February 19, 2024

Advocates for family and children say budget provides benefits for children

The legislature passed a budget of $10.2 billion this year. The budget now awaits the governor’s signature. Some highlights from the budget that will benefit children include an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report. Jordan said increasing the […]

Susan Dunlap

The legislature passed a budget of $10.2 billion this year. The budget now awaits the governor’s signature.

Some highlights from the budget that will benefit children include an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report.

Jordan said increasing the reimbursement rates for Medicaid both encourages more providers to accept Medicaid patients and it also helps to attract more providers to the state.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a press conference held after the legislative session that the budget passed by the legislature contains $100 million for Medicaid.

Jordan said this is of particular importance since nearly half of the state’s population relies on Medicaid. Between 70 to 80 percent of all births in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid, as well.

Jordan said the legislature also passed some progressive tax policy. He said the tax omnibus bill, HB 252, sponsored by state Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, contains a restructuring of personal income tax rates that mostly lowers rates for lower and middle income families. At the same time, the tax omnibus bill trimmed back a state tax break on capital gains earnings.

Jordan said the capital gains tax break affects individuals who earn investment income.

“They paid 40 percent less taxes just for making money on investments. We work for our money. They let their money work for them and they get a 40 percent discount on their taxes. It’s not fair and it doesn’t provide any economic benefit to the state,” Jordan said.

By reducing the tax credit, “that made our tax system more fair,” he said.

Jordan said one disappointment was that the legislature did not address taxes on alcohol or tobacco products. He said one of the primary disincentives for young people taking up vaping is when they pay a higher price for the product.

“New Mexico has a particularly high rate of vaping use among young and a higher tax would have helped discourage that. The price point is a big factor,” he said.

In addition to the budget, this legislative session priority included public safety. Jordan said that the two public safety bills that await the governor’s signature – one a seven-day waiting period to buy a gun and the other to prohibit guns in polling places – are “steps in the right direction.”

He said the seven-day waiting period bill, HB 129, sponsored by state Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, can help to reduce suicide among youth. New Mexico has a high rate of suicide. Jordan said that when youth attempt death by suicide and use a gun, completion is almost certain.

But when youth use a different method, they will complete the suicide less than half of the time, he said.

He said the hope is that when that happens, the youth are more likely to get the help they need to process through the stress that led them to contemplate suicide.

Jordan said the bill passed by the legislature that prohibits guns in polling places “is an acknowledgment that guns are not the way we want to solve problems.”

That bill, SB 5, was co-sponsored by House Majority Whip Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe.

“Guns are a problem, not a solution. That’s the kind of message we need to be sending to the public and we think that bill helps to do that,” Jordan said.

Reporter Nicole Maxwell contributed to this story.