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.
New Mexico is one of 16 states nationwide planning to hold a sales tax holiday in August for the purchase of back-to-school supplies. But tax holidays are an expensive and ineffective gimmick, according to several think tanks.
The holidays cost states an estimated $60 million in lost tax revenues and do not encourage additional consumer spending, according to the conservative Tax Foundation. Instead, consumers simply buy the same items on different days to avoid taxes, the Tax Foundation has concluded.
Meanwhile, the liberal Citizens for Tax Justice disputes the claim that tax holidays benefit working-class and poor families.
“Sales tax holidays do nothing to offset the regressivity of the sales tax the rest of the year, they are an administrative headache, costly for state governments, and very low-income people usually don’t have the flexibility to shift their spending to take advantage of the holiday,” according to the Citizens for Tax Justice website.
“Low-income people are less likely to shift the timing of their purchases,” policy analyst Matt Gardner said. The result is that the tax breaks benefit upper-income households while sacrificing money that could go to state programs for the poor, Gardner argued.
Furthermore, retailers sometimes hike prices during tax holidays, denying consumers intended savings, according to Joey Peters of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Gov. Bill Richardson has championed sales tax holidays, as a way to spark consumer spending and sought in 2008 to expand the back-to-school tax holiday to seven days from three.
New Mexico’s tax holiday has been held each year since 2005. New York passed the first tax holiday in 1995.
New Mexico’s tax holiday will be held August 6-8 this year. Clothing and shoe purchases less than $100, computer purchases for less than $1,000, computer monitors and peripherals purchases for less than $500 and school supplies purchased for less than $15 each on Friday, Aug. 6 through Sunday, Aug. 8 will not be taxed, according to the state Taxation and Revenue Department website.
Facing school budget cuts similar to New Mexico’s, Georgia canceled this year’s tax holiday.
