Taxes Matter
Taxes matter. Despite the beating they get in public discourse, taxes are not bad. They are not to ‘blame’ for any number of evils. They are simply a tool. Taxes are the pooling of our resources in...
View ArticleMarch Madness!
March madness is upon us—and no, I don’t mean the Lobos going to the Big Dance. Rather, later this month the Supreme Court will finally hear legal challenges to the federal health care reform law, aka...
View ArticleExtreme Makeover: Election Edition
New Mexico politics will be getting an extreme makeover this year. It’s not just a presidential year. Four of the five members of our congressional delegation are being chosen and all 112 members of...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court’s Decision on ObamaCare Will be a Call to Action
The entire country is anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The decision will come any day and will have major consequences no...
View ArticleWaiting for Judgment Day
The Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare has put the health care of 150,000 New Mexicans in the hands of Governor Martinez. When the Court struck down the penalty for not expanding Medicaid coverage for...
View ArticleChildren at Risk: Fewer Low-Income Kids are Receiving Health Insurance Help...
Even though New Mexico’s economic recovery lags far behind the rest of the nation, fewer and fewer of our low-income children are enrolled in the state-federal health care program New MexiKids...
View ArticleGood tax policy? Umm, not so much…
Media reports on the big tax bill (HB-641) that passed in the closing minutes of the 2013 legislative session noted that while there was little Senate debate and no House debate on the bill, the...
View ArticleThis will surprise you (and should make you want to take action)!
Next to housing, child care is the biggest expense for young couples with kids. Without someone to care for their kids, they can’t work. And yet, policymakers continue to underfund child care...
View ArticleIt’s Past Time for Accountability in New Mexico’s Tax Policy
Once again this year the Legislature overwhelmingly passed a requirement to track all of our state’s tax breaks and, once again, the Governor vetoed it. She said in her veto message of SB-7 that such a...
View ArticleA Father’s Day Remembrance – for All our Families
Like most, my dad was not the perfect father. He had his shortcomings and he always struggled to make ends meet for our family of five kids. As a mailman, he didn’t make a lot of money and we had more...
View ArticleGovernor’s ‘Job’s Package’ Helps Intel Hire More Workers… from Out-of-State
The momentum for the Governor’s big corporate tax cut that was passed earlier this year began in 2012 when the Legislature’s tax committee met at the sprawling Intel plant in Rio Rancho. It was there...
View ArticleTax Breaks on Top of Tax Breaks: But Where are the jobs?
Lawmakers talk a lot about accountability when they’re spending taxpayer money on programs and services, and that’s entirely appropriate. We want to get the most from our investments in the state’s...
View ArticleThe Affordable Care Act signals a culture shift, but will it be swift?
January 2014 will mark a new beginning in our country. On that day we will wake up to a new way of thinking about health care. Currently, if you are rich enough, poor enough, old or young enough, or...
View ArticleLawmakers approve unlimited investments in overseas corporations, but block a...
For several years, advocates for early childhood education have been making a strong case for investing more in our youngest kids. Citing evidence from economists like the Nobel-prize winning James...
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No Pell Grants for Preschoolers
From time to time, legislators (and the governor) get obsessed with an issue—so much so, that they all work together to move forward with a solution to the same problem. Lately their obsession has been...
View ArticleYet another missed opportunity for our kids
Since New Mexico dropped to 50th in the nation in child well-being almost a year ago, little if anything has been done to turn things around for our kids. Now comes news of yet another lost opportunity...
View ArticleLet’s have a debate about the real deficit
Bloggers and politicos are trading barbs over the truthfulness of the Governor’s repeated claim that she closed the largest budget deficit in the history of the state. (Of course, by constitutional...
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This is OBSCENE!
A recent report from the State Investment Council shows that New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund (LGPF) is growing at a robust pace and now exceeds $13.8 billion. It’s the second largest fund of...
View ArticleA modest proposal that would make state decision-making more effective
Our legislators have a lot of important decision to make, such as how to divvy up the money that pays for services like education, public health, and our court system. That is why they have expert...
View ArticleRecent deep spending cuts are the fly in our budgetary ointment
Note: These remarks were given at the state Capitol during the “Moral Monday: The State Budget as a Moral Document” rally on February 9, 2015, which was sponsored by local labor unions. My dad was a...
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