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November 13 - The new K-12 education cuts are yet another agreement among our elected lawmakers to make it that much harder to provide school children the services upon which their parents rely. These new K-12 cuts will create even more difficulty in 2010 when funding swaps being used to obfuscate education cuts evaporate. |
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FROM THE PRESIDENT, CHRISTINE TRUJILLO |
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Wed, Oct 21 – ROUNDHOUSE UPDATE — Conservative lawmakers who want to cut student values again fight with progressives who don’t want to cut school children on fourth day of the special session. |
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Click here to view an Excel document worksheet containing your state senator & Rrpresentative's email addresses for the Special Session. |
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AFT New Mexico releases Brian Sanderoff poll on education cuts, roll back of tax cuts for wealthiest
Sunday, October 17th - AFT New Mexico released a poll on education cuts, closing corporate tax loopholes, rolling back tax cuts for wealthiest New Mexicans. Scientific poll results demonstrate registered voters overwhelmingly oppose any more student value cuts and education cuts. The poll was conducted by Research and Polling. Read more.
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AFT New Mexico leadership says any cuts are unacceptable. Read more and contact your state senator and state representative today and leave a message: "Education cuts are unacceptable!" |
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STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT: CHRISTINE TRUJILLO
Over the next week, lawmakers must address the following facts during the special session: The student funding unit value cuts ($60 per unit), which they passed last January, have not worked. We’re right back where we started, another budget deficit. This time at least $500 million, maybe more. Read more. *Op-Ed submitted to Albuqerque Journal - unpublished. |
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New Mexico's Conference of Catholic Bishops are supporting statewide efforts by organized labor, community organizations, businesses and faith groups to stop education and other budget cuts. In an historic op-ed, the bishops made a public plea to state lawmakers and the governor to stop the budget cuts that are hurting our children and our communities. READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
Excerpt from Albuquerque Journal |
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NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT - All of us lose under the current corporate tax laws which cost New Mexico forty to fifty million dollars a year in lost revenues, even in this bad economy. These are tax dollars that should be contributing to the programs and services—education, health care, and public safety—that benefit all New Mexicans. Requiring all companies doing business in our state to pay the same taxes will create a more competitive environment for New Mexico businesses and keep the New Mexico profit earned by their multi-state competitors here in the state. It’s time to close this tax loophole and level the playing field for all businesses operating in New Mexico. Read more!
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New Mexicans have been consistent in their views of favoring adequate education funding over spending on tax breaks and abatements. According to voters, cutting education is not ok. Polling results are clear. When New Mexicans are given the choice to fund education and prevent cuts versus keeping tax breaks on the books - voters overwhelmingly prefer funding education. Read more.
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State lawmakers and the governor have made huge cuts to public education. Those cuts have consequences. Education cuts mean program cuts for kids, overcrowded classrooms, pay cuts, job layoffs, and furloughs, and more. Now lawmakers and governor say they will cut more. School employees, parents, and voters are fighting back on education cuts. We've had enough. Register for GET ACTIVE now. We will send you updates on our campaign, what we are doing to fight back, and how you can help. CLICK HERE NOW TO REGISTER FOR GET ACTIVE!
School employees, parents and voters will rally against cuts on October 9th. Click here to download the flyer. Share with your fellow employees, parents, neighbors, and friends. Please save the date and be there....no matter what! |
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According to a Legislative Finance Committee report, the Educational Retirement Board (ERB) fund was bad enough to rank it among the worst performing funds of its kind in the nation.
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Have you seen AFT New Mexico in the news? Do you know what our union leaders are saying? AFT New Mexico leaders are standing firm on AFT New Mexico's position for lawmakers to balance the budget by repealing tax breaks that are hurting school children.
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September 2009 - Over the past year, AFT New Mexico has worked with other unions, community organizations, and faith groups in a coalition, Better Choices New Mexico, to advocate that state lawmakers choose funding public education and public services by looking at long-term budget solutions - including rolling tax breaks that have outlived their usefulness. This article offers comprehensive resources for you to download and share about what we are doing to fight for New Mexico's future.
Lawmakers will convene in October to make more budget cuts to education and other public services. We have less than twenty days. Check out the twenty days, twenty ways campaign. We are offering lawmakers twenty ways to shore up the budget. |
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AFT New Mexico's political action committee (COPE) held a press conference July 11 to point out that conservative lawmakers didn't just exempt themselves from sharing in the pain of New Mexico's economic recession, as reported in the ABQ Journal. They exempted monied special interests from sharing the economic pain of the recession. The union is calling on parents, education employees and local communities to fight back on state government's bad tax policies that favor corporate welfare over funding education and other vital public services. Read the press release and join our campaign! Click here to download the petition.
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Now is the time to invest not disinvest in public education and public services. That's not happening in New Mexico. New Mexico lawmakers have cut education funding 10.8%, cut the student unit value $30.00, cut public employees' pay 1.5% for two years and are threatening more cuts in the name of the "economic recession. Who are they kidding? State lawmakers are spending $1 billion a year in massive tax breaks for corporations, tax cuts for the wealthy, and other outright tax giveaways that are taking money away from education and families at a time when we need that revenue the most.
Adding insult to injury, state lawmakers are not spending President Obama's education stimulus money to backfill education cuts and they keep refusing to repeal massive tax breaks that are hurting education and other public services. Our kids and our families come first! Join our campaign to FIGHT BACK! |
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By joining AFT New Mexico, you are joining a force of over 8,000 other school professionals who together, have the power to bargain for better wages and working conditions in your school district. Read more on how to join.
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AFT New Mexico’s political action committee (COPE) began a statewide petition drive over the summer to repeal tax cuts for the rich, close corporate tax loopholes, repeal HB 854, restore per-pupil unit value funding cut of $30, provide education employees with cost-of-living raises and use President Obama's stimulus to save and create new jobs in New Mexico. AFT NM COPE is circulating petitions among school employees, public employees, state employees, their families, friends and supporters by direct mail, email and website. The committee is holding meetings and town halls to explain the petition and get signatures. As of September, over 10,,000 voters have signed the petition and 68% of members who have been surveyed, said they agree that lawmakers should roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations in order to restore education cuts and prevent cuts. |
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APRIL 2009 - New Mexico spends $5 billion a year on tax breaks. Faced with a revenue shortfall during the 60 day session, lawmakers refused to recoup money from some of the tax giveaways that are no longer affordable.
Faced with a bigger shortfall, the state of New York increased spending on education and also got rid of tax loopholes that were costing their state money. Not here. Instead, state lawmakers cut public school funding and government services. In an opinion piece, Gerry Bradley, Research Director for New Mexico Voices for Children, explores what tax breaks really cost New Mexicans. You may be surprised. |
Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT.