An interesting exchange played itself out in the Albuquerque Journal in the week before Christmas, on the topic of “combined reporting.” And along the way, the Journal left out one important point in it’s editor’s note about one of the commenters.

First, combined reporting is a term used for a law that would require multistate corporations to report the income they make in New Mexico so that they can be taxed on it here. Currently, New Mexico doesn’t require this, so many multistate corporations report their income in another state and pay no corporate income tax here.

Advocates want to change that, saying it’s a tax loophole that creates an unfair advantage for these multistate corporations over local New Mexico firms, and that also deprives the state of the tax revenue it needs. New Mexico Voices for Children’s Board President, Donald Simonson, wrote an opinion piece for the Albuquerque Journal to that effect on Dec. 19, in which he pointed out that New Mexico and Oklahoma are the only states “west of the Mississippi” that don’t have such combined reporting rules. Plus, he said such a law would raise about $90 million in revenue for the state.

This was followed by a letter to the editor by Dick Minzer, disputing that a combined reporting law would be fair or desirable. Minzer said that such a law would actually unfairly tax part of the income of the out-of-state corporation that was not earned in New Mexico, and he said it would negatively impact economic development efforts in the state. If such shifting of corporate income tax out of New Mexico does happen, he said, there are other “more targeted ways to address it.” However, he does not explain what those other options would be.

The Albuquerque Journal tacked on an editor’s note explaining that “Ex-legislator Minzner chaired the House Taxation and Revenue Committee before appointment as secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department in 1991.”

What the Journal did not say, however, is that Minzer is currently a lobbyist for quite a few big multistate corporations doing business in New Mexico.

Here is the list I have — you can click on the links to see for yourself: