May 15 2024

Establishing a Right to Early Education: Part Three of a Four-Part Series

2024-05-20T11:19:46-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

New American--“There was a concerted effort on behalf of advocates to make sure that all this additional funding that was coming from state sources would seamlessly continue the policies that the federal funds had initially paid for. So we've continued the eligibility up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level for subsidized child care, effectively making it universal access here,” said Jacob Vigil, deputy policy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonpartisan, statewide advocacy organization.

May 12 2024

A Mother’s Day wish: A better future for moms and kids

2024-05-13T09:58:48-06:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget Blog, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--Our families deserve more than financial survival. We deserve to thrive. Next year, 2025, will be a powerful chapter of our story, 20 years in the future, in which we tell the story of how we made New Mexico the best place to be a kid. We did it by supporting the people who love them most: moms.

Apr 13 2024

On Tax Day, New Mexicans can be thankful

2024-04-15T13:11:39-06:00Blog Posts, Economic Security Blog, Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget Blog, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Santa Fe New Mexican--This Tax Day, we all have much to be thankful for as we consider the bounty of public goods and services that are made possible with our tax dollars. These include a school system, the roads, first responders, our parks, libraries, museums and so much more. This year, we have even more to be thankful for. That’s because in the last few years our state has made the most improvement in the nation in making our tax system more fair, equitable, and racially just.

Apr 04 2024

New child tax credit available to New Mexico families

2024-04-04T15:44:17-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

KOB TV--“A really great provision of the child tax credit is that it is fully refundable. What that means is that, if you don’t owe any taxes, you will be able to get a check or a deposit in your bank account from the state for that refund amount,” said Paige Knight, the deputy policy director at New Mexico Voices for Children.

Mar 28 2024

CT lawmakers want $100 million for child care ‘trust fund’

2024-03-28T16:44:19-06:00Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

CT Mirror--Later in the day Thursday, Jacob Vigil of New Mexico Voices for Children, a child advocacy and economic policy group, testified before the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee about his state’s early childhood trust fund, which was established in 2020. The fund started with $300 million in seed money, and the state designated a portion of surplus oil and gas revenues to sustain the trust fund each year.

Mar 28 2024

Public hearing held on bill that would overhaul state’s early childhood initiative

2024-03-28T16:40:02-06:00Education News Coverage, News Coverage|

Connecticut Inside Investigator--“In New Mexico, we did something similar to what HB 5002 is looking to accomplish, and truly it’s been a game changer in our state,” said Jacob Vigil, the Deputy Policy Director of New Mexico Voices for Children, who spoke in support of the bill. Vigil said that New Mexico’s early childhood trust fund received an initial endowment of $300 million upon its founding in 2020, and is now sitting above $5 billion in 2024.

Mar 26 2024

New Mexico is Right to Hold Out for Higher Prices for its Most Valuable Commodity

2024-03-26T13:40:56-06:00Blog Posts, Education Blog, Education News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget Blog, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

The Paper--New Mexico is a land with many valuable assets – from our rich cultural diversity to our stunning physical beauty, to our mineral wealth. These assets belong to us all and while it’s impossible to put a price on some of them – our culture and natural landscape, to be precise – we can and do put a price on our mineral wealth. And that price needs to be fair so that we are all receiving the benefit of the bounty beneath our feet.

Mar 24 2024

While depressing, data on child well-being has helped prompt great changes

2024-03-25T10:49:26-06:00Economic Security News Coverage, Education News Coverage, Health News Coverage, Kids Count News Coverage, News Coverage, Tax and Budget News Coverage|

Albuquerque Journal--The civil rights leader James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” In other words, we can’t solve a problem if we refuse to look at it. Looking helps us know the extent of the problem. The column “An optimist’s guide to depressing data” takes the “New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book” to task for citing bad-news data about child well-being. We understand. We, too, find it demoralizing that New Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation.

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