State Graduate Tax Credit Moves Through First Committee in NM Legislature

Score one in the win col­umn for our grad­u­ate stu­dents. Sen­ate Bill 11, the State Grad­u­ate Tax Credit, earned a “do pass” in Sen­ate Cor­po­ra­tions this after­noon, though by a nar­row one-vote margin.

The bill would give tax cred­its to New Mex­ico busi­nesses who hire NM grad­u­ates with mas­ters or Ph.D. degrees in the STEHM fields. Pro­po­nents argue that it will keep our grad­u­ates in state and help reverse the brain drain. Oppo­nents appar­ently don’t like this par­tic­u­lar approach.

SB11 next goes to Sen­ate Finance, where today chal­lenges fac­ing the pen­sion funds were aired. The com­mit­tee did not debate spe­cific leg­is­la­tion, but did hear argu­ments for and against cur­rent pro­pos­als for sol­vency. LFC ana­lysts told the com­mit­tee that the increased employee con­tri­bu­tions called for in the ERB stake­holder pro­posal might affect recruit­ment while DFA ana­lysts called for more ben­e­fit reduc­tions. The Sen­ate ver­sion of the ERB sol­vency pro­posal will first be heard in Sen­ate Education.

Susan McK­in­sey, Office of Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­nity Relations