The State House Sunday night approved an omnibus tax plan that includes tax rebates of $500 and $1000 for New Mexican tax filers. Originally the rebates were set at $300 for single filers and $600 for couples.
Some other late changes were made to the package including keeping the highest personal income tax rate at 5.9-percent.
The bill passed on a 50-18 vote. It now heads to the Senate with a week left in the session.
Bill Sponsor Rep. Derrick Lente says it was a group effort to find ways to give more money back to the people.
“This package is truly transformational. It will provide generational opportunities for every single New Mexican that is all going to be positive,” he said. “I do what to recognize my Vice-Chairwoman (Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena) who played a large part in this construction as well as every single one of our committee members from the Tax and Revenue Committee that poured their heart out and gave me themselves during our committee hearings and it was really objective and at the very most was respectful of the process.”
The Senate Finance Committee has also agreed to the $500 and $1000 rebates, but they are lower than the $750 and $1500 Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had proposed. Lente says those figures would have eaten up too much of the surplus to be able to do much of anything else.
HB 547 lowers the Gross Receipts Tax, increases in corporate tax deductions, it hikes tobacco and alcohol taxes and increases the child income tax credit.