Confirming MLG’s “misdirection” on child poverty

There have been numerous media reports in recent months (spurred on by the MLG Administration) about supposed improvements in childhood poverty. In reality, MLG has been a disaster for New Mexico families and children. Crime, education failure, COVID lockdowns, and a simple unwillingness to use New Mexico’s massive budget surpluses to grow/diversify the State’s economy have been hallmarks of her time in office. And don’t forget her radical abortion policies.

These polices are a big reason why (according to UNM) “New Mexico’s 0-24 population is expected to be around 550,000 by 2040 which represents a decline of 20% over 20 years.”

So, MLG is desperate to make her Administration seem better for New Mexico children than it really is. Thus the continued misdirection (or outright lying) over the supposed decline in NM’s child poverty rates (which hasn’t really happened). As you can see below, we confirmed this with Dan Boyd of ABQ Journal who recently wrote an article that seemed designed to papering over the Gov.’s lies. RGF confirmed directly with Boyd that the Gov. is not being truthful (below).

Furthermore, we looked at the actual supplemental poverty data from none other than the Annie E. Casey Foundation (using Census data). The chart compares New Mexico’s supplemental poverty w/ the US as a whole. As you can see New Mexico’s measure is closely aligned with the national measure. Since the supplemental measure includes numerous government programs and benefits New Mexico has NEVER performed as poorly as it does in the traditional measure. New Mexico’s “improvement” on this measure largely tracks the national number.