Think New Mexico

New Mexico ranks third highest in the nation for the percentage of seniors living in poverty (12.2%), according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and this percentage will likely grow in the coming years, as two out of three private sector workers in the state have no money saved for retirement, and 80% have less than $10,000 saved.

In 2019, Think New Mexico launched a new initiative designed to enhance retirement security for all New Mexicans. This initiative proposes three major reforms that will put money back in the pockets of today’s retirees and ensure that more seniors in the future will have adequate savings to enjoy their retirement. First, repeal the state’s income tax on Social Security benefits. New Mexico is currently one of only 13 states that taxes Social Security, and it costs the average senior $700 a year. Second, ensure that every private sector worker in the state has access to a retirement savings account that they can contribute to through automatic payroll deductions. The research shows that workers are 15 times more likely to save for retirement if they can contribute to a retirement plan using automatic payroll deductions. Yet two out of every three private sector workers – 336,000 New Mexicans – lack access to a retirement savings plan through their jobs. Think New Mexico's legislation would give those workers access to a state-managed IRA, similar to a 529 college savings plan, that they can contribute to using automatic payroll deductions. Finally, stabilize New Mexico’s public pensions by consolidating their investment management and increasing the qualifications required to serve on the state's pension oversight boards (currently, no member of the PERA board, which oversees $15.8 billion, is required to have any experience or expertise in financial or investment management). Think New Mexico is currently championing the enactment of legislation to implement our recommended reforms.

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/retirement-security/

New Mexico's latest infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state poor grades in categories ranging from drinking water and flood control systems to roads and bridges. Meanwhile, Governing magazine has repeatedly given New Mexico the second worst score in the nation for its system of financing infrastructure projects, a system that essentially consists of individual legislators selecting projects for their districts with no statewide planning or prioritization. This has resulted in the underfunding of major projects which are delayed for years or never completed due to insufficient funds -- while the funds allocated to them sit idle. In addition, the process has become so politicized that the legislature has frequently had to reconvene in expensive special sessions to pass infrastructure funding bills that died during the regular sessions as a result of what one newspaper article termed "a cloud of partisan bickering and finger-pointing." Many other states have developed strategies that drain the politics out of infrastructure spending, such as having a neutral commission analyze the statewide needs and direct the dollars to priority projects. Interestingly, New Mexico itself has created an independent council to prioritize and fund public school infrastructure projects, and this process has successfully improved the condition of the state’s schools.

In 2015, Think New Mexico published a policy report making the case for replacing the state’s dysfunctional process for funding public works with a transparent, merit-based system. We distributed copies of this report to about 15,000 opinion leaders, members of the public, and media organizations. We are now advocating for the enactment of our proposed reforms with state policymakers.

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/capital-outlay-reform/

Although the New Mexico Lottery was created to "provide the maximum amount of revenues" for full-tuition scholarships at public colleges and universities in New Mexico, in 2006 it was only delivering about 23% of revenues to the scholarship fund. At the same time, the demand for scholarships was rapidly outpacing the available funding, and the Higher Education Department projected that the scholarship fund would fact an $18 million deficit by 2011, when the cost of the scholarships would to exceed lottery revenues and current cash reserves would be depleted.

In September 2006, Think New Mexico proposed a strategy for increasing the dollars available to scholarships: require that the lottery return 30% of every dollar to the scholarship fund, just as state law already required 50% be returned to players as prizes. Think New Mexico released a report recommending that the lottery cut its disproportionately high operating and administrative costs (fifth highest in the nation in 2005) and re-allocate those savings to scholarships.

In 2007, the New Mexico legislature and governor enacted a law guaranteeing that at least 30% of lottery revenues must go to the scholarship fund. However, many of those additional dollars came at the expense of the multinational gaming companies that contract with the lottery, and these corporations have hired teams of high-powered lobbyists to make repeated attempts to repeal our reform law. Think New Mexico continues working to defend it. The 30% guarantee has resulted in an additional $9 million a year for scholarships.

