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PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS: New Mexico
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: New Mexico
EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Unemployment Down to 5.5%:
The unemployment rate in New Mexico has declined from 7.5% to 5.5% since 1993.
136,900 New Jobs:
136,900 new jobs have been created in New Mexico since 1993 -- an average of 17,477 jobs per year—compared to an average of just 14,500 jobs per year during the previous administration.
110,700 New Private Sector Jobs:
Since 1993, 110,700 new private sector jobs have been created—an average of 14,132 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 10,675 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.
13,300 New Construction Jobs:
13,300 construction jobs have been created in New Mexico since 1993 -- an average of 1,716 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of only 425 construction jobs werecreatedeach year during the previous administration.
83,000 Have Received a Raise:
Approximately 35,000 New Mexico workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 48,000 more received an additional raise—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called on Congress to raise the minimum wage by an additional $1.00 over two years.
A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children:
To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton, the Balanced Budget delivers a child tax credit to 177,000 families in New Mexico.
Homeownership Has Increased in New Mexico:
Homeownership in New Mexico has increased from 69.5% to 72.6% since 1993.
Home Building Up 3.1%:
New home building in New Mexico has increased an average of 3.1% per year after falling by an average of 1.5% per year during the previous two administrations.
New Mexico's Families Reap Benefits of Deficit Reduction:
Public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family in New Mexico with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans.
2.2% Growth in Total Bank Loans and Leases:
New Mexico has seen a 2.2% average annual growth rate in total bank loans and leases per year since 1993. In contrast, total bank loans and leases fell an annual average of 1.1% during the previous administration.
3.1% Growth in Commercial and Industrial Loans and Leases:
Since 1993, New Mexico has experienced a 3.1% average annual growth rate in commercial and industrial loans and leases. In contrast, commercial and industrial loans and leases fell an annual average of 11.2% during the previous administration.
EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION
Over 7,100 Children in Head Start:
7,108 New Mexico children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, New Mexico will receive $40.2 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $20.7 million over 1993.
More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for New Mexico’s Schools:
Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, New Mexico received $9.6 million in 1999 to hire about 247 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second and third installment of the plan, giving New Mexico $10.4 million in 2000 and $13 million in 2001.
$9.1 Million for School Repairs:
President Clinton fought for and won a new initiative to repair America’s schools, providing $1.2 billion in the FY 2001 budget for urgent school renovation. New Mexico will receive $9.1 million in school renovation grants.
$3.8 Million for Technology Literacy:
This year [FY01], New Mexico receives $3.8 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21st century.
$73.5 Million for Students Most in Need:
New Mexico receives $73.5 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY01].
Turning Around Failing Schools:
New Mexico will receive $1.9 million in Title I Accountability Grants in 2001. President Clinton created the accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools.
$77.6 Million in Pell Grants:
This year [FY01], New Mexico will receive $77.6 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college.
Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College:
New Mexico will receive $7.4 million in Work-Study funding in 2001 to help New Mexico students work their way through college.
Over 1,200 Have Served in New Mexico through AmeriCorps:
Since the National Service program began in 1993, 1,217 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in New Mexico’s schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 12/99]
Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning:
The balanced budget included both President Clinton’s $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 44,000 students in New Mexico will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 53,000 students in New Mexico will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate]
Expanded Job Training to New Mexico’s Dislocated Workers:
President Clinton's FY 2001 budget would triple funding for the dislocated workers program over 1992 levels. New Mexico received $12.7 million in 1999 to help 7,500 dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. In FY 2000, New Mexico will receive over $20.9 million to provide job training services for dislocated workers.
FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE
Falling Crime Rates:
Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Since 1992, violent crime in Albuquerque has fallen by 14.3%.
689 More Police:
The President’s 1994 Crime Bill has funded 689 new police officers to date in communities across New Mexico. [through 1/01]
Reducing Crime with Drug Courts:
Working to reduce drug-related crime in New Mexico, the Clinton Administration has awarded Drug Court grants to the communities of Las Cruces and Albuquerque. The Administration had previously awarded grants to a number of New Mexico communities including: Santa Fe, Aztec, Gallup, Mescalero, San Juan Pueblo, and Taos. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.
$21.8 Million to Combat Domestic Violence:
Through the Violence Against Women Act, New Mexico has received approximately $21.8 million in federal funds to establish more women’s shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims’ services. [through 9/2000]
$400,000 in Grants for Battered Women:
In FY99, New Mexico received $400,000 in HHS’s Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
$3.3 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of New Mexico’s Schools:
New Mexico receives $3.3 million in FY01 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.
MOVING NEW MEXICO RESIDENTS FROM WELFARE TO WORK:
16,940 Fewer People on Welfare:
There are 16,940 fewer people on welfare in New Mexico now than there were when President Clinton took office—an 18% decrease. [through 6/99]
Child Support Collections Up 89%:
Child support collections have increased by nearly $17 million – or 89% -- in New Mexico since FY92. [through FY98]
Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in New Mexico:
Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 14.3% in New Mexico.
