A dark money group, New Mexico Safety over Profits (NMSOP), with deep ties to the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, attacked Think New Mexico in a recent opinion piece in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
That opinion piece is filled with some wild, over the top conspiracy theories (you can read it here, with our annotations and corrections). You can read our response in the Santa Fe New Mexican at this link.
You can also read the 73-page lawsuit against NMSOP that was filed by the New Mexico Ethics Commission over NMSOP’s refusal to disclose its donors, as well as an investigative piece by Searchlight New Mexico on NMSOP’s misleading practices.
During the 2025 legislative session, Think New Mexico successfully championed the passage of five major reforms:
- Senate Bill 88, which creates a permanent trust fund for Medicaid. The fund will receive recurring revenue until it grows to $2 billion, allowing the state to increase the rates it pays providers to care for patients insured by Medicaid. Read more about this reform.
- House Bill 14, an omnibus tax bill that includes a repeal of the gross receipts tax on coinsurance, on top of the existing deduction for co-pays and deductibles. This will reduce state taxes on medical services by nearly $50 million annually. Read more about this reform.
- House Bill 157, which will raise the standards for principal training by creating a separate licensure track for school principals with enhanced mentoring and other support. Read more about this reform.
- House Bill 156, which ensures that New Mexico teachers will be trained in the best practices for how to effectively teach students how to read. Read more about this reform.
- Senate Bill 37, which enhances the Strategic Water Reserve, a water management tool that Think New Mexico first developed two decades ago to keep a little more water in New Mexico’s rivers. Read more about this reform.
Think New Mexico has just released a new report proposing a ten-point plan with 20 separate legislative recommendations to address the urgent crisis of New Mexico’s health care worker shortage! Click here to read more about the reforms we’re proposing.
If you like what you read and you’d like to be part of this effort to revitalize public schools in New Mexico, please contact your legislators and the governor and urge them to enact these reforms during the upcoming 2025 legislative session!
We are excited to introduce our three newest staff members!
Katie Gutierrez is Think New Mexico’s Tax, Budget, and Economic Development Reform Director. Katie is from San Antonito, New Mexico, where her family has been farming for 12 generations. A PhD candidate in Economics at the University of New Mexico, she studies the impact of taxes and policy changes on people’s health and well-being, with a focus on reducing health disparities. Katie is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar alumna, a UNM Center for Social Policy alumna, and a former organizer with the United Graduate workers of UNM.
Marcus P. Lujan is Think New Mexico’s new Field Director. Marcus was born and raised in Santa Fe, where his family has lived for many generations. He served as his Class President at St. Michael’s High School, and is now an active member of the St. Michael’s Alumni Association. Marcus graduated with Honors from New Mexico State University, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Government.
Dr. Alfredo Vigil, is Think New Mexico’s Healthcare Reform Director. Alfredo served as New Mexico Secretary of Health under Governor Bill Richardson. He grew up in Los Alamos and earned his B.S. and M.D. from the University of New Mexico. During his career, Alfredo has been a physician in private practice, served as the medical director of the Questa Health Center, Chief of Staff of Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, and CEO of El Centro Family Health in Espanola, as well as Board Chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
In 2024, Think New Mexico is celebrating its first quarter-century! Check out our latest annual report for for a timeline of the results we have achieved through the years as well as updates on our policy reform initiatives. Click here to download the annual report.
During the 2024 legislative session, 54 education-related bills were introduced, just four of which made it through the process and were signed into law. One of those bills was Senate Bill 137, which enacted the reforms proposed in Think New Mexico’s Education Roadmap report to upgrade the training and transparency of the state’s school boards. Read more about this reform.
While we were unsuccessful in getting a one-semester course in financial literacy included in the high school graduation requirements for all students, we are now reaching out to each of New Mexico’s 89 school districts and urging them to adopt financial literacy as one of the two graduation requirements that they have to establish at the local level. We are joined in this effort by a broad-based and growing coalition.
In addition, the 2024 capital outlay bill included an additional $1 million for the Strategic Water Reserve, the water management tool that Think New Mexico successfully championed nearly two decades ago to keep our rives running to prevent conflicts over endangered species and interstate river compacts. The 2024-2025 budget also extended the timeline for the $7,500,000 appropriation to the Strategic Water Reserve from last year, allowing it to be expended through 2028. Read more about this reform.
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Think New Mexico is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Our EIN is 31-1611995. Financials and more information is available on our transparency page.
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