Poverty

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., will announce Thursday morning whether he plans to vote for or against the pending health-care reform bill, President Barack Obama’s group Organizing for America is claiming.

Democratic Land Commissioner candidate Harry Montoya says he’s staying in the race even though he didn’t get 20 percent at the party’s preprimary nominating convention on Saturday.

Gov. Bill Richardson says he “hates” the food tax, but by reimposing the gross receipts tax on food, the state would save around $68 million that it’s been giving local governments to compensate for stripping the tax a few years ago. That’s lot of money. Are Richardson’s hands tied? Most of our panelists vote for a veto.

Gov. Bill Richardson hates the food tax, and is going to see what he “can do about it,” he told KOAT on Sunday. The tax is one of several measures passed last week by the state Legislature, but it’s unclear what Richardson can do about the tax, considering the state’s budget shortfall. If he were [...]

New Mexico has fewer dentists per capita than all but one state, and one in five of its residents is uninsured, but the state still managed to rank as one of six national leaders in the area of dental care for its children, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States.

Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday he prefers House Speaker Ben Lujan’s version of a bill that would restructure the State Investment Council. That comes as no real surprise; Lujan’s version keeps Richardson on the SIC, while the Senate bill does not.

The New Mexico Medicaid program faces a $300 million shortfall and is considering cuts in services from school nurses to hospice care for dying patients. But the state could have saved Medicaid $31 million simply by enforcing a handful of existing regulations, according to correspondence obtained from the Attorney General’s office.

Stock up on white flour tortillas and red chile pods now. The New Mexico Senate voted late Saturday night to extend the state’s gross receipts tax on a wide variety of foods after a wide-ranging debate that included attempts to raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents and out-of-state corporations.

Senator Steven Neville, R-Aztec is appealing directly to House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, to hear his bill in the House. The measure, which would restructure the State Investment Council, passed the Roundhouse last year but was vetoed by Governor Richardson. In the second time in as many days the Senate voted to override a [...]

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s Medicaid Integrity Group plans to investigate allegations that state agencies in New Mexico interfered with fraud and elder abuse investigations by the state Attorney General’s office. Federal investigators were “already aware of similar allegations” in 2008, and had concluded the state hindered the AG’s ability to prosecute fraud cases, according to a report obtained by The Independent.

First Lady Michelle Obama launch her campaign against child obesity, Let’s Move, Tuesday morning. The program aims to improve kids’ health by improving school lunches, increasing the number of farmers markets in the country and revamping the tried and true food pyramid. It also focuses on physical activity by partnering with professional athletes to encourage at [...]

On Tuesday Sen. Tim Keller (D-Albuquerque) introduced a motion to revive a transparency bill that was unanimously passed by the Legislature last year only to be pocket-vetoed by Governor Bill Richardson. The bill, which would have forced state agencies to share Medicaid spending and other financial data with the Legislative Finance Committee, unanimously passed last year.

Almost 40,000 New Mexicans look for help in getting enough to eat each week, according to a study by the New Mexico Association of Food Banks and an organization called Feeding America. Forty percent of the folks getting help are children under the age of 18;  13 percent are elderly. That [...]

The state’s stonewalling of the Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud investigations violates federal regulations, Attorney General’s office spokesman Phillip Sisneros said Friday. A report by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud & Elder Abuse Division said the state Human Services Department and Health Department have hindered numerous investigations into fraud and elder abuse by refusing to disclose records to investigators.

A report released Thursday by the non-profit group New Mexico Voices for Children, and funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, suggests the best way to improve the state’s economic outlook, and quality of life, is to improve the well being of the state’s children.
And if that’s the case the state still has a long [...]