tax reform

Many in New Mexico lack adequate food, secure housing, affordable healthcare, and fair-paying jobs. But by the numbers, so gradual it’s difficult to detect, changes to state tax policy are softening the bite of poverty.

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 has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the nation and the situation has gotten even worse since the pandemic. Despite this, state lawmakers this session failed to pass any substantive measures to curb the crisis. Public health reporter Ted Alcorn has long covered the issue for New Mexico in Depth. He spoke with KUNM about a debate over whether and how to change the way the state taxes alcohol. Democrats filed competing bills this year, neither of which got to the governor.

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.

After the governor made massive cuts to the Legislature’s tax relief bill last year, lawmakers are proposing an even more conservative approach than she is this time around.

Significant tax reforms are expected to move through the Roundhouse this year with bipartisan support. Bill Jordan with New Mexico Voices for Children is calling for lawmakers to create a more equitable tax code — not only with an eye towards income levels, but race and gender as well.

As Republicans in Congress iron out the final version of a massive tax overhaul, some nonprofits in New Mexico are bracing for a hit to their…