alcoholism

For the third straight year, lawmakers are trying to raise taxes on alcoholic drinks, in an attempt to reduce New Mexico’s worst-in-the-nation alcohol-related death rate.

New Mexico lawmakers will once again not raise taxes on alcohol this year, nor redistribute more of the revenue to treatment and prevention. Neither of two competing bills amending the liquor excise tax made it out of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee Friday.

New Mexico has not raised its alcohol excise tax since 1993, but not for lack of trying. Numerous bills have been introduced over the last three decades, but none have been signed into law. Last year, an increase made it through the Roundhouse only to be vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. This year, lawmakers in the state with the highest alcohol-related death rate in the country are giving it another go.

While New Mexico has long struggled with the nation’s highest rate of alcohol-related deaths, the pandemic has inflamed the issue, according to a report released Thursday. The state saw an average of six people die each day from alcohol in 2021, and few living with the addiction are getting treatment.

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