b'2020-21 Officers & Directors NEW MEXICO Petroleum Marketers Association (NMPMA) ReportThis bill largely passed on a partisan vote with DemocratsWhat does this mean? Some in both Chambers voting for the bill and Republicans votingbusinesses will be able to get against it due to the unfunded mandate and the law enforce- low interest rate loans from ment issue noted above. the state and EVERY business HB 6: Temporary Tax Waivers and Distributions, Repre- could benefit from the work on sentative Chandler, Akhil, J. Martinez, Senator Wirth: Tem- the UI rates. The amendment porary waiver of interest and penalties for late tax paymentsremoves the COVID-related related to the COVID-19 pandemic and allowing for increasedlayoffs and furloughs from temporary state payments to help cities and counties if federalbusinesses experience. It also funds arent available. freezes the reserve factor for a New Mexico Notes period of time. Combined, these The waiving of penalties and interest was applied to: two measures will provide hugeRuben Baca relief to UI rates for over a year. NMPMA1) Personal and corporate income taxes due betweenExecutive DirectorApril 15, 2020 and July 15, 2020; Special thanks to Rep Rod Montoya for sponsoring the 2) Withholding taxes due between March 25, 2020 legislation in the House. And and July 25, 2020; much gratitude to Senator3) Oil and gas proceeds and pass-through entity Clemente Sanchez for sponsoring the Senate version. withholding taxes due between April 15, 2020 Neither bill was allowed to be and July 25, 2020; heard because the Governor 4) Gross receipts and compensating taxes duerefused to put the subject on between April 25, 2020 and July 25, 2020; the Call. Senator Sanchez, however, determined to address 5) Property taxes due April 10, 2020; and this critical issue, spoke to SB 3 bill sponsors. They agreed to include our UI language as an amendment to SB 3. The Gov-6) Managed audits performed between ernors office assisted with the amendment which helped carrySeptember 3, 2019 and January 3, 2020. the legislation to victory.As long as the failure to pay was not an intentional attempt toThe majority of Senate Republicans voted against the bill due evade the tax bill due in the second quarter of 2020, the inter- to lack of proper underwriting controls on the business loans. est and penalties will be waived. Payment of the taxes in fullThe bill was almost unanimously supported in the House.is required within one year. SB 4: Temporary Election Changes, Senator Ivey-Soto, This bill had almost unanimous bipartisan support in Ramos, Representative Trujillo, Johnson: Enacting tempo-both chambers. rary changes for the 2020 general election and permanently allowing independent voters to change their party affiliation at SB 3: Small Business Recovery Act of 2020, Senator polling sites in future primary elections.Candelaria, Sapien, Rue, Representative Ely, Matthews: Establishing a loan program and authorizing the state to makeThe Senate removed the all mail-in provision and instead low-interest loans of up to $400 million to help small business- provided the option for clerks to mail out applications for es and $50 million for local governments. Money to fund theseabsentee ballots. This had already been decided by the state loans would come from the Severance Tax Permanent Fund. Supreme Court, but was a big change for the Senate, which also added a provision that allows unaffiliated voters to par-After months of work, I am pleased to tell you that Newticipate in a primary election. It requires them to register with Mexico businesses scored a victory in the Special Legislativethe party of the primary they are voting in.Session. Through the efforts of all, Rep Montoya, Senator Sanchez and the agreement of Senator Candelaria, the bill wasThis bill passed the Senate almost unanimously, but the vote amended to include a reprieve from skyrocketing Unemploy- was very interesting in the House and ultimately led to a do ment Insurance (UI) rates. This was specifically designed toover. The bill failed in the first House vote 32 to 38 with 14 hold employers harmless from COVID-related layoffs andDemocrats voting with Republicans to kill the bill. The Demo-furloughs. It will also hold the reserve factor at the 2019 ratecrats were immediately taken to the wood shed in caucus and through June 2021. returned to pass the bill 44 to 26 with two Democrats holding to their original vote against passage.Unfortunately, the state has no procedure to begin processing the loan requests at this time. I will update when this informa-tion becomes available.continued on page 47WPMA News / Autumn 202045'