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 had one of the worst job loss rates in the nation for June, according to a new report by the New Mexico Voices for Children‘s Fiscal Policy Project.
“It used to be that New Mexico was not as deeply affected as the rest of the nation during a recession, but that’s not the case this time,” Fiscal Policy Project director Gerry Bradley said. “The run-up to this recession — the housing boom and high energy prices — had a significant impact on the state’s economy. Employment was up, revenue was up, and so was spending. But we ended up paying for the good times when those two economic drivers crashed.”
The state’s 8.2 percent unemployment rate continues to trail the national average of 9.5 percent, thanks to infusions of federal money — but New Mexico’s economy won’t improve until the national economy improves, the report says.
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Despite bucking a national trend of increasing child poverty and a reduction in school drop-out rates, New Mexico ranks last or near-last in seven of 10 measures of child welfare, from teen deaths to proportion of children living in poverty, according to a report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Overall, the 2010 Kids Count Data Book shows that New Mexico lost ground, slipping to 46th place from 43rd in last year’s report.
Only for infant mortality did the state rank better than the national average, at 13th place, with 6.3 babies dying per 1,000 live births, compared to a U.S. average of 6.7 deaths per 1,000 births. Here are some of the other major findings:
NM teen birth rate is highest in the nation
New Mexico continues to rank worst in the nation for teen birth rates, with 2007 numbers (the most recent available data) showing no change from 2000 in New Mexico; 66 girls aged 15 to 19 gave birth for every 1,000 girls in New Mexico, compared to 43 per 1,000 nationwide.
Teen death rate also high
The state continues to have one of the worst teen death rates in the U.S. Although New Mexico’s teen death rate dropped slightly — 3 percent — between 2000 and 2007, at 96 deaths per 100,000 teens, the state’s rates are markedly higher than the national average of 62 per 100,000.
Single-parent families growing faster than average
The percentage of children in single-parent families grew seven times as much from 2000 to 2008 in New Mexico as the rest of the U.S., the report states. The percent of New Mexico children living in single-parent families grew from 33 percent in 2000 to 40 percent by 2008, compared to 32 percent nationwide in 2008.
The Kids Count report includes single-parent households as an indicator of child welfare because children in households with one adult do not have access to the same economic or human resources as children in two-parent families, the report states. In 2008, nearly a third of single-parent families lived in poverty, compared to just 7 percent of children in households run by married couples, according to the report.
Poverty affects one-fourth of NM kids
Nearly a quarter of New Mexico children, 24 percent, live in poverty (defined in 2008 as a four-member household income below $21,834). The situation is much worse for the state’s Native American (39 percent) and Hispanic children (30 percent), according to the report.
Nationwide, 18 percent of children live in poverty, according to the study.
Drop-out rate dips, but NM still ranks 47th
The percent of 16 to 19 year-old New Mexicans who were not in school dropped from 16 to 10 percent between 2000 and 2008, but that still placed the state in 47th place nationwide.
The U.S. average drop-out rate was 6 percent in 2008, the report states.
Child death rates rise while national rate drops
New Mexico’s number of deaths per 100,000 children under age 15 increased between 2000 and 2007, while the U.S. average child death rate declined. For 2007, New Mexico’s child mortality rate was 24 deaths per 100,000 children, compared to a U.S. average of 19 deaths per 100,000 according to the report.
The new report comes on the heels of a report in May that New Mexico children rank low on reading ability and school performance.
At a time when more New Mexicans are struggling financially, the state has restricted access to a program that helps low-income parents find and keep jobs. So far this year about 1,000 families have been added to a waiting list for a childcare subsidy, a bit of financial help that low-income parents often need to move into the workforce. The waiting list also means fewer children will be in childcare centers, which often function as the state’s eyes and ears for neglect or abuse, a state official said.
New Mexico’s fourth graders don’t read very well, which sets them up to fail as they continue on in school, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. With only 20 percent of fourth graders reading…
As New Mexico grapples with the largest budget deficit anyone seems to remember, the federal budgeting process for next fiscal year is about to get underway. It’s possible that there will be more state fiscal relief or other measures that…
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 way to go, because the research outlined in the report shows New Mexico is still one of the lowest-ranked states in the nation in terms of child well being. More …
A report released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy provides state by state comparisons of how regressive or progressive a state’s tax system is. The analysis of New Mexico is found on pages 78 and…
Kate Nash of the Santa Fe New Mexican gives us a story today about another group — this time the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico — calling for a repeal of the 2003 income tax cuts…
A recent national report evaluating the quality and quantity of information available to the public on state level American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — a.k.a. the federal stimulus package — basically gives a failing grade to New Mexico along…
The annual Annie E. Casey Foundation report, called “Kid’s Count,” says child and youth welfare in New Mexico has increased from 48th in the nation to 43rd in the nation.
According to a statement released by New Mexico Voices for…
Getting something for nothing is always an attractive notion. But if the housing bubble and the Bernie Madoff scandal have taught us anything, it is that there are hidden costs to “free” money.
The way New Mexico’s corporate income tax code is currently written, big box stores and national chains located here are allowed to be bad corporate citizens –- and many of them take full advantage of the opportunity.
A new report (pdf) by New Mexico Voices for Children says that the current poverty measure does not accurately convey the real number of New Mexico families having trouble meeting basic needs.
“While the official poverty measure, commonly referred to as the federal poverty level or FPL, is supposed to indicate how much it costs a family to live at a bare minimum, by many accounts the actual costs are roughly twice the FPL,” the report states.
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An interesting exchange played itself out in the Albuquerque Journal in the week before Christmas, on the topic of “combined reporting.” And along the way, the Journal left out one important point in it’s editor’s note about one of the commenter’s discussing whether or not multi-state corporations should report the income they made in New Mexico, and pay taxes on it.
New Mexicans want more oil drilling and nuclear energy. So says the Albuquerque Journal, which released poll results related to energy in an article yesterday. There are sharp partisan differences in the numbers, with Republicans overwhelmingly favoring increased drilling…
The New Mexico Board of Finance last week adopted new rules for the Tax Increment Development District (TIDDs) application process as well as how future proposals will be evaluated. The Independent laid out the issues in a
