Click play to listen to this article.

(New Mexico News Connection) A new federal report shows anti-poverty policies enacted by New Mexico are making a big difference.

This month, the U.S. Census Bureau has released a supplemental report measuring poverty at the state level for the first time.

Emily Wildau, senior research and policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children, said the report still ranks the state last in the nation, at 28 percent under the Official Poverty Measure but when newly enacted state programs are taken into account, poverty decreased dramatically from 2021 to 2023.

Image

"When you look at that same time period, and you use the measure that counts things like refundable tax credits and noncash benefits like SNAP, New Mexico's child poverty rate drops to just 8.9 percent," Wildau pointed out. "Which is actually better than the national rate."

The national child poverty rate is 10.4 percent. Wildau noted one disappointing figure in the data: The state's rate of uninsured children rose to almost 6 percent in 2023, compared to about 4 percent in 2022, likely because of changes made to Medicaid following the pandemic.

Wildau emphasized many policy changes made by New Mexico lawmakers are not reflected in nationally-generated data looking at children's well-being, often because the policies are new and have not been incorporated into how poverty is measured.

"We're doing really good things," Wildau outlined. "Increasing our state-level Earned Income Tax Credit, adding a new state-level Child Tax Credit and expanding SNAP eligibility October 1st up to 200 percent of that kind-of official poverty rate."

Along with New Mexico, 13 other states boosted fully refundable Child Tax Credits in 2024, aimed at enhancing economic security for low- and middle-income families. About 43 million people, or 13 percent of Americans, lived in poverty last year.