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.
A substitute bill seeking a compromise on the film incentives that Gov. Susana Martinez has vowed to cut back passed the House Taxation and Revenue committee this weekend. The new bill would keep the film tax rebate program at 25 percent but would cap the amount the state is liable for at $45 million per year.
The debate in the House committee on Saturday was marked by close votes, people leaving the room and eventually a unanimous approval of the legislation. The KUNM Government Project was on hand for the debate.
When lawmakers left the hearing on Friday evening the annual aggregate was capped at $60 million, but Republicans thought they could trim it another $20 million.
And they almost got there.
After picking up picking up a single Democratic vote from Rep. Sandra Jeff, they lost House Minority Leader Tom Taylor’s initial support.
Taylor had been the bill’s co-sponsor, but announced at the start of Saturday’s hearing that he had withdrawn his name from the bill. After public comments Taylor walked out of the room when it came time for him to register his vote on Roch’s proposed $40 million cap.
With Taylor gone the measure failed on a 7-7 tie vote.
A bill must have a majority in order to pass House committees. After an hour of recess, the compromise cap of $45 million was proposed and passed on a unanimous vote.
The film rebate program currently provides direct cash payments to cover up to 25 percent of film production costs in New Mexico. Martinez has called for the rebates to be dropped to 15 percent.
The New Mexico Motion Picture Association said in a news release that it did not agree with the compromise bill.
“We cannot support what was passed out of committee, either as a way to balance the budget or to improve the efficiency of our incentive program,” NMMPA executive director Eric Witt said in a press statement Sunday. “Not only does the new bill threaten to destroy New Mexico’s vibrant film industry, it fails to address the $1.2 billion in subsidies paid out to other industries such as oil and gas, whose profits are proof that those industries need no subsidy from New Mexico’s working families.”
The impasse between Democrats and the governor is seen as one of the main sticking points in crafting the budget.
