The nonpartisan Tax Foundation today released its 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index, and the annual report ranked New Mexico just 35th best in the nation. But the state director for New Mexico’s largest small-business association said neighboring states are pointing the way up.
The index measured a state’s corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property-tax rank to come up with an overall score. New Mexico came out only 35th in the nation. “The absence of a major tax is a common factor among many of the top ten states,” wrote the index’s authors. New Mexico has no such absence in any of them.
“Let’s give ourselves a hand for holding the line on property taxes and courageously reforming unemployment insurance taxes,” said Minda McGonagle, New Mexico state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “But much more needs to be done. The existing trifecta of high corporate, individual and gross receipts rates must be broken apart. Our neighboring states are doing better than us by reforming only one or two of this big three. New Mexico’s business climate is man-made. The good news is we can change it, if we have the will to do so. It isn’t the storminess of current economic challenges that our business owners fear most, it’s the reluctance of our state’s legislative leaders to boldly walk out of the dense fog of inertia.”
With 350,000 dues-paying members across the nation, including more than 1,500 in New Mexico, NFIB is the nation’s largest and leading small-business association.