{"id":271732,"date":"2017-01-16T08:03:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T15:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=271732"},"modified":"2017-01-16T08:03:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T15:03:53","slug":"creating-a-21st-century-budget-for-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/01\/creating-a-21st-century-budget-for-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a 21st Century budget for New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>There has been a lot of talk about how to fill New Mexico\u2019s disastrous state revenue shortfall. Taxing out-of-state online merchants for purchases made in New Mexico is a commonsense fix and past due. New Mexico\u2019s small businesses have been at a competitive disadvantage for too long.<\/p>\n

Taxing food, however? There are other ways to create revenue that make more sense in a state with the second highest rate of food insecurity among children.<\/p>\n

\"James

Courtesy photo<\/p>

James Jimenez<\/p><\/div>\n

But the bigger issue is that New Mexico\u2019s tax code needs a more fundamental fix. We know it needs to incentivize job growth, but thanks to the hard lessons of decades of economic policy data we know that the slash-and-burn approach to the tax code is not the way to do it.<\/p>\n

As Sen.\u00a0John Arthur Smith says, \u201cYou cannot cut your way to prosperity.\u201d<\/a> Job growth increases family wealth; creates reliable, sustainable revenue for critical state functions; and makes New Mexico attractive to new and homegrown businesses.<\/p>\n

Governor Martinez is likely proud of her record of pushing tax cuts, following an old ideology that gained prominence 40\u00a0years ago. In fact, her recent budget proposal clings to this discredited theory, and pays for it in part by cutting the salaries of teachers, public safety and emergency service personnel, and other hardworking New Mexicans who work every day on behalf of all of us.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for New Mexico, her tax cuts have resulted in one of the worst state economies in the country. We only have to look right across our state lines to see the economies of Arizona and Colorado moving forward. Meanwhile, our economy is getting worse. The Land of Enchantment has a deficit measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars and young people are fleeing our state in search of better employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

All of us \u2015 no matter our political party or whether we live in rural or urban areas \u2015 need to work together to turn New Mexico\u2019s economy around. The first step is to get rid of the outdated \u201ctax cuts create jobs\u201d ideological myth and replace it with an evidence-based approach. The governor\u2019s ideology \u2015 put into real policies in her proposed budget \u2015 has not only failed to create jobs, but it\u2019s also reduced funding for education \u2015 the clearest pathway to economic success, by any measure.<\/p>\n

In short, for New Mexico, \u201cno new investment\u201d has meant \u201cno economic recovery.\u201d We must replace this old ideology now before it harms our economy even more.<\/p>\n

Strong economies have relied upon 21st Century strategies, like:<\/p>\n