February 14, 2024

Tax omnibus goes to governor

The House voted 39-27 to concur with Senate amendments made to the tax omnibus bill. HB 252 seeks to adjust tax brackets without raising taxes and adds tax credits including gross receipts tax deductions and renewable energy incentives. “That is the nature of this tax omnibus bill. I mean, we did our work, we sent […]

Nicole Maxwell

The House voted 39-27 to concur with Senate amendments made to the tax omnibus bill.

HB 252 seeks to adjust tax brackets without raising taxes and adds tax credits including gross receipts tax deductions and renewable energy incentives.

“That is the nature of this tax omnibus bill. I mean, we did our work, we sent our initiatives over (to the Senate side) and then (the Senate) did their work and we left them enough capacity to do that work with whatever their priorities ended up to be,” bill sponsor Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, said.

Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe, did not like the process used to craft the omnibus bill.

“I feel like we should have these bills come to us individually and vote upon them individually, for many reasons,” Lujan said.

Related: Tax omnibus passes Senate

The tax omnibus contains tax credits from individual bills proposed throughout the legislative session, including some that were line-item vetoed out of the 2023 tax omnibus.

The way the tax omnibus bills are created means that most of the legislators like 70 percent of it and dislike 30 percent of it, Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho said.

Harper has long been an advocate for tax reform and has introduced bills to do so over his time in the legislature.

“This isn’t all bad, but I think I’ve changed now to liking about 15 percent of it and not liking 85 percent of it,” Harper said.

Harper objected to the Senate’s additions.

“The house is a co-equal branch with the Senate and the Senate just expected us to take what they are jamming down our throats,” Harper said. “We haven’t had the opportunity to vet it in the (House Tax and Revenue Committee) and I don’t think that’s right.”

Harper said he would not vote to concur with the Senate’s changes and urged his House colleagues to follow his lead.

Prior to final discussions in the Senate, both the House Tax and Revenue and the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committees held joint meetings where the additional tax breaks were never discussed, Harper said.

The bill now goes to the governor’s desk.