Senate Democrats to Introduce Jobs Bills (cont'd)

“These bills offer an alternative to the limited approach that has been offered before,” Senator Keller said. “These bills will make sure that small businesses across the state have the tools they need to hire more New Mexicans and get our economy moving again.”

 The Initiative offers broad support for small business growth and the creation of economic base jobs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing and technology

“There are constantly new opportunities for our businesses in manufacturing, agriculture and sustainable energy technology,” said Senator John Sapien. “It is important that they have the means to take the lead and guide the state into a new economy.”

Information on Legislation

The HIRE Initiative is a collection of 11 bills that will work to incentivize hiring new employees, paying existing employees better and helping small businesses grow. Some of the HIRE legislation was created last summer by the Senate Majority Floor Leader’s Jobs Initiative Group, which brought together a bi partisan group of business leaders in agriculture and manufacturing, as well as several chambers of commerce, and labor leaders.

The Senate leaders felt that there needed to be a jobs package that would create real jobs to get the economy back on track.

·       Bill Number: SB 65 and SB 66

·       Sponsor: Senator Carlos Cisneros

·       Act Names: Severance Tax Bond Projects and General Obligation Bon

o    The Capital Outlay bills will invest more than 300 million dollars for the state’s infrastructure that will create thousands of construction jobs throughout the state.

·       Bill Number: SB 16

·       Sponsor: Senator Tim Keller

·       Act Name: State Graduate Employment Tax Credit

o   This hiring incentive would give businesses a tax credit of up to $5,000 per year when they employ a graduate of one of the New Mexico’s Universities, keeping educated workers employed in New Mexico small businesses.

·       Bill Number: SB 99

·       Sponsor: Senator Tim Eichenberg

·       Act Name: New Business corporate income tax credit

o   This bill would give a 25 percent tax credit on incremental income taxes for new business and encourage small businesses to start up in, expand or relocate to New Mexico.
   

·       Bill Number: SB 74

·        Sponsor: Senator Steve Fischmann

·       Act Name: Income tax credit for certain services between businesses

o   This bill would reduce the gross receipts tax pyramiding on business-to-business transactions for professional services, and will make it easier, and less expensive for small businesses to get the professional support that they need—like accountants, surveyors, planners, or researchers.

·       Bill Number: SB 42

·       Sponsor: Senator John Sapien

·       Act title: Manufacturing Investment Weighted Scale

o    This bill will allow manufacturers who are looking to expand their operation by purchasing new equipment to be given a tax credit for the improvements and investments that they choose to make.

·        Bill Number: SB 28

·        Sponsor: Senator Tim Keller

·       Act Name: Small Business Investment Corporation Fund

o   This bill would allow for ten percent of the severance tax permanent fund to be invested in New Mexico entrepreneurship funds, and would also double the amount to be invested in the New Mexico Small Business Investment Fund.

·        Bill Number: SB 138

·       Sponsor: Senator John Sapien

·       Act name: Tax Deduction for Certain Agricultural Equipment and Construction Projects

o   This bill will help agricultural entrepreneurs and construction contractors who need to upgrade to new and improved equipment by providing tax credits for 5 years.

·       Bill Number: SB 140

·       Sponsor: Senate Majority Floor Leader Michael Sanchez

·       Act name: Investment Credit Act Participation

o   This bill would give incentives to businesses not only for hiring additional workers, but also for increasing the wages of current workers through an income tax credit.

·       Bill Number: SB 139

·       Sponsor: Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia

·       Act name: NMFA as Community Development Financial Institution

o    This bill allows NMFA to participate in federal community development financial institutions fund programs. By being able to participate in available federal programs, NMFA will be able to deploy new financial products and development services to bring millions of new dollars to disadvantaged markets.

·       Bill Number: SB 142

·       Sponsor: Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia

·       Act name: Sustainable Energy Technology Tax Credit

o   The purpose of the sustainable energy technology tax credit is to encourage investment in sustainable energy technology research, development, commercialization, and production, and would give a tax credit of up to $25,000.

·        Bill Number: SB 141

·       Sponsor: Senator Phil Griego

·       Act name: Rural Agriculture Processing Transportation Tax

o   This bill would assist agricultural entrepreneurs export their products to other states by providing a tax credit of 20 percent of the costs of transportation.  A second benefit to this legislation is that it also would act as an incentive to establish commercial processing operations here in New Mexico

·       Bill Number: SB 36

·       Sponsor: Senator Tim Eichenberg

·       Act Name: Transportation Reinvestment Zone Act

o   This bill gives local entities the ability to make an authority that can issue bonds for infrastructure investment for transportation and power distribution projects.