New Mexico Delves Into Soda Tax Fight

By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Thu, 04/27/2017 - 12:41am

The citywide tax on distributors would provide Santa Fe an estimated $7.5 million in its first year to expand early childhood education to roughly 1,000 children whose families cannot afford quality prekindergarten and don't qualify for state programs. Early voting has been underway since April 12 in Santa Fe, and competing political action committees have blanketed the city with advertisements through radio, TV, social media and mailbox fliers. Mayor Javier Gonzales, a Democrat, calls the proposed tax both a moral imperative and a sound public investment, given mounting evidence that children who receive early schooling are less likely to fall behind, drop out and get mired in the criminal justice system. The proposal is being decided as working parents living just above poverty in Santa Fe struggle to pay the market rate for child care, despite the city's $11 minimum wage. Efforts by New Mexico to expand early childhood education have stalled amid a state budget crisis and political resistance to tapping the state's main $15 billion sovereign wealth fund. Santa Fe would award grants to preschool and daycare providers through a bidding process that encourages training and new teaching standards, with the goal of creating more than 200 prekindergarten teaching positions in largely low-income areas.

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Topics:  early   april   tv   mayor javier gonzales   democrat   efforts   new mexico   santa fe   tax   state   childhood   city   political   expand   education   prekindergarten   children   teaching   

 

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