Just the Facts ... and Then Some

JUST THE FACTS ... & THEN SOME

by Caren Cowan, Publisher New Mexico Stockman

There is no such thing as a “normal” legislature.

The 2022 Legislature is just days away, commencing on January 18 and finishing on February 18, 2022. Being a 30-day Session there are supposed to be only budgetary items introduced. However, the Governor may add as many issues as she wishes on “The Call.” The Call is generally not disclosed until the first day of the Session or after.

There are lots of hints in the media about issues various groups plan on bringing forward. Additionally commencing on January 3rd, legislators may begin to prefile their bills, memorials, or resolutions. Hopefully the picture may clear up some over the coming days.

One of those things that will affect all businesses in New Mexico, including ranches and farms, is paid leave. The paid leave bill passed in 2021 but it is not scheduled for implementation until 2022. Those supporting the measure admitted that it needed work and that work should be done prior to the implementation.

This is another issue that pits businesses against special interests groups. More and more people fail to realize that private businesses do not have unlimited dollars to run their businesses. They can’t just print more money like the government. As employee demands increase, the ability to pay employees decreases.

New legislation to create a Conservation Special Use Valuation is likely to come back. Previous iterations of this legislation have had one goal — to remove the requirement to keep livestock or some kind of agriculture on the land in order to receive the agriculture special use valuation on taxes. Although other cases have been made, the reality is that this is a new law for rich people who come into New Mexico, buy

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In the past the legislation has attempted to create the conservation special use valuation within the agriculture special use valuation. To get the conservation special use valuation, land must come out of agriculture. Conservation provides no income to pay taxes.

Not only will this change in law provide a free ride for those who can more than afford to pay their taxes, but it will take existing agricultural families off the land as well as hurting county coffers.

This time the effort is under the guise of New Mexico First (NMF1st). Although agriculture participated step by step it was only a matter of time before the Resilience in New Mexico Agriculture Plan from NM1st would take a big swipe at agriculture in the state.

Agriculture made it abundantly clear that the Resilience plan was not be used for changing tax policy for the community in numerous meetings across the state with this recommendation that was adopted for the plan:

RECOMMENDATION 17: TAX REGULATIONS IMPACTING AGRICULTURE Protect existing tax exemptions for agriculture and enact others that fairly keep food costs low while protecting producers’ ability to maintain their businesses.

It appears that new staff at NM1st worked hard to find a way around the long adopted recommendation in the Resiliency Plan. With funding from House Bill 2 (the state funding bill) probably in 2020, to the Rural Heritage Task Force, they hired a researcher at the University of New Mexico, Bureau of Business & Economic Research to look at Economic Security & Vitality for New Mexico. The researcher was also apparently involved in obtaining funding for the study.

As it turns out, that “Economic Security & Vitality” study looked at only four recommendations of the Resiliency Plan (including recommendation 17).

A NM1st staffer tried to cover the com-