Taxes

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.

Some lawmakers want to make another attempt to increase taxes on alcohol sales in the upcoming legislative session. Industry leaders met with some lawmakers Wednesday to state their case against the tax.

Starting in the 2025 tax year, New Mexicans will see the impact of the first major adjustment to the state’s income tax structure since 2005. All state taxpayers will owe less, but especially those who make the least.

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.

New Mexico residents with low incomes can apply for state economic relief beginning Monday, June 12. The payments are for those who don’t qualify for the tax rebates that start going out next week. Though officials recommend retroactively filing a tax return, and getting access to a rebate instead, if possible.