Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
During my time as governor, I could only dream of what a $3.6 billion budget surplus would look like. I want to commend Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the leaders of the Legislature for making wise investments in the critical issues of our time — including expanding early childhood education programs, access to higher education, clean energy and environmental protection. These are truly extraordinary times and extraordinary work is being done.
As excited as I am about these initiatives, I am also concerned about the tax plans of the legislature at this session. In the midst of the biggest revenue boom since statehood, they are bracing for tax hikes—on capital gains and savings, as well as the incomes of countless small businesses, families, and professionals. Our income tax rates would rise to nearly 7%, placing New Mexico in a small group of the highest taxing states in America.
This course is a divisive one, and it is unnecessary, unhelpful, and unwise. Given the way things are, there’s a lot we can build right now, but building an unfriendly economy shouldn’t be one of them.
And my fellow legislators, let us not be known as the party of tax increases and bureaucracy. Let’s be known as the party of higher wages, entrepreneurship, small business and innovative technology. The average New Mexico family desires economic security and more cash in their pockets. Let’s not spoil everything by raising taxes.
We should want people to move here, come here and raise a family that can stay here. Not rich people – or poor people – or people somewhere in the middle. We need them all, and our tax laws should encourage them all to make New Mexico their homes.
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From an economic point of view, we should want people to be able to find work here and companies to be able to find workers. It doesn’t help New Mexico if our national labs have trouble finding engineers and scientists because we’ve made it expensive for them to live here. Our taxes should not drive out workers. What good does it do our state to increase taxes on doctors and other health professionals as proposed? It doesn’t. You can park a little more revenue in the government savings account while making it even harder for New Mexicans to find a doctor. If you agree that access to healthcare is a vital right, raising taxes on doctors makes the problem worse.
And we should want new companies to choose our state to plant and do business in—both small companies that feel comfortable and unencumbered here and large companies that choose to locate operations, headquarters and employees in New Mexico.
At the end of the day, what does raising taxes – whether on investments or income – really do for our state, especially during a multi-billion dollar revenue boom? Some say it sends a message, and in the abstract that may be true. But in reality, it only makes the lives of the people we care about more difficult — the family business going through tough times, the single mom who can’t get a doctor’s appointment, and the talented college boy who has to leave town to to chase her dream.
I agree that taxes do the talking. And when governments arbitrarily raise tax rates, they are demanding that certain people — and certain types of economic activity — disappear. When we lowered income taxes and reduced the tax on capital gains in 2003, we did it as a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, corporations and workers. We need the same unified front today, with the same clear message: In New Mexico, we want your jobs, investment, talent and energy. And we are ready to fight for it.
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