The Santa Fe Alliance has joined a coalition in support of corporate tax reform and investing in New Mexico’s economy now.

A coalition of small businesses, advocacy groups, labor unions, religious leaders, and physicians will join several legislators at the Roundhouse at 10am Wednesday March 11 to urge support for SB 648 (corporate tax reform) and HB 742 (increasing the tax on cigarettes). Together, the bills would raise $100 million in new revenue while cutting taxes for more than 7,000 small New Mexico businesses.

The new revenue could keep some budget cuts at bay, thus investing in the state’s economy via spending on critical programs. The tax cuts would also help small New Mexico businesses that are struggling and make them more competitive with large, out-of-state corporations.

“When the budget is tight the automatic response is often to cut spending,” said Senator Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe), one of the bill’s sponsors. “Cutting funding for programs like education, children’s health care, and public safety hurts New Mexico’s families in the best of times, but it’s very detrimental in tough financial times.”

Bill Jordan, Policy Director for New Mexico Voices for Children, concurred. “Budget cuts mean job cuts, and that’s the last thing we should be doing in an economic downturn,” he said. “We also need to support New Mexico businesses, which put hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans to work every day. Sen. Wirth’s corporate tax reform bill would allow us to do both.”

“This is not only going to level the playing field for our locally owned businesses in New Mexico, it’s going to invest in our own economy and create the stimulus we need right now,” said Vicki Pozzebon, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Alliance, the nonprofit business organization of over 600 locally owned businesses that has supported the tax reform bill for several years.

HB 742 will also accomplish multiple goals. “By raising the tax on cigarettes we can bring in some much-needed revenue while discouraging youngsters from taking up smoking,” said Rep. Bobby Gonzales (D-Taos), the bill’s sponsor. “The Surgeon General has said that this is the most effective way to keep kids from smoking, and that also saves us on public health costs in the long run,” he added.

The legislators pointed to a poll conducted by Brian Sanderoff in January that showed strong public support among New Mexicans for increasing the tax on cigarettes. The vast majority of those polled did not favor budget cuts to public education.

The coalition of groups in support of both bills include NM Voices for Children, AFSCME, AFT New Mexico, NM Federation of Labor/AFL-CIO, Santa Fe Alliance, NM Conference of Catholic Bishops, NM Conference of Churches, Primary Care Association, and NM Pediatric Society.