New Mexico In Depth: Poverty Fell More Than a Third in New Mexico Due to Tax Changes, But There’s More to Do
media mentionFederal data released last fall show that, after accounting for government benefits, over the last decade the share of New Mexicans experiencing poverty declined more than in almost any other state.
That coincides with a period in which state lawmakers significantly altered tax rates to reduce the burden on low-income residents. They enacted and expanded tax credits and rebates that annually return hundreds of millions of dollars to working families. And they instituted other benefits including a constitutional right to early childhood education.
The changes have vaulted the state’s tax structure from one of the most regressive in the country, where lower-income people paid a bigger share of their incomes in taxes than the wealthiest, to among the most progressive, where the poorest residents now pay a lower share of their income in taxes than any other group.