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Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers in both chambers adopt tax compromise in session's final hours
Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) and Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Las Cruces) said they appreciated the cooperation on the tax package negotiations in the session's final hours. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) The House and Senate both adopted a compromise tax package on a voice vote late in both chambers Friday night, after hours of negotiations and a failed vote earlier in the day on the multimillion dollar tax package. The conference committee mended the rift exposed between chambers over the tax package on Thursday — just later than expected. At about 9 p.m. the heads of the tax committees, Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) and Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Las Cruces), presented a much smaller package of benefits, and eliminated a new tax on oil that had previously funded the whole measure. Instead, the Legislature will pay for the $113 million dollar compromise package of tax credits from the state's reserves, which will be pulled from next year's budget. Lente said other options were considered, but ultimately discarded, because of the time crunch of mere hours left in the session. In the compromise package: an Earned Income Tax Credit for lower-income single people and families; removal of gross receipts tax on medical services; a 20% increase in liquor at the wholesale price expected to generate $10 million a year for a tribal alcohol alleviation fund; and a tax credit for foster parents and guardians caring for children. What didn't make the cut: 0.28% tax on oil paired with a reduction in natural gas taxes contained in House Bill 548 expected to generate $130 million in revenue; and a series of other tax credits for emergency responders, search and rescue, publishers and newspaper printers and quantum facilities. The increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit will benefit the approximately 200,000 who qualify currently for the Working Families Tax Credit and expand to about 100,000 more New Mexicans, Lente said. The credit allows people making minimum wage, to families of three up to $70,000 annual income to not pay state income taxes. 'That's a far reaching, very broad benefit that we would be able to protect in this tax package,' Lente said Friday evening. Hamblen said the pieces that failed to make it into this year's package will be reconsidered in the future. 'I think we've got this really great foundation,' she said. 'We've got our hopes and dreams of what we need to look at next year and I'm excited about that.' Rep. Mark Duncan (R-Kirtland) was the lone vote against the package, saying he thought using reserves to pay for the tax package was 'a bad way to do business,' and noted the Legislature was paying $171 million from reserves to balance the budget this year, in addition to the tax package. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Deal takes shape on slimmed-down tax package as session enters final hours
Mar. 21—SANTA FE — With the end of the 60-day legislative session hours away, members of the House and Senate reached a compromise late Friday on a high-profile tax package — by slimming it down and pushing most changes to next year. Lawmakers also signed off on bills authorizing New Mexico to fund brackish water projects and making it easier for independent voters to cast ballots in primary elections. In between that action, a few representatives and senators met behind closed doors all day trying to come to an agreement over the tax package. Amid the deliberations, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham came down from her fourth-floor office to talk with legislative leadership. The key sticking point between the House and Senate was whether a tax hike on oil production should be included in the tax package to offset the budgetary impact of a slew of expanded tax credits and new tax breaks. The surtax would've generated about $130 million for fiscal year 2026. The Senate stood firm after stripping the oil surtax out of the package this week, prompting a showdown with the House, in which three members from each chamber met in an open conference committee Friday morning to try to figure out an agreement. "I don't know if we have a path forward," said Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, during a morning negotiating meeting between appointees from the two chambers. The initial meeting of the conference committee resulted in stripping a disaster gaming tax exemption for the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino and reallocating money from a liquor excise tax increase to a tribal treatment fund. But the biggest issue remained: how to pay for a projected $140 million per year in proposed tax credits and breaks. Lente made it clear he didn't want any bills used as "sacrificial lambs" to pay for the tax package. Unable to reach a deal on the oil tax provision, the committee adjourned and planned to meet again in the late afternoon. But a legislative staffer, 10 minutes after the scheduled meeting time, announced it was postponed to an unknown time. The committee didn't meet again until 8:30 p.m., when members announced the compromise, which was then ratified by both the House and Senate. If approved by the governor, most of the tax changes would not take effect until the 2027 budget year, which starts in July 2026. The liquor tax increase would still take effect in July. The new pared-package removed about $30 million in previously proposed tax credits and breaks. What remained was a package giving an additional 101,000 New Mexicans personal income tax breaks, as well as tax credits and breaks for foster parents and health care practitioners. "Yes, we have other ideas that we would like to fund. The beauty about this is we already have a head start to next year," said Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, of the now $113 million tax package stripped of its funding mechanism. However, Rep. Mark Duncan, R-Kirtland, said he doesn't like the idea of allocating funding now for next year's session. "I still think this is a bad way to do business," he said. "No one would budget like this in their homes." Trying to beat the deadline With the session set to end Saturday at noon, lawmakers spent most of the day on the House and Senate floors in a final push to pass legislation. As of late Friday, more than 140 bills had passed both chambers to advance to Lujan Grisham's desk for final approval, out of the nearly 1,200 