Albuquerque, NM - The public policy organization New Mexico First held its biennial statewide town hall last week, convening over 220 citizens who called for robust and immediate economic policy action. Specifically, participants recommended more incentives and financial resources for entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive and stay in New Mexico, closely aligned K-12 and post-secondary education with workforce development, improved regulations and a reformed tax code. They also called for a focus on family-friendly policies in the workplace, support for families at economic risk, and investments in tribal, rural and frontier communities.

These recommendations and others resulted from a New Mexico First statewide town hall attended by over 220 people and held in Albuquerque May 19-20. The meeting, entitled Economic Security and Vitality for New Mexico brought together people from all regions of the state. Participants came from small, medium, and large towns and included tribal, federal, city and state employees, nonprofit employees, business people, economic developers, students, and other community members from counties across the state.

"We had a remarkable group of committed citizens at the economic security and vitality town hall," said Heather Balas, president of New Mexico First. "They addressed the topics of business growth and family economics in a comprehensive and thoughtful way, paying close attention to how their recommendations would help create a stronger and more robust financial foundation for New Mexicans."

The complete report on the town hall will be released next month. Strategies fall into three major categories: job creation and business growth; education and workforce; and family economics, especially for people in poverty. Specific examples include:

• Expand access to capital and other powerful incentives for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses.
• Comprehensively restructure the tax code for the purposes of attracting and retaining businesses.
• Increase job creation by improving regulation, licensing and permitting processes.
• Invest in and strategically plan rural and tribal economic development.
• Expand high speed broadband statewide, including on tribal and rural lands.
• Fund statewide economic development efforts consistently, not up and down from year to year.
• Advance incentives and programs that promote life-long academic success for high school students.
• Better align college and vocational training with actual career opportunities.
• Provide an array of supports, including financial literacy education, to people living in poverty.
• Assess the impacts on families - positive and negative - of new public policies (similar to the way the state currently assesses financial implications of new policies).
• Incentivize employers to adopt family-friendly policies.

The town hall recommendations will be advocated to state and local leaders by an implementation team comprised of volunteers from the event. The team will be led by former N.M. House Representative Tom Taylor and Bill Garcia, community leader and former cabinet secretary of the N.M. Economic Development Department.

A full report on the results of the town hall will be posted in about two weeks at nmfirst.org.

The town hall is convened by New Mexico First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy organization that engages people in important issues facing the state or a community. Established in 1986, NM First offers unique town halls and forums that create recommendations for policymakers and the public. New Mexico First also produces nonpartisan reports on critical issues facing the state. These reports on topics like water, education, healthcare, economic development, and energy - are available at nmfirst.org.

Contact: Pamela Blackwell, 505-225-2140 ext. 3, pamelab@nmfirst.org.