Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Citations

ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

Governing: Free Child Care for All is Impossible? Don’t Tell New Mexico.

September 30, 2025

The only state with such a program didn’t get there overnight. Years of action at the state Capitol and the ballot box set the stage. It’s a lesson for lawmakers in other states facing the fiscal challenges of providing services families need amid diminishing federal aid. Read more.

Santa Fe New Mexican: New Mexico’s Tax-Free Holiday Offers Back-to-School Shoppers a Break This Weekend

July 24, 2025

Many observers seem split on whether the state’s annual three-day hiatus on collecting tax on many items provides enough economic benefits to justify its costs.

New Mexico In Depth: Poverty Fell More Than a Third in New Mexico Due to Tax Changes, But There’s More to Do

January 14, 2025

Federal data released last fall show that, after accounting for government benefits, over the last decade the share of New Mexicans experiencing poverty declined more than in almost any other state. That coincides with a period in which state lawmakers significantly altered tax rates to reduce the burden on low-income residents. They enacted and expanded […]

Searchlight New Mexico: Donald Trump’s Victory Puts All Eyes Back on the Border

November 7, 2024

On October 31, Donald Trump landed in Albuquerque at a private aviation hangar, a location he chose for a rally in part because he owes the city half a million dollars from a 2019 event at the Santa Ana Star Center, and he wasn’t welcome at the downtown convention center. He stepped off the plane, […]

ITEP Research Director Carl Davis gave this presentation to the New Mexico Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on August 23, 2024. View the slides here.

Good afternoon, Senator Fonfara, Representative Horn, and members of the Committee, and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Marco Guzman and I'm a senior policy analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, and we’re a nonprofit research organization that focuses on state, local, and federal tax policy issues. 

Below is written testimony delivered by ITEP Local Policy Director Kamolika Das before the Pennsylvania House Finance Subcommittee on Tax Modernization & Reform on March 1, 2024. Good afternoon and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Kamolika Das, I live in South Philly, and I’m the Local Tax Policy Director at […]

New Mexico now has the ninth most progressive tax system in the nation as ranked by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s recently updated Who Pays? report on tax incidence. That same report showed New Mexico as making the most progress toward tax fairness in the nation!

New Mexico is now among the top 10 states for most equitable tax structures thanks mostly to changes signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham over the past five years, according to a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Read more.

ITEP’s Carl Davis: Who Pays New Mexico Taxes?

October 22, 2023 • By Carl Davis

ITEP Research Director Carl Davis gave a presentation on New Mexico’s tax system to that state’s Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on October 19, 2023. Click here for the slide deck.

Capital & Main: Some States Are Fighting Rising Child Poverty With Tax Credits

October 1, 2023

New Mexico is one of 10 states that have created or expanded child tax credits after Congress let a federal program expire. Read more.

Bloomberg: Did You Pay Your ‘Fair Share’ of Federal Income Tax This Year?

March 31, 2022

And according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the impact would have a definite geographic tilt. The states where more than 40% of residents would face tax increases are largely in the South, including Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Florida. read more

Bloomberg: N.Y., New Jersey, California Hit Hardest by Biden Tax Changes

April 29, 2021

President Joe Biden’s plan to ramp up the income tax rate and capital gains tax rate as part of a $1.8 trillion stimulus plan would hit high-tax states like New York and California the hardest, while New Mexico and Mississippi would be least affected, according to research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. […]

New Mexico Voices for Children: Essential But Excluded

April 30, 2020 • By ITEP Staff

Immigrants pay taxes and are important contributors to New Mexico’s economy. Nationwide, immigrants pay hundreds of billions of dollars in federal, state, and local income and other taxes. New Mexico immigrants – both legal residents and those who are undocumented – contribute more than $996 million in federal, state, and local taxes that help support […]

The Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) is New Mexico’s equivalent of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The WFTC’s eligibility levels and credit amounts are based directly on the EITC, and like most states, the amount is a set percentage of the federal EITC. These tax credits reduce poverty, improve outcomes for children, and […]

Albuquerque Journal: Tax Reforms Restore Fairness and Set Up Reliable Revenue

November 1, 2019

Recent analysis by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy confirms what we expected from income tax changes signed into law this year by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham – that we have taken a large step toward improving the fairness of our tax system and helping our working families in New Mexico. Read more

Las Cruces Sun News: Income Tax Changes Benefit Most Families in New Mexico

October 27, 2019

Recent analysis by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy confirms what we expected from income tax changes signed into law this year by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — that we have taken a large step toward improving the fairness of our tax system and helping working families in New Mexico. Read more

KRWG: Analysis: 70% of NM Families With Children Will See State Income Tax Cut

October 16, 2019

Commentary: Most New Mexico families with children – 70% – will get a break on their state personal income taxes when they file their 2019 tax returns, thanks to legislation enacted in April by the state Legislature and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. That’s according to an analysis by the Washington, DC-based Institute on Taxation and […]

Our citizen legislators have lots of choices to make when they meet for the annual legislative session every January – how to prioritize spending on public services like education, health care and public safety, which laws to enact, and whether to make changes to our state’s tax code.

This report focuses on the cliff effect that occurs with the loss of child care assistance for New Mexico families. Losing child care assistance is especially detrimental to families because the cost of child care is so high. High-quality child care costs more than tuition and fees at New Mexico’s 4-year public universities, so it is an expense that even middle-income families struggle to meet. This report looks at the intensity of the child care cliff effect in New Mexico, as well as problems with income eligibility ceilings and co-pays, and offers policy solutions to these problems.

When it comes to fairness, New Mexico’s tax system is backwards. Those who earn the smallest incomes pay the highest rates in state and local taxes, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The responsibility for taxes should not fall hardest on those with the least ability to pay, but it does. There are several ways we can make our tax system fairer.

Commentary: A new study released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that the lowest-income New Mexicans pay a state and local tax rate that is almost double what the state’s wealthiest residents pay as a share of their income.

“Taxes are the way we accomplish great things for our state – build our schools and infrastructure, provide health care and public safety, and more,” said James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, which partnered with ITEP on the report release. “These systems and services underpin our economy and improve our quality of life. We all need to do our part to support them, but our current state tax system ensures that those who can afford to pay the most actually pay the least.”

Regressive tax systems hurt children and families, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy - and by that standard, it says New Mexico has the 19th-worst tax system in the United States. The study showed that as a share of their income, the lowest-income New Mexicans are paying state and local tax rates almost double those of the state's wealthiest residents.

While it’s easy to tick off a list of the things we enjoy that are paid for out of our taxes, paying taxes is really a moral duty that we all participate in. It is a contract that we honor collectively because it’s the way we invest in our communities. In fact, some research shows that Americans […]