filed during this year's session. However, the fate of some bills remained uncertain. That included House Bill 149, which was overhauled on the Senate floor to include language backed by the governor dealing with individuals deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. Some senators criticized the legislative maneuver, but backers pushed back against suggestions it represented a back-room deal. "This is the way the sausage is made," said Senate Republican floor leader William Sharer of Farmington. However, it was unclear if the House would sign off on the Senate changes to the legislation after a bill containing similar language stalled earlier in the session in a House committee. Meanwhile, the possibility of another conference committee was brewing as the House late Friday failed to agree with Senate changes to another bill, House Bill 167, which initially started as a two-page education tests payment bill but had its length more than tripled with new language on teacher preparation programs. Voting, water bills win approval Among the bills passed during the final push to adjournment were measures expanding the state's anti-racketeering laws and establishing a new Medicaid trust fund. The House also narrowly approved a bill allowing independent voters to participate in primary elections without having to change their party affiliation. The bill, Senate Bill 16, was approved on a 36-33 vote and could affect more than 330,000 independent voters in New Mexico if signed into law by the governor. "We were all holding onto our seats, not knowing if it was going to happen," said Sila Avcil, executive director of the advocacy group New Mexico Open Elections. The semi-open primary bill marked the only significant elections bill to pass during this year's 60-day session, and the vote on the bill did not break down along strict political lines. Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, mulled over the possibility of strategic voting as a result of the measure, while Rep. Kathleen Cates, D-Rio Rancho, praised the measure as a way to increase voter turnout rates. "This is about democracy and strengthening our democratic republic to involve more folks in the electoral process," said bill sponsor Rep. Cristina Parajón, D-Albuquerque. On the other side of the Roundhouse, senators debated the proposed Strategic Water Supply Act, which would allow the state to grant awards or enter into contracts for brackish water treatment and reuse projects. The tide turned for the bill that's failed before and passed 33-6. The legislation started this year on shakier ground due to its initial inclusion of produced water reuse, but legislators watered it down to give it a better shot at passing the Legislature. A gubernatorial signature is likely, as the bill is a priority of Lujan Grisham.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Mexico Legislature passes $1.2B in local infrastructure, construction spending
Legislative Finance Committee analyst Cally Carswell, Rep. Derrick Lente and Sen. Benny Shendo discuss capital outlay funding with the Senate Finance Committee on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) The New Mexico Senate on Thursday afternoon approved $1.2 billion in one-time funding for local infrastructure, buildings and equipment in an annual spending bill called 'capital outlay.' Lawmakers pass a capital outlay bill each year to pay for all or part of new infrastructure or construction — projects like buildings, parks, roads or acequia upgrades. The Senate voted 25-16 in favor of House Bill 450, with Republicans in opposition. The floor vote came minutes after the Senate Finance Committee passed the bill, which will allocate funds to more than 1,400 projects in all 33 of New Mexico's counties. The House of Representatives passed the same version of HB450 on Wednesday; the bill now heads to the governor's desk. Sen. Pat Woods (R-Broadview) opposed the bill in committee on Thursday for the same reasons as his House colleagues the day before: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham added a $10 million request for the construction of a reproductive health clinic in Northern New Mexico. 'I know the governor has all the rights in the world to put in whatever piece she wants in this,' Woods told the committee. 'I'm disappointed it came in so late and that I wasn't able to see it ahead of time.' Some of the big-ticket items in the bill include $50 million for public school buildings statewide; $40 million for a forensic unit at the Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas; and $40 million for a humanities and social sciences complex at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Most of the money in the capital outlay bill — nearly $800 million — comes from the state's General Fund, its biggest single pot of public money, while another $292 million comes from the sale of severance tax bonds and the remaining $132.9 million comes from other state funds. Legislative Finance Committee staff have recommended lawmakers consider setting an earlier deadline for local capital outlay requests, and creating a basic method of vetting and tracking projects that receive state money. The Department of Finance and Administration has created an online dashboard that allows people to track capital outlay spending, but lawmakers are considering more changes. Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) told the committee the capital outlay process is a 'work in progress.' He said an LFC subcommittee met over the interim last year to discuss ways to 'modernize' the process. He said he expects a minimum funding amount or a 'floor' to be one of those changes. 'If we don't set this floor, we're nickel and diming this process to a point where they may never be able to spend this money because it's never enough, and the project continues to go up in price, and at the end of the day, we just continue to add to the unspent balance that we have today,' Lente said. Overall, $5.8 billion remains in unspent capital outlay funding, said Cally Carswell, principal capital outlay analyst for the Legislative Finance Committee and an expert witness on HB450. Sen. Michael Padilla (D-Albuquerque) told the committee he coordinates with representatives whose districts overlap with his to collaborate on funding specific projects, and asked if anything can be done to help coordinate capital outlay funding in different parts of New Mexico. Carswell told the committee similar coordination is happening in several parts of the state, it's a good practice and tends to lead to more projects getting more of the funding they need. She said after this session, LFC could start looking at 'some sort of technological solutions or additional tools' to make it easier for lawmakers to coordinate. 