Over $30 Million for New Mexico Welfare-to-Work:
In 1998 and 1999, New Mexico received a total of $18.8 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants, helping New Mexico welfare recipients get and keep jobs. In addition, in 1999 and 1998 a total of $11.3 million in competitive grants were awarded to New Mexico localities to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies and Native American tribes in New Mexico received $156,000 in Federal funding. Part of the President’s comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
Helping People Get to Work
: Through the Access to Jobs initiative, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working with communities across the country to design transportation solutions to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to and from work. Sante Fe, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque have received a total of $1.87 million this year to fund innovative transit projects.
INVESTING IN NEW MEXICO’S HEALTH
Health Care for 4,500 Uninsured Children in New Mexico:
In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 4,500 in New Mexico. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]
Helping Over 56,000 New Mexico Women and Children with WIC:
The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY99, New Mexico received over $30 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 56,466 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance, 5,500 more than in 1994. [through 8/99]
More Toddlers Are Being Immunized:
As a result of the President’s 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America’s toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 — surpassing the President’s 1993 goal. In New Mexico in 1998, 92% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 85% received the vaccine for polio; 86% received the vaccine for measles, and 90% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.
Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs:
In FY 2000, New Mexico will receive nearly $1.2 million in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, New Mexico will receive over $1.5 million for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]
Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 43% in New Mexico:
The Clinton Administration’s tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 43% in New Mexico by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 20,800 of New Mexico’s youth will be kept from smoking and 6,700 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99]
540,000 Americans in New Mexico Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections:
Even if New Mexico enacted all the protections in the Patients’ Bill of Rights, 540,000 people in New Mexico cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President’s Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients’ bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 260,000 New Mexico women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients’ bill of rights.
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
Six Toxic Waste Sites Cleaned Up:
Since 1993, the EPA has completed six Superfund toxic waste clean-ups in New Mexico. The sites are located in Silver City, Church Rock, Lemitar, Grants, Prewitt, and Albuquerque. That is three times the number of sites cleaned up in New Mexico during the previous twelve years combined. [through 3/1/00]
$7.7 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding:
This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, New Mexico will receive $7.7 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.
Revitalizing Brownfields Project In New Mexico:
As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded grants to Santa Fe and Bernalillo County for environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. In addition, the State of New Mexico Environment Department and the Rio Grande Council of Governments, TX & NM, which includes a county in southern New Mexico, will benefit from Brownfields grants. This project is intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use.
SPEARHEADING URBAN AND RURAL RENEWAL EFFORTS
Revitalizing New Mexico’s Communities:
Albuquerque and Mora were designated as Enterprise Communities in December 1994 and awarded $3 million each to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for city residents. In 1999, Deming was named a Rural Enterprise Community.
Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Will Help Develop 1,300 To 1,600 New Affordable Housing Units in New Mexico Over the Next 5 Years:
Last year, the President and Vice President pushed for a 40-percent expansion in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. This year, the President and Vice President will try again to enact tax incentives to develop affordable housing. In New Mexico alone, this proposal would mean an additional 1,300 - 1,600 quality rental housing units for low-income American families during the next five years.
CARING FOR OUR VETERANS
Invested More Than $409 Million in New Mexico's Veterans:
President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to caring for New Mexico's 165,000 veterans. The Veterans Administration invested more than $409 million in New Mexico in 1999 alone. In 1999, 24,386 New Mexico veterans received disability compensation or pension payments, more than 3,388 went to college on the GI Bill, and nearly 4,927 bought a home using VA loan guarantees.
Providing Health Care for New Mexico's Veterans:
Since 1993, the VA health system has increased the number of patients treated every year by over 29 percent; treated 83 percent more homeless patients; organized approximately 1,300 sites of care delivery under 22 Veterans Integrated Service Networks; and established more than 250 new community-based outpatient clinics. In New Mexico, the VA operates a major medical center in Albuquerque and a system of community-based outpatient clinics. In 1999, nearly 36,000 veterans received health care in New Mexico’s VA facilities.
PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF
$9.2 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance:
Since 1993, New Mexico has received $9.2 million in disaster relief. This includes $2.5 million for severe storms and flooding in 1999; and over $2 million in assistance for severe winter storms, the Osha Canyon complex and extreme fire hazards in 1998. [FEMA, 2/29/00]
EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
$821 Million in Federal Highway Aid:
Since 1993, New Mexico has received $821 million in federal highway aid, including $8.2 million for scenic byways. These funds have helped generate 36,683 jobs. [through FY99]
Over $82.5 Million in Aviation Funds:
From FY93-FY99 New Mexico received over $82.5 million in Airport Improvement Project funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.
Over $69.7 Million in Transit Funds:
New Mexico has received over $69.7 million in Federal Transit funds since 1993.