You are currently viewing Legislative Session Update 3/2/2021

Legislative Session Update 3/2/2021

An excellent win for New Mexico: HB 148 Unemployment Contribution Rate ChangeRep. Chandler, was tabled Monday on a 16-3 vote in House Appropriations! This anti-business bill would cause unemployment tax rates to increase 200 – 300% or more causing hours to be cut and jobs to be lost. 

Our call to action was supported by several great business groups and netted over 4,000 emails to committee members opposing this bad bill. We appreciate every business leader, owner and employee who took the time to send an email and want to thank Walter Bradley, Former NM Lt. Governor, Dairy Farmers of America, Jane Jernigan, NM Utility Contractors Association and Carol Wight, NM Restaurant Association and others who shared the Call to Action.

We are also thankful to the Appropriations Committee members who voted to table this bill.
 

Another win for New MexicoHB 278 Manufacturing Services Gross ReceiptsRep. Harper, received a unanimous ‘Do-Pass’ from House Taxation and Revenue yesterday. Rep Harper, who is the state tax guru, has worked tirelessly to correct the myriad problems with New Mexico’s tax code. He has spent countless hours looking at the issues which cause our taxes to be uncompetitive with other states and to propose common sense solutions to address them. This bill provides a 100% gross receipts tax deduction for the sale of certain interbusiness services and also expands the manufacturing GRT deduction, which will help NM be more attractive to manufacturing operations.

Bad policy for New Mexico: HB 291 Tax ChangesRep. Martinez and Chandler. This is a really bad bill and it passed out of House Tax and Rev on a straight party line vote. This bill is significant multilevel tax increase that will disencentivize investments in rental housing and penalize individuals making over $100,000 per year. The vast majority of New Mexico business owners have business revenue taxed at their personal income rates which means that many of the people who will be impacted are small business owners. The tax increases in the bill would be a significant deterrent to business expansion, limit new investments in rental housing, and hamper investments that lead to new jobs. It would also cause rental rates to increase, harming the very people the sponsors say they are trying to help.  
 
More bad policy: Many in the legislature continue to push for new regulation requiring all businesses to provide paid sick or family leave. This type of mandate is anti-business and the timing couldn’t be worse. HB 20 Healthy Workplaces ActRep. Chandler, passed the full House this weekend. The governor has indicated the timing is bad for this type of legislation, but yet it’s still moving forward. We hope none of these bad bills make it to her desk, but if they do, we certainly hope she’ll take the appropriate action and veto them.