I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Cigarettes would be taxed at a greater rate while state employees and educational workers would avoid paying an additional 1 percent toward retirement in the latest version of a state budget proposal from the state Senate.
Under legislation that cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Saturday evening, New Mexico would hike the per pack tax by $1. The tax hike would raise anywhere from $11 million to $30 million, said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and Senate Finance Committee chairman.
That tax measure will replace cuts proposed in the Senate’s version of the state budget. Specifically, the revenue raised by the cigarette tax will nix the need for state employees and educational workers to contribute an additional 1 percent into the state’s retirement funds.
Requiring public employees to pay more into the state’s retirement funds would have saved the state $27.4 million, according to a legislative analysis.
“That is gone,” Smith said of the extra contributions from public employees.
The additional 1 percent state employees and educational workers would have paid toward retirement would come on top of the 1.5 percent more the state’s 66,000 public employees began paying last July 1.
