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.
The bill to revoke driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants was changed substantially in a Senate committee Tuesday night. The amendments were enough to have the bill’s sponsor say that the bill was “eviscerated.”
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.
The New Mexico Corrections Department has not fined two private prison operators for years despite repeated contract violations, costing the state potentially millions of dollars in uncollected penalties, state officials have told The Independent. That has put New Mexico Corrections Secretary Joe Williams on a collision course with state lawmakers. Some legislators say the issue of uncollected penalties is finally coming to a head as New Mexico faces economic difficulties.
With a 7-4 vote the Senate Finance Committee tabled one of the most-watched bills of the 2010 regular session. For nearly three weeks, strong opinions have swirled around domestic partnerships legislation, but supporters vow that it will be back in 2011.…
An attempt to define marriage as between on man and one woman failed in the Senate Rules Committee Monday by a vote of 5-2. Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, had proposed a constitutional amendment that would have added the phrase…
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
Four couples celebrated their commitments on Saturday at a group domestic partnership ceremony at the New Mexico state capitol.
Local activist and ordained minister Wenda Watch led the ceremony in front of a small crowd of friends, family and supporters.…
Annie got one step closer to being able to carry her concealed gun into a restaurant on Friday.
Senators voted 27-15 to approve Sen. George Muñoz‘ SB 40 that would allow those with concealed weapon permits…
A bill designed to alleviate jury confusion in the plea process confused legislators Thursday during a debate that lasted more than an hour.
Sen. Peter Wirth‘s SB 216 seeks to eliminate the “guilty but mentally ill” plea, leaving only…
The Senate Rules Committee tabled a bill Wednesday that would have banned people who have contracts with the State Land Office from giving campaign contributions to the land commissioner or candidates for that office.
Lively debate preceded the Senate’s Wednesday vote in favor (23-15) on SB 148, which prohibits insurance companies from using gender as a factor in determining health insurance rates.
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.
State senators weren’t agreed Friday about how to reform a state agency at the center of an investment scandal. But one thing’s for sure: they’re spoiling for a fight with Gov. Bill Richardson over who should control the State Investment Council. Three reform bills are being combined into one that could be heard on Monday in the Senate Rules Committee.
Four members of New Mexico’s House of Representatives walked out of the House Judiciary Committee Friday afternoon as a domestic violence bill was being heard.
HB 17, which was introduced by Rep. Nate Cote and
A long-simmering bill that would require multi-state corporations to pay income tax on their earnings in NM lived another day as the House Business and Industry committee came to a close Thursday night. Rather than being tabled, as several other…
Two bills designed to reform laws related to DWI, brought by Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, made their way through the Senate Public Affairs Committee Tuesday. Neither got out of committee with a “do-pass” recommendation, and each gained an additional…
The Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee unanimously approved a proposed bill that would create a state ethics commission at a meeting this week. The legislation will be introduced during January’s legislative session.
Committee co-chairs Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, and…
One conservative lawmaker joined a bloc of liberals on the Senate floor Tuesday in attempting to bring back a handful of tax bills that a Senate committee had previously shot down.
LAS CRUCES — Lawmakers who are crafting legislation that would create an independent state ethics commission decided Wednesday evening to propose that such a body have 11 members with subpoena power. Other key questions—the most significant being what degree of disciplinary authority such a commission would have—remain unresolved.
By any measure, the 60-day session of the New Mexico Legislature that just ended was the most successful in recent memory for ethics-reform advocates who have been pushing for years to fundamentally change the way state government does business.
