For the first time ever, during the 2013 legislative session, the Rio Grande Foundation created a tool called “Freedom Index” which allowed legislators and constituents alike to see how our representatives voted on freedom issues on the floor of the Legislature.
We have created infographics for each house and each region of the state to allow users to compare their legislators against each other within the same region. Check out the following documents:
Eastern New Mexico
Western New Mexico
Southern New Mexico
Northern New Mexico
Santa Fe area
Albuquerque area
Statewide
Why did you not include HB-172 which was a tax increase on NM residents who happen to have out of state income?
I’m not sure I understand this one. Should the state be offering tax breaks on income derived from activities in other states? We may have missed this one, but I want to make sure I understand why this legislation was bad and how important it is relative to the other bills from this session.
HB-172 affects only NM taxpayers and increases state revenue approx $1.4M. That is a tax increase on state residents no matter how you look at it. It is a tax break only in so far as not having to be taxed twice. If I reside in NM as an oil field worker, migrant worker, construction worker, etc, but work where the jobs are and have to pay taxes to the state where I earned the income, why should I be taxed again by NM?
You are absolutely correct. We may have missed that particular vote. It is our first time with this particular site and this is the first bill we’ve run across that we failed to include. I appreciate the note and your interest in the issues.