Taxes

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.

A tax reform package got the go-ahead from the New Mexico House late Sunday with a few substantial changes. The amended bill increases the amount all taxpayers will get in direct payments and nixes a proposed tax hike for New Mexicans who make the most.

The House Taxation and Revenue committee has been hearing tax proposals for 48 days and, on Monday, it passed a bill that compiles around 20 of them into a comprehensive package. It includes a significant reduction of direct payments called for by the governor in order to make room for other reforms.

New Mexico legalized recreational cannabis in 2021 with intentions to support communities disproportionately harmed by its criminalization. Sales opened last year and a bill now moving through the Legislature aims to finally funnel some of the tax revenue into local health and equity work.

Childcare is expensive. But in New Mexico, the Early Childhood Education and Care Department provides subsidies to help contractors meet the needs of many families. All programs that provide the same services in the same type of facility for the same age groups get the same amount, but for-profit providers pay tax on those state dollars that nonprofit and government programs do not. Private providers are now asking the state Legislature to change that.

The expansion of the federal child tax credit in 2021 made a dent in how many U.S. children are living in poverty, but it ended after just one year. New Mexico, a state with the second highest child poverty rate in the country, quickly passed its own version of the tax relief for people with children last year. While parents won’t see the benefits of the state credit until they file taxes next year, lawmakers are already debating whether to increase it.

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.

Bills are heading to the legislature that would raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Advocates say the higher prices, and the prevention campaigns they’ll fund, will help curb use in a state that struggles with alcoholism and teen nicotine use. But some lawmakers pushed back on that assumption in a hearing of the Revenue Stabilization & Tax Policy Committee Tuesday.

The national unemployment rate dropped in July to just over 10%, while New Mexico’s unemployment rate rose in that period to just over 12%. One reason is…

A bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in New Mexico stalled in the Senate last year. Over the summer, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham convened a…