NM center on law and poverty
 

An overview of some of the issues relating to poverty

taken up during the 2006 Legislative Session

 

 

Payday Loan Regulation

  • Payday lending regulation was taken up by the legislature and was one of the goals of the Governor.  No bill was passed, however.

  • Bills providing sweeping consumer protections championed by Senators Bernadette Sanchez, Tsosie, Rawson and McSorley were defeated early.
     

  • A bill that provided much weaker protections, championed by Rep. Lundstrom, Sen. Taylor and the Governor was defeated on the last day, when Sanchez and Tsosie filibustered to kill it.
     

  • Attorney General Madrid issued payday-loan regulations prior to the session that were to take effect Feb. 15 and would cap interest rates at 54 percent a year. These are on hold pending the outcome of suits by the payday loan industry.
     

  • The payday loan industry made over $80 million in total loans in New Mexico in 2004.  Under the best of circumstances, a $300 loan, borrowed for a standard 14-day term, cost a borrower $64.50. However, the average loan scenario was the borrower paying $272.92 in interest to borrow $283.69 for 62 days. (Attorney General’s office).
     

  • The average interest rate paid by payday borrowers in 2004 was 560.8%.

Public benefits programs

  • Funding was budgeted for The NM Works Program (TANF a.k.a. ‘Welfare’) at a level that allows for continuation of the program without a reduction in benefits or eligibility ($11.6 million).
     

  • The NM Works program provides small monthly subsidies to only extremely poor people, usually those earning no more than 37% of the Federal Poverty Level or about $7,200 for a family of four.
     

  • General Assistance, a state program that provides temporary, small cash subsidies to very vulnerable people—primarily disabled homeless persons—was scheduled for a significant cut initially, but its budget was increased at the very last minute to an adequate level ($7.27 million).  According to Income Support Director Katie Falls, the budget with federal Income Assistance Reimbursement monies, should be adequate for next year.

  • In a very important move, funding was provided for 30 new case workers for the Human Services Department.  There has been, for many years, a serious shortage of caseworkers resulting in extremely high case loads and consequent nightmares for the administration and, worse, for benefits recipients.  This is a positive step, though the Department requested 32 and actually needs approximately 70.

  • The Child Care Assistance Program, which gives small monthly subsidies to help very low-income working families afford child care, was allocated $1.4 million to increase eligibility for assistance from 150% of the Federal Poverty Level to 155%.
     

  • Efforts to increase the Food Stamp supplement for seniors were defeated.

  • The School Breakfast Program which provides a free basic breakfast in schools that have a high concentration of students from low-income families, was provided an additional $1.5 million.  The program helps provide good nutrition, get kids to school and start the day ready to learn.

Healthcare


          Medicaid

  • Funding of $615 million—an increase of roughly $56 million—was provided by the Governor.  This is some $11 million less than the amount passed by the Legislature.  Funding at this level may allow the state to avoid program cuts, restore 12 month re-certification, and make eligibility changes that will cover more children, but this is not yet clear.

Helping UNM Hospital and Health Sciences Center meet their uncompensated
            care costs

  • The Hospital is in some financial difficulty.  The costs of extensive brick and mortar projects, of competing for medical professionals, of providing uncompensated care and the rising cost of health care in general have strained the UNMH/HSC budget.  The institution began seeking additional county funding for indigent care and additional state funding for uncompensated care that it provides to people who live outside Bernalillo County.
     

  • Bernalillo County was authorized to increase its gross receipts tax by 1/16th to help cover these costs. The tax increase would raise about $10 million in the first year, all of which would be required to be used for providing health care to the indigent.
     

  • 8,000 State Coverage Insurance slots were allocated to UNMH.  This would allow them to transfer 8,000 low-income people whose care is currently being funded 100% through the UNMH budget to the SCI program, under which their care would be paid for largely by the state and federal government.
     

  • $65 million additional funding was appropriated for UNMH/HSC for various purposes including $15 million for cancer center and patient care equipment.  None of this will directly ameliorate the “uncompensated care gap” though it will ease the current financial stress on UNMH/HSC.

Advancing Universal Health Care

  • The Legislature failed to pass legislation establishing a committee to oversee completion of a study of various models that would provide comprehensive health care to all or most all New Mexicans.

    • They did, however, appropriate $280,000 for the Legislative Council Service to conduct such a study, which was promptly vetoed by the Governor.

Civil Legal Services

  • Funding for the Access to Justice Commission was approved at $65,000 but then vetoed by the Governor.  The money was for the Commission to use to finalize its report to the Supreme Court, begin implementation of its recommendations, conduct public hearings, help low-income persons access available resources, produce videos on the scope of the problem of the legal needs of low-income persons and employ a statewide program manager to staff the commission.
     

  • $200,000 was approved for the Civil Legal Services Commission to be divided among NM Legal Aid, Law Access NM and DNA Navaho Legal Services.
     

  • The Public Service Lawyers’ Loan Repayment Assistance Program was provided with funding at $300,000 (to the Higher Education Department) for education loan repayment assistance for public service attorneys.

Housing and Homelessness

  • Housing Trust Fund
    Though advocates were trying for much more, $1 million for the trust fund was included in the final capital outlay bill for the trust fund.  The trust fund subsidizes housing for very low-income people.
     

  • Homelessness programs
    $50,000 in new funding that was included in the final Legislative budget was vetoed by the Governor.  The appropriation for statewide homeless programs is left at a bit less than $1 million.
     

  • Because of the rapidly rising costs of gas and oil, an effort was made to appropriate additional funds to help weatherize low-income homes, but the measure was defeated.

Expansion of low-income comprehensive tax rebate

  • The Working Families Tax Credit, a state earned income tax credit that was to be pegged to the federal credit and that was pushed heavily by the Governor, did not pass out of the Legislature. 

Funding for Individual Development Account programs

  • $1.5 million was appropriated for IDA’s and the accounts were re-named ‘Family Opportunity Accounts.
     

  • The accounts are savings accounts that help low-income people build assets.  Qualified families or individuals may open such an account and have their deposits matched from various sources. The savings may not be withdrawn, however, except for use in purchasing a home, starting a small business or for higher education. 

Domestic Violence

  • $2.275 million in new funding for statewide domestic violence services was included in the Legislature’s final budget.

Minimum Wage

No bill was passed despite it being one of the Governor’s top priorities.

  • House Minimum Wage bill called for raising it from $5.15 to $7.50 in January and allowed a 60-day training period paid at $5.15.

  • The Senate’s Minimum Wage bill called for raising it from $5.15 to $6 in January 07. After a year on the job, employees would be guaranteed $6.75 and after two years, $7.50. This bill included public employees and allowed local communities to have a higher minimum wage, but it froze Santa Fe’s minimum wage at $9.50.

Immigrant Issues

  • Attempts were made to reverse three laws favorable to immigrants that had passed in recent sessions. All were defeated.  Specifically, attempts were made:

  • to allow state schools to deny admission, eligibility for in-state tuition, and financial aid on the basis of immigration status;
     

  • to disallow driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants; and
     

  • to have local law enforcement be responsible for enforcing immigration law.

Indigent Defense

  • The NM Public Defender Department is chronically under-staffed and under-funded, and caseloads are currently far in excess of national standards.  If the system is not reformed soon, the state faces a potential constitutional problem which may require litigation. 
     

  • In this session, the Center supported two bills drafted by the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, one of which would have raised the rates paid to contract attorneys handling death penalty cases, the other of which would have added just over $15 million to the PDD budget in order to both raise contract rates and provide for more full time employees.  Both measures were defeated.