The Senate passed a tax omnibus bill on a 26-to-13 vote following an hours-long debate on the floor.
HB 252 would adjust personal income tax brackets without adding new taxes.
Other changes include adding a rural healthcare practitioner tax credit, fire recovery tax credits, corporate income tax changes, angel investment tax credit, capital gains deduction, Medicaid home modification gross receipts tax deduction and childcare provider GRT deduction.
“The personal income tax structure proposed… will decrease taxes for all taxpayers with the rate decreasing target at the lowest income earners,” Sen. Benny Shendo, Jr., D-Jemez Pueblo, said.
The bill adds a sixth personal income tax bracket which lowers taxes by about $175 million, Shendo said.
Related: Tax omnibus clears Finance committee, heads to Senate floor
Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, proposed an amendment that Muñoz determined was unfriendly.
The amendment would reinstate the indexing for the Social Security tax that the Senate included last year but was ultimately line-item vetoed out of the bill.
New Mexico is one of nine states that tax Social Security; however, due to income bracket changes enacted in 2022 very few Social Security filers’ benefits are taxed.
Single filers on Social Security recipients making up to $100,000 and joint filers making up to $150,000 do not have their Social Security benefits taxed at the state level.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said that he would vote against the amendment because the issue was brought up late in the tax omnibus bill’s negotiation process.
The Social Security exemption question will be discussed during the 2025 legislative session, Wirth said.
The amendment failed on a 15-to-20 vote.
The Senate passed the bill which now goes back to the House to act on changes made on the Senate side before it can be sent to the governor.