New Mexico’s legislative committees will be meeting with agency secretaries and other department officials over the next few months on matters relating to the state budget and service priorities.
While the interim Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) is a key budget committee, so also is the interim Revenue Stabilizations and Tax Policy Committee, (RSTPC) which reviews revenue projections, and supposedly looks at ways to make tax policy fair and constructive in meeting state service needs.
The RSTPC will be meeting on Friday, August 7, in the House Chambers. It is supposed to be a video conference, and as such will likely be streamed live and archived on the Legislature’s website.
A day or two before the meeting, we will be providing a preliminary review of things to be looking out for from the committee members and staff, along with what to expect from presenters of the administration.
The actions of this committee will be very important, as the news about federal relief from Washington D.C. is at best muddled due to the U.S. Senate Republican leadership’s inaction and the Scrooge-like behavior of the White House.
There is some discussion about allowing states to use money from the already available CARES funding to fill state budget gaps beyond COVID-19 related spending.
While that is not nearly enough in federal response, it is a creeping of sorts in a better direction.
The congressional deadlock is all the more reason that New Mexico’s key legislative leaders and the governor, all Democrats, need to provide some bold initiatives as to revenue and tax policy reform.
More on this later in the week.
A copy of the draft agenda for the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee meeting is listed below.
TENTATIVE AGENDA for the FIRST MEETING of the REVENUE STABILIZATION AND TAX POLICY COMMITTEE
August 7, 2020 House Chambers and Video Conference Meeting Santa Fe
Friday, August 7
10:00 a.m. (1) Revenue Tracking: Preview of Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Actuals and FY 2021 Estimates —Dawn Iglesias, Chief Economist, Legislative Finance Committee —Stephanie Schardin Clarke, Secretary, Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD) —Debbie Romero, Acting Secretary, Department of Finance and Administration
12:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. (2) TRD Update —Stephanie Schardin Clarke, Secretary, TRD —TBD
3:00 p.m. (3) Discussion of Work Plan and Meeting Schedule —Committee Members
4:00 p.m. Adjourn