would send it to the U.S. House of Representatives.
New Mexico built the state budget that started July 1 on the assumption that Congress would extend stimulus funding for Medicaid through the end of the fiscal year, next June. But so far that hasn’t happened, meaning the federal Medicaid funding runs out Dec. 31, 2010. The federal legislation before the U.S. Senate could change that.
State officials have said that the lack of extra Medicaid funding could leave New Mexico with a potential $320 million hole for this budget year. State officials projected last month that New Mexico already is $160 million in the hole. No extra Medicaid stimulus funding would mean New Mexico would face an additional $160 million hole over the already-existent $160 million state budget gap. Medicaid is the government’s low-income health insurance program.
While the bill before the Senate would give states more Medicaid dollars, it’s unclear how much of the $160 million hole would be covered by the federal legislation.
Some state lawmakers already have started planning for less than the $160 million in extra Medicaid funding they anticipated in this year’s budget.
New Mexico isn’t alone. Thirty states budgeted the anticipated Medicaid dollars in hopes that Congress would extend the deadline.
