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.
The House of Representatives could vote as early as Friday morning to raise $380 million in new revenue to help close next year’s budgetary shortfall. A half-cent hike in the state gross receipts tax and a 1-percent surtax on the state’s wealthiest residents are in the mixture of tax increases and targeted closure of tax deductions and loopholes. House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said Thursday afternoon he thinks he has the votes to push through the tax package.
Gov. Bill Richardson is considering cuts to public education to close this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall, several state lawmakers confirmed early Saturday afternoon. The news represents a change for Richardson, who has stood firm against public school cuts for weeks…
New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary Veronica Garcia’s qualified endorsement of studying merit pay pushes New Mexico into a national debate over the efficacy of basing part of a teacher’s pay on performance, as well as how that performance should be measured.
Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill (HB19) into law effective immediately that mandates that water deeper than 2,500 feet beneath the surface comes under state authority — and not a moment too soon.
The New Mexico House of Representatives defeated legislation today that would have legalized the use of embryonic stem cell research in the state. The 30-38 vote came after an at-times emotional, wide-ranging debate that lasted two-and-a-half hours.
Archdiocese of Santa Fe officials and parishioners have turned up the pressure on the measure this year, saying that they fear domestic partnerships will clear a path for legalizing gay marriage. But not all Catholics share that fear.
Health care reform would seem to have fallen off the political map in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson has barely mentioned the subject since he called a special session of the Legislature in the summer of 2007 to ostensibly consider reform. Now legislators face the prospect of opening their 2009 session next month with a projected budget shortfall of $400 million this year, as well as next fiscal year.
The state of New Mexico’s current money shortage is the equivalent of a forced diet for lawmakers who have gotten used to divvying up huge surpluses with Gov. Bill Richardson. Now the fights will be over where to cut, how deep to cut, whether to raise taxes — in effect, how to make do with less. And the battles won’t be pretty.
