DAYS, CLAYTOONZ AND

NEWS, SEPT. 12:

“CANNABIS CAPITALISM”

CARTEL ECONOMICS?

Retail prices will come down too as the cartels undercut the high state taxes. This has happened everywhere it’s been legalized. JOHN PUERNER VIA FACEBOOK

ONLINE, AUG. 26:

“NM VOTER FAQ”

VOTE YES #1 FOR BETTER ED

New Mexico may be the Land of Enchantment, but we could be doing far more to make our state the land of opportunity. For decades, policymakers, business leaders, educators and advocates for economic and social justice have struggled, largely in vain, to position New Mexico as a great place to do business and create living wage jobs. State and local taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions into marketing campaigns, tax breaks, capital improvement grants and other development incentives targeted at industry. Why then, after so much effort and expense, do we still rank dead last on so many indicators of economic and social well- being? The answer is simple—short-term business enticements are no substitute for the long- term investments in our children’s education that we should have been making all along. Targeted tax breaks make a difference at the margin—when a firm is trying to decide between New Mexico and Colorado; but they don’t help at all if New Mexico’s limited workforce and poor educational outcomes mean we never make the final cut.

But the tide may be turning in our favor. The last decade has seen a steady ramping up of ourstate’s investment in early childhood education. A massive body of research shows that investments in the early years pay the greatest dividends. Children who receive high quality services such as child care and NM-PreK enter school ready to learn and studies show that those early educational advantages translate into better jobs and higher incomes in adulthood.

With Constitutional Amendment #1 on the ballot in November, we have the opportunity to reconfirm our commitment to our state’s youngest residents and their families by increasing access to high quality programs and further professionalizing the early childhood workforce. Investments in young children pay dividends well into the future. However, Constitutional Amendment #1 will have short-term benefits too. Additional revenue for early childhood will enable the state to increase access to affordable child care, a critical support for working families that will increase the size and productivity of our workforce.

Constitutional Amendment #1 proposes taking a very small percentage of New Mexico’s Permanent School Fund—currently sitting at $26 billion—and investing it into early childhood education. The Permanent Fund receives revenue from royalties paid by oil and gas producers, thus the additional $150 million the amendment would generate for early childhood would not increase taxes paid by New Mexico families and would not come out of other programs. All it takes is for New Mexicans to come together and invest our own money back into our economy and back into our state. I’ll be voting yes on Constitutional Amendment #1 in November because it is a common sense, lowcost way to support a critical component of our economy and because I’m ready to see New Mexico be the land of opportunity. KELLY O’DONNELL ALBUQUERQUE

Read more about New Mexico’s general election at sfreporter.com/elections

SFR will correct factual errors online and in print. Please let us know if we make a mistake: editor@sfreporter.com or 988-7530.

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