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/lottery-reform/

Along with being a think tank with a solid track record of producing results, Think New Mexico strives to be a leadership development organization that retains a new generation of potential leaders in New Mexico and trains them to develop and enact sound public policy. Through Think New Mexico’s Leadership Internship program, we provide unique training to college and graduate students from New Mexico who are interested in public policy and dedicated to making a difference in their home state. During the internship, we provide students with the opportunity to meet current and former state leaders and we involve them in the research and development of policy reform proposals and legislation.

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/internships/

According to a 2014 study by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, New Mexico ranks last in the nation for health care affordability and access. Health care spending has soared in recent years, and New Mexicans are paying more and more out of pocket for their health care as employers and families increasingly shift to high-deductible insurance plans. Yet the lack of information on health care cost and quality makes it impossible for New Mexicans to shop around for the most affordable, highest quality care. Fourteen other states, including Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, have already created health care transparency websites, and another five states are in the process of creating them. In addition, ending price discrimination has helped control health care costs in the state of Maryland since the 1970s.

In 2014, Think New Mexico researched and published a policy report proposing legislation to increase the transparency of health care price and quality information and outlaw price discrimination, the situation in which patients at the same hospital receiving the same treatment from the same doctor are charged different prices depending on who is paying the bills.

During the 2015 legislative session, Think New Mexico successfully championed the passage of bipartisan legislation to create a user-friendly website where New Mexicans will be able to easily find information on hospital prices and quality. We are now working to ensure the successful implementation of the health care transparency website, and Think New Mexico's Associate Director Kristina Fisher has been appointed to serve on the advisory committee to assist the Department of Health with the implementation process. The first phase of the website is now live at: http://nmhealthcarecompare.com/

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/health-care-affordability/

This initiative aims to improve the state’s school system by reallocating over $100 million from school district central administration to the classroom. Think New Mexico studied some of the state’s most successful school districts and found that they tend to spend a high proportion of their budgets on classroom expenses, such as teachers, principals, coaches, counselors, nurses, educational assistants, and school supplies, rather than on administrative expenses in the central district office.

Learning from the example of these successful districts, Think New Mexico recommends that the legislature and governor enact a law limiting the growth of school district and charter school administrative spending to no faster than the CPI (which increased by an average of 1.7% a year over the past decade). Classroom spending would not be limited, so in good budget years, when additional resources are available for schools, the vast majority of that funding will make it to the classroom where the learning takes place. Think New Mexico is currently working to win passage of legislation implementing our proposed reforms.

More information available at: http://www.thinknewmexico.org/maximize-dollars-to-the-classroom/

New Mexico has a small loan store for every 3,819 residents (by comparison, there is one McDonald’s restaurant for every 23,298 New Mexicans). The concentration of predatory lenders in New Mexico is due in large part to the fact that our state allows small loan companies to charge interest rates as high as 175% annually, one of the highest rates allowed in any state – five times higher than the national average.

In 2020, Think New Mexico launched a new initiative that seeks to cut the state’s maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175% to 36%. This reform is consistent with the laws in a growing number of states. In just the last five years, Montana, South Dakota, and Virginia capped annual interest rates on small loans at 36%. In addition, in 2006, Congress passed the Military Lending Act, which capped the cost of credit provided to military families at 36%. This federal law already protects 17,741 active duty, national guard, and reserve members in New Mexico from high-interest predatory loans.

In order to not just protect New Mexicans from predatory lenders but also empower them with the tools to better their financial situations, Think New Mexico recommends making a course in financial literacy or personal finance a high school graduation requirement and adding it to the state’s education standards. Seventeen states, including several of New Mexico’s neighbors, have enacted this reform in the last decade and are already seeing positive results. New Mexico currently ranks 47th for overall financial literacy according to the online personal finance website WalletHub. Since 2008, financial literacy has been offered as an elective in New Mexico’s high schools, but only about 10% of eligible students currently enroll in the course.

Think New Mexico is currently championing legislation to enact our reforms.