New Mexico Approves Another Round of $500 Rebates for Taxpayers

New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham speaks at a news conference in Santa Fe, N.M., on July 29, 2021. (Morgan Lee/AP Photo)

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham approved sending New Mexicans rebate checks by the start of this summer when signing a tax bill last week.

The governor confirmed the cash assistance payments in a Twitter post on Friday.

“Our state today is in a fantastic financial position, and it’s important to me that New Mexico’s families are sharing in that success. Starting in mid-June, New Mexico taxpayers will see $500 in economic relief arriving via direct deposit or in the mail,” Grisham wrote.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 21, 2020. (Craig Fritz/AP Photo)

An estimated 875,000 taxpayers throughout the state will be eligible to receive the payments regardless of their income level. Married couples will receive $1,000 rebates, according to the official announcement.

“Prices for basic necessities continue to be high across the nation,” Grisham said in a statement. “Our state today is in a fantastic financial position, and it’s important to me that New Mexico’s families are sharing in that success.”

This year’s round of rebate checks will be automatically processed for all residents who filed 2021 tax returns.  However, some individuals could have their rebate checks withheld by the state if they still owe 2021 back taxes to the state.

State lawmakers approved the rebates as part of a lengthy tax package during this year’s 60-day legislative session, and this comes as the governor approved and vetoed many bills earlier this month.

In addition to the tax rebates, the governor approved HB 2, which authorizes $9.6 billion in spending for next year’s state budget; a 14 percent increase over this year, the bill states.

“Every one of these provisions directly helps New Mexicans through supporting working families, bolstering the health care workforce, and fostering continued economic growth,” Grisham said in a statement.

“Expanding the Child Tax Credit will help over 200,000 New Mexico families and broaden our successful effort to reduce child poverty rates, which dropped by a full percentage point between 2019 and 2021. Cutting the gross receipts tax for health care practitioners will lower costs for patients and keep more doctors in New Mexico, and increasing our support for film and television will leverage more private investment in our state and mean more jobs for New Mexicans.”

One of the most prominent vetoed bills was a 20 percent increase on alcohol taxes. Grisham said the numbers just weren’t right and insisted more work needs to be done.

“For me, for New Mexicans, outside of the tax issue, we need to do more about alcoholism and treatment and DWI and public safety, and I don’t need that, per se, to do more,” she said in a statement. “We did get funding to do that in health and in Medicaid and in other places, but we’re going to have to do more here, and we will.”

The expanded child tax credit provides more than $100 million in tax relief for an estimated 214,000 families who will be able to claim a larger credit of up to $600 per child, depending on family income, the bill states.

The bill as signed will also help make health care more affordable by allowing health care providers to deduct copays and deductible payments from gross receipts tax on many health care practitioner services covered by insurance or managed health care plans, according to the bill.

“I am so pleased that Governor Lujan Grisham continues to support health care providers and ensure access to care by expanding the gross receipts tax deduction for health care,” Dr. Barbara McEneny, CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center said in a statement. “With this step, New Mexico just became more competitive in recruiting and retaining doctors.”

Eligible New Mexico residents have until May 31, 2024, to file a 2021 New Mexico Personal Income Tax return and still qualify for the rebates.

“Our staff is already hard at work preparing this next round of rebates, which we know New Mexicans are eager to get,” TRD Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said in a statement.