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 shakeup in a major Senate committee has Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, replacing Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Martinez is more conservative than McSorley, especially on social issues.
Late Tuesday the Senate passed a bill that would generate $240 million by increasing the state’s gross receipts tax by a 1/8 of a penny, closing a state income tax deduction used by people who itemize and requiring the state’s compensating tax to be paid on goods purchased from out-of-state sellers without a physical presence in New Mexico.
A bill that would have added gross receipts tax to a wide variety of food was tabled by a unanimous vote of the House Business and Industry Committee Wednesday afternoon. There were no questions for the sponsor and no…
State lawmakers should have judged Neri Holguin on her professional qualifications, not her past political work, Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday, after the Senate rejected his nominee to the state Environmental Improvement Board by a vote of 17…
A political battle over control of New Mexico’s dominant party played out on the Senate floor Tuesday over an unexpected issue: an Albuquerque woman’s nomination to a state board. Confirmations in the Senate are usually uneventful and state lawmakers usually speak…
New Mexico would tax food for the first time in years, add $1 to the state cigarette tax and net taxes from out-of-state owners of business partnerships on income earned here.
Meanwhile, state agencies would get fewer dollars and several hundred jobs would disappear from state government. That mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes was part of a $5.276 billion state budget proposal that the Senate passed 25 to 17 early Sunday morning to help close a projected shortfall of several hundred million dollars next year.
Stock up on white flour tortillas and red chile pods now. The New Mexico Senate voted late Saturday night to extend the state’s gross receipts tax on a wide variety of foods after a wide-ranging debate that included attempts to raise taxes from the state’s wealthiest residents and out-of-state corporations.
Brought forward by Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, the food tax passed on a vote of 23 to 19. The measure exempts foods offered through the state’s nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as the WIC program, plus fresh or frozen meats, poultry and chicken. But it also taxes many foods considered staples, like white flour tortillas, white bread and red chile pods.
“It helps prevent additional cuts to Medicaid, to courts, to seniors…and hopefully it’ll eventually have a health benefit by reducing obesity and diabetes,” Sanchez said.
But Sen. Cisco McSorley said consumers wouldn’t know which products would be taxed and which wouldn’t be, and, he said, a wide variety of foods would not be exempt.
“For the last five years, this state has enjoyed a tax free Thanksgiving,” McSorley said, “and that’s something to be thankful for. But if you look at a butterball turkey, spices and preservatives are built into it, so would it be taxed?”
Sanchez replied that the intent was to exempt meats, poultry and fish with limited amounts of added ingredients, and that the Tax and Revenue Department was working out the details.
Two amendments specifically concerning the food tax bill were offered. Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, proposed exempting red chile pods and powder. Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, meanwhile, suggested taxing all food, while offering a food rebate for low-income families. His proposal would reduce the complexity of the tax, he said, while making it more progressive by offering an outright tax rebate to the poor. Both amendments failed.
McSorley explained in voting no on Griego’s amendment that he had promised his constituents he would never vote for a food tax. Another progressive senator defended Sanchez’s legislation.
“I came into this session thinking I’d never vote for a food tax, but I realized this could be the biggest boon to health in NM,” said Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. “This is a tax on salt, sugar, white flour and processed foods. …[when] over 60 percent of New Mexicans are overweight or obese. Mothers will be cooking more and cooking from scratch. That is a good thing.”
The food tax legislation received vigorous opposition in the lead up to the final floor debate by the Catholic Church in a particular. Billed a “tortilla tax,” the legislation was blasted for taxing white tortillas, which are a staple food in New Mexico.
“WIC is designed to provide supplemental funding for food with an extensive education to accompany it,” Allen Sanchez, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said immediately after the legislation was adopted.
“Without education the working poor will not be able to navigate the grocery story knowing what is taxed and is not taxed. This bill deliberately targets the poor and the Catholic bishops of New Mexico find this bill to be in direct contradiction to the Gospel values.”
Other tax measures
The food tax passed despite multiple amendments offered by several lawmakers who hoped to raise revenues in a variety of other ways.
“This is about asking the richest people to step up to the plate,” Sen. Eric Griego said of an unsuccessful amendment that would have raised the top income tax rate in the state.
Another amendment offered by Griego reduced the capital gains exemption from 50 to 25 percent.
“There are 15 to 20 proposals that have been circulated to help us raise the revenue we need,” Griego said to explain why he offered the two amendments on the food tax bill. “This is the only vehicle we have to have a balanced conversation, because most haven’t seen the light of day.”
“Otherwise,” he said, “we’re just balancing the budget on the backs of teachers, …instead of asking the rich and wealthy to pay their fair share.”
Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, proposed an amendment that would have mandated that multi-state corporations use a mechanism called “combined reporting,” which would ensure they pay corporate income tax to New Mexico. Wirth has proposed the bill for five years in a row, but in years past was routinely told that while the idea was a good one, the state didn’t need the money. Now it does, he said, which was why he thought it was important to ensure a floor debate.
“I was told for years that it’s a good deal, but we don’t need the money,” Wirth said. “Now, we need the money. It’s about fairness. It doesn’t apply a new tax rate, it simply makes these multi-state corporations pay their fair share.”
Ultimately, neither Wirth’s or Griego’s two amendments were adopted.
Votes for and against the food tax, SB 10:
For: Campos, Cisneros, Eichenberg, Feldman, Fischmann, Phil Griego, Ingle, Jennings, Kernan, Leavell, Martinez, Morales, Munoz, Ortiz y Pino, Papen, Pinto, B. Sanchez, M. Sanchez, Sapien, Smith, Ulibarri, Beffert, Harden.
Against: Adair, Asbill, Boitano, Cravens, Duran, Garcia, Eric Griego, Keller, Lopez, Lovejoy, McSorley, Payne, Rue, Ryan, Sharer, Wirth, Nava, Neville, Rodriguez
They say it’s healthier, easy to implement and most of all, helps the budget. Senate bill 10 makes more foods eligible to be taxed in New Mexico and it crossed its first hurdle on Friday.
A bill that would have allowed people to register to vote at early voting sites and cast their ballot on the same day was left hanging late last night by a tie vote in the Senate Judiciary committee. It was…
House members debated The Hispanic Education Act for well over two hours before voting 44 to 25 to pass the bill to the Senate, where members had another lengthy debate before passing it 24 to 16. Much of the debate…
A modified food tax bill that would add gross receipts tax to non-staple food is poised to become part of the budget package, it’s sponsor, Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Bernalillo, said in a statement issued late Monday. While the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council took a position against the imposition of a food tax earlier in the year and hasn’t discussed this bill, the coordinator of the policy table, Pam Roy, told The Independent she thought this bill was “palatable.”
Despite moving testimony from Dan Koffman, the father of the only survivor of a June car accident in which a drunk diver killed four Santa Fe teenagers, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday tabled one of Sen.
One of the big-ticket items on the agenda for the legislative session is the Hispanic Education Act, which passed its first committee hearing on Monday. The legislation has come to the fore as one way to focus attention and resources on closing the “achievement gap” between Anglo and Hispanic students.
If I didn’t know better, I’d be tempted to think the Legislature’s evolving omnibus bill was an attempt to kill ethics reform once again. Oh, wait — this is Santa Fe. Of course that’s what the omnibus bill is about.
One of Bernalillo County’s key financial decision-makers has been moonlighting as a political consultant, doing paid campaign work for state legislators who support a project he helped to oversee, as well as other politicians he calls his friends.
