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.
New Mexico is one of four states, and the District of Columbia, that cut Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) block grant money, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The cuts “will carry a heavy human cost,” the policy organization reports. More …
Gov. Susana Martinez is not a fan of health care exchanges, but she floated the possibility of health care block grants as a way to reform health care in the state, according to a report by the KUNM Government Project Tuesday. Martinez had been in Washington, D.C., to attend a gathering of governors which included a meeting with President Barack Obama.
Starting in October, up to 11,000 impoverished refugees admitted to the U.S. because of persecution in their home countries will lose access to federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
More than 5,000 refugees will be removed from the SSI rolls Oct. 1, as a temporary SSI eligibility extension for refugees passed by Congress in 2008 begins to run out, according to the report. More …
The liberal London daily Morning Star cited New Mexico’s cuts in Medicaid services as a cautionary tale Tuesday for proposed English health system cutbacks, arguing that New Mexico and other states are trying to balance state budgets by slashing medical services for the poor.
“New Mexico is expected to eliminate a number of Medicaid services that are not stipulated by federal law — including dental services, spectacles, emergency hospital services and inpatient psychiatric care,” The Star reported Tuesday. “In the US … the grim consequences are starting to emerge of the cutbacks driven by the recession which has left public-sector budgets drained even as it has made more low-paid and unemployed US citizens dependent on public support.”
New Mexico is not alone in cutting services for its most vulnerable populations, according to an August report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More …
Both candidates for governor support what’s called a tax expenditure report, a tool supporters tout as a way to reveal the hidden costs of the hundreds of tax credits, exemptions and deductions the state has approved over the years. New Mexico is one of a handful of states nationally to not compile even a bare-bones compilation of tax expenditures.
A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) finds that the stimulus package helped lift tens of thousands of New Mexicans over the poverty line. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) also helped more…
Budget woes continue for states across the nation. Tennessee might release up to 4,000 non-violent felons, including those convicted for drug dealing, to deal with that state’s woes, the Nashville Tennessean reports.
Meanwhile, Colorado can collect sales tax…
Sen. Peter Wirth plans to introduce legislation that would change the way the state collects corporate income tax, requiring multi-state companies with stores in New Mexico to pay taxes to the state on profits earned here. Although similar bills have been defeated several times before, Wirth is hoping that the state’s budget crisis may increase support.
New Mexico has hundreds of tax credits, exemptions and deductions. But good luck figuring out how much they’re worth, because ours is one of only nine states in the U.S. that doesn’t produce a tax expenditure report, according to a recent survey. Left-and right-leaning policy groups both say that doesn’t make much sense, especially in light of the state’s financial straits. But officials have argued against creating such a report — because, they say, the public won’t understand it.