'Capital outlay has to change,' Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) said on the Senate floor on Thursday. The state currently has 712 active projects, to which lawmakers had given at least $1 million as of September, accounting for $4.3 billion in total, according to data produced by legislative staff. Of those, 360 are on schedule, 75 are behind schedule and 277 have had no activity, or the local governments responsible have not sold the bonds needed to raise the money, or are facing 'significant obstacles to completion,' according to the report. 'We're spending the money the wrong way. We're wasting money,' Muñoz told the Senate Finance Committee. 'People show up with a project and an idea, and they have no plan. They don't know what the cost is. They just know we're giving away free money. Time and time again, we underfund projects and we don't ever complete them.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
While you were sleeping: Here's what the NM Legislature did last night
Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) during Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's State of the State address. Lente, the sponsor for House Bill 450, which contains $1.2 billion in capital outlay projects from lawmakers, the executive and public entities, navigated an 'eleventh-hour' addition of a $10 million request for a reproductive clinic in Northern New Mexico, sparking a House GOP revolt over the bill in the session's last days. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Debate stretched into the evening Wednesday night at the Roundhouse, and New Mexico legislative committees convened into the wee hours of Thursday. Here's what happened if you had other plans (like sleeping). After hitting the three-hour rule of debate adopted in the lower chamber's rules, the House passed House Bill 450 along party lines after House Republicans revolted against a late-addition of a $10 million dollar proposed reproductive health clinic in Northern New Mexico. HB 450 contains $1.2 billion for capital outlay projects across the state, including$600 million in a general fund revenue split between local projects prioritized by House and Senate members and the governor, according to the analysis on the bill. Capital outlay now heads to the Senate side, which has a packed schedule Thursday including the possible tackle of a hefty tax package House Bill 14, which includes a new tax on the sale of oil and gas. The House also passed a bill earmarking $210 million for communities to respond and mitigate the impacts of climate change, carried by House Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski (D-Santa Fe) and Sen Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque). Read our previous coverage here. Senate Bill 48, passed along a party line vote after hours of debate, and now heads to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's desk for approval. Lawmakers rejected three amendments proposed by Republicans on the floor. The House unanimously passed Senate Bill 41, which creates a system to send out statewide alerts when Indigenous people go missing. SB41 heads back to the Senate for concurrence — meaning that body will have to approve changes made by the House Judiciary committee. If passed, it will head to the fourth floor for the governor's consideration. House Judiciary, which convened at 10 p.m. and broke up just after 12:30 a.m., passed Senate Bill 16, which would allow 'decline to state' voters —aka independents— the ability to participate in primaries without changing their voter registrations, sending the bill to the House floor. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers seek more than $1.2 billion to fund infrastructure projects in New Mexico
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Every session, lawmakers make funding requests for infrastructure projects across New Mexico. This year, these capital outlay funds, HB 450, total more than $1.2 billion and more than 1,400 projects statewide are on the list to receive funding. Story continues below Weather: Hazardous winds leave a trail of destruction in New Mexico Crime: ABQ police take 11-year-old into custody in connection to fatal hit and run Entertainment: These movies were filmed in Santa Fe. Have you seen them? During a committee hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers learned what those projects include. 'You know for many communities in our state, the capital outlay bill is their one and only source of revenue to do anything substantial for infrastructure in their communities,' said Representative Derrick Lente, (D-Sandia Pueblo). It's one of the most awaited bills during any legislative session, the capital outlay proposal includes funding for projects that the governor and lawmakers want to get done across the state. The bill gives nearly $4 million for Balloon Fiesta Park upgrades, including $1 million for a museum playground. Another $4 million dollars is going to fund the Domingo Baca Aquatic Center, which has been in the works since 2005. The University of New Mexico is getting more than $100 million in funding including, construction dollars for the College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine. In previous years, lawmakers have faced criticism over infrastructure projects that get started but sit uncompleted. During a committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Derrick Lente said having extra funds has helped them finish some of these projects. 'An additional 8 million dollars was provided for waterline expansions in Curry County. That fully funded that project that otherwise would never have received fully funding of that project,' said Rep. Lente. He said this year's bill set aside $50 million to help complete projects like improving water lines and fire stations, especially in rural communities. 'In this bill itself that it actually helps to complete projects versus just continuing a process where we give a little bit, we give a little bit, we give a little bit but never could fully fund it because the goal post is always moving because inflation affects things, prices go up right,' said Rep. Lente. During the committee meeting, some Republican lawmakers voted against the capital outlay bill, due to a project that the governor is funding, that would create a reproductive healthcare clinic that performs abortions. The package will be heard on the House floor Wednesday. If it passes there, it will then go to the Senate side. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
