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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Surging New Mexico Economy Peaking, Working Families Left Behind

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008   

Albuquerque, NM - The good news this week is that New Mexico has improved its economic ranking, but the bad news is that this could be as good as it gets. The annual "State of Working New Mexico" report from New Mexico Voices for Children finds that personal income grew in the state over the last five years, bringing its national ranking up from 47th to 43rd. However, New Mexico Voices for Children research director Gerry Bradley says, income now seems to have reached a peak, and that's especially bad news for New Mexicans who didn't see much benefit from the recent growth.

"Things didn't improve that much as far as inequality of poverty or wages during the good years. Now we're very concerned that the economy is slowing almost to a halt in 2008."

Bradley says some recent policies will help counter the effects of the slowing economy, such as the increasing minimum wage and the state working families tax credit. However, New Mexico's poverty rate still remains higher than the national average, and New Mexicans receive less support per capita from assistance systems like Medicare, Social Security and food stamps.

Bradley says keeping the state economy on the road to improvement can be done with investments in early childhood education, health care and adult education.

"When there's prosperity it has to be shared, and now that we have a slowdown, we need to have good public policy to counteract its negative effects."

The report is available at nmvoices.org.


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