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.
Two of New Mexico’s returning congressmen, Reps. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, voted against the tax-cut bill passed late last night by a 277-148 vote, while the congressman who lost in November’s elections, Rep. Harry Teague, voted in favor.
The tax-cut plan, which already passed the Senate, came after an amendment to reduce the cut on the estate tax failed to garner enough support to be added to the bill. This would have most likely doomed the bill as it would have needed to return to the Senate before being sent to President Barack Obama’s desk to be signed.
The bill will extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels for two years. It would also extend unemployment benefits for 13 months and temporarily cut the 6.2 percent payroll tax to 4.2 percent. The bill would also set the estate tax at 35 percent on estates of over $5 million.
The main opposition to the bill among liberals was the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for Americans making over $250,000 per year. Those opposing the deal say the cuts are too expensive and are unpaid for.
Some Republicans opposed the bill because they said the tax cuts should be permanently extended at all levels.
Earlier in the week, Heinrich wrote an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal outlining his opposition to the tax cuts for the wealthy.
“I want to be 100 percent clear that I support extending the tax cuts for the 98 percent of New Mexicans who make less than $250,000 a year,” Heinrich wrote in Wednesday’s paper. “What’s at issue is whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
