A policy agenda to eradicate poverty in New Mexico
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We have the resources and means to turn the ship around. We need our elected leadership to rise to the challenge. Continue Reading
Lawmakers end effort to undo local minimum wage hikes
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An attempt by two Republican legislators to cut the wages of many of the state’s lowest-paid workers is dead. Continue Reading
Fluid concept of justice takes a backseat to winning
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The question is not how much worse can it get but how much longer it can go on without a total breakdown of civility and order. Continue Reading
It’s time to stop the grand theft auto of title loan companies
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The industry buys government complicity in loan ripoffs at many levels. It’s time to stop dithering and give us genuine reform. Continue Reading
Lawmakers protect title loan firms while borrowers pay sky-high interest rates
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Title lenders have fended off tighter state oversight of their operations behind millions of dollars in campaign contributions, aggressive challenges to regulators who seek to rein them in and by writing loan contracts that leave aggrieved borrowers with little legal recourse. Continue Reading
Who turned my blue state red?
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In many former Democratic bastions that have swung Republican in the past several decades, the people who most rely on the safety-net programs secured by Democrats are, by and large, not voting against their own interests by electing Republicans. Rather, they are not voting, period. Continue Reading
NM Supreme Court decision is a victory for working families
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The Martinez Administration’s spokesman called the Court’s order to enforce the law “a huge loss for taxpayers.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue Reading
Our baby steps toward expanding early childhood services are not getting us far
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If we pass the permanent-fund initiative, the fund continues to grow at a good rate, but we also invest much more in our children, and that pays an even more valuable and longer-lasting dividend. Continue Reading
Navajos refuse ‘tainted’ water from EPA; ‘crops are getting thirsty’
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Farmers on the Navajo Nation continue to have problems in the wake of the recent spill of 3 million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River. Continue Reading
Gold King Mine spill hits Navajo Nation hard
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While the Colorado governor drank water from the Animas River on Wednesday to demonstrate that conditions are improving, downstream, people on the Navajo Nation continue to deal with the very real effects of an environmental disaster. Continue Reading
Food stamp work requirements are hardly onerous
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Gov. Martinez is wise to impose some form of requirements on able-bodied adults. It is a necessary first step toward ending New Mexico’s culture of dependency. Continue Reading
‘Thank goodness for Mississippi’ shouldn’t be NM’s motto
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Last week’s news was disappointingly familiar: New Mexico ranks 49th in child well-being in 2015. Again. Continue Reading
NM is 49th in child well-being again. What will it take to make change?
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New Mexico has ranked among the worst states in which to be a child for so long that it hardly seems like news anymore. Continue Reading
Let’s stop digging a deeper hole for our unemployed
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The state’s Human Services Department has decided to decline a waiver so they can take SNAP benefits away from people who are still unable to find a job. Continue Reading
Of groceries, ray guns, and the gross receipts tax
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The GRT has been meddled with enough. It’s time for a simpler, more affordable, and pro-growth gross receipts tax. Continue Reading