Find Out Where Your Candidates Stand on Think New Mexico’s Policy Reforms!

On November 8, every seat in the New Mexico State House of Representatives is up for election, as is the governorship.

As you make your decision about who you are going to support, we encourage you to find out where your candidates stand on Think New Mexico’s policy initiatives. Here’s how to do it:

1) Find out which New Mexico State House district you live in by entering your address on the New Mexico legislature’s website. (Note that due to the recent redistricting, your House district may have changed.)

2) Look up email addresses for the candidates running in your state House district and the gubernatorial candidates on our handy chart.

3) Send your candidate (and the candidates for governor!) a quick email asking where they stand on an issue or two that you are passionate about.

Here are some examples of questions you might ask:

• Would you oppose any legislation that would reimpose the food tax?

• Would you support making financial literacy a high school graduation requirement?

• Would you support legislation that would maximize the amount of New Mexico’s education budget that is spent in the classroom, rather than on school district central administration?

• Would you support legislation to reform infrastructure funding in New Mexico by creating a merit-based process to prioritize and fully fund the most urgently needed projects across the state?

If you get a response to your questions to candidates, please let us know!

This information is extremely helpful to us as we work to build coalitions in support of Think New Mexico’s policy reforms – and candidates are more likely to support these reforms if their voters are asking about them. Many thanks for your help!

Think New Mexico Welcomes our 2022 Leadership Interns!

This summer, our exceptional summer Leadership Interns include Malina Brannen, who grew up in Santa Fe and is now a senior majoring in Government and minoring in Spanish; Alyssa-Noelle Capuano, who graduated from La Cueva high school in Albuquerque and is now a rising senior at the University of New Mexico, majoring in Political Science, working on her MBA, and minoring in French; Salomon Moises Cordova, who was born in Cedar Crest and raised throughout central New Mexico, and just graduated from St. John’s in Santa Fe; and Abigail Goldstein, who graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Spanish and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Public Policy at the University of New Mexico.

Read more about this year’s Leadership Interns.

Financial Literacy and Civics Should be Graduation Requirements!

The Public Education Department recently unveiled a proposed redesign of New Mexico’s high school curriculum. That plan rejects the ideas of including personal finance and civics as high school graduation requirements and proposes to shift required courses in government, economics and New Mexico history to optional electives. We oppose this proposal because the research shows that relevant courses like civics and financial literacy keep students engaged and on track to graduate, and also that students will rise to meet higher expectations – it does them a disservice to water down graduation requirements.

Read our Education Reform Director’s guest editorial about this proposal and join us in urging your legislators and the governor to keep New Mexico’s graduation requirements rigorous and relevant for students!

Results Achieved During the 2022 Legislative Session

During the 2022 legislative session, Think New Mexico successfully championed the enactment of two landmark reforms that:

• Ended predatory lending! House Bill 132 passed the House 51-18 and the Senate 19-8. This bill would reduce the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175%, one of the highest rates allowed anywhere in the nation, to 36%, the national average. When the governor signs it, this new law will put an end to four decades of predatory lending and will save hardworking New Mexicans approximately $175 million in interest payments every year. Read more about this reform.

• Repealed the tax on Social Security income for all middle and lower income seniors! The legislature passed House Bill 163, which exempts Social Security from taxation for all middle and lower income seniors – with incomes under $100,000 as individuals or $150,000 as couples. When this reform is signed, it will save middle and low-income seniors $84 million this tax year, rising to $99.5 million by 2025. Approximately 86% of New Mexico seniors will qualify for the exemption, and the average senior will save around $710 a year.  Read more about this reform.

Public Education Department Adopts Think New Mexico’s Personal Finance Standards!

In October 2021, the New Mexico Public Education Department released an update to its K-12 Social Studies standards, which detail the concepts that students should learn in classes like history and economics.

Because that initial draft did not add any financial literacy benchmarks, Think New Mexico wrote our own, based on the national best practices and the standards in place in other states like Colorado, and we urged the Public Education Department to include them.

That’s where you came in: New Mexicans like you submitted 263 public comments in support of our recommendation, including powerful personal testimony from students, parents, teachers, and graduates of New Mexico’s public schools. The Department took notice of this strong public response, and your impact is reflected in the revised standards they just released.

With this change, New Mexico will no longer be one of only five states that fails to include financial literacy in its education standards. The new standards will ensure students learn key skills and concepts like how to budget, open a bank account, make smart credit choices, and apply for financial aid to pay for college.

Thanks for helping us meet the challenge!

Our deep thanks go out to the eight extremely generous New Mexicans who put together a pool of challenge grants totaling $135,000 and to the 338 New Mexicans who helped us more than match that challenge!

Including both the challenge grants and your matching contributions, during the online fundraising campaign between October 18-29, 2021 you helped us raise $276,530, which is more than 40% of Think New Mexico’s annual budget. We are especially pleased to welcome our 47 new supporters.