New Mexico 2025 2025 Regular Session

New Mexico Senate Bill SB28 Introduced / Fiscal Note

Filed 01/29/2025

                     
 
Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance 
committees of the Legislature. LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports if they 
are used for other purposes. 
 
F I S C A L    I M P A C T    R E P O R T 
 
 
SPONSOR Woods 
LAST UPDATED 
ORIGINAL DATE 1/27/2025 
 
SHORT TITLE Corporate Income Tax to State Road Fund 
BILL 
NUMBER Senate Bill 28 
  
ANALYST Graeser 
REVENUE* 
(dollars in thousands) 
Type FY25 FY26 FY27 FY28 FY29 
Recurring or 
Nonrecurring 
Fund 
Affected 
CIT 
  ($741.200.0) ($746,000.0) ($758,200.0) Recurring General Fund 
  $741.200.0 $746,000.0 $758,200.0 Recurring State Road Fund 
Parentheses ( ) indicate revenue decreases. 
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT* 
(dollars in thousands) 
Agency/Program 
FY25 FY26 FY27 
3 Year 
Total Cost 
Recurring or 
Nonrecurring 
Fund 
Affected 
TRD 
No fiscal 
impact 
$47.7 
No fiscal 
impact 
$47.7 Nonrecurring General Fund 
Parentheses ( ) indicate expenditure decreases. 
 
Sources of Information 
LFC Files 
 
Agency Analysis Received From 
Taxation & Revenue Department 
 
Agency Analysis was Solicited but Not Received From 
Department of Transportation (DoT) 
 
SUMMARY 
 
Synopsis of Senate Bill 28   
 
Senate Bill 28 changes the distribution of corporate income tax net collections from the general 
fund to the state road fund. 
 
The effective date of this bill is July 1, 2026. 
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS  
 
LFC staff, based on the consensus revenue estimating group’s December 2024 corporate income 
tax forecast, assessed the impact of shifting the entirety of projected corporate income tax 
collections from the general fund to the state road fund. 
  Senate Bill 28 – Page 2 
 
 
 
The bill does not include a recurring appropriation but diverts or “earmarks” revenue, 
representing a recurring loss from the general fund. LFC has concerns with including continuing 
distribution language in the statutory provisions for funds because earmarking reduces the ability 
of the Legislature to establish spending priorities.
 
 
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES 
 
TRD notes the significant impacts of this transfer of funding sources: 
Directing all corporate income tax revenue to the state road fund will eliminate a 
recurring general fund revenue source, reducing the Legislature’s budgetary flexibility 
with respect to the broad appropriation needs of the state in future years. In FY24, 
corporate income tax contributed $627.2 million to the general fund, or approximately 
4.8 percent of recurring general fund revenue. This is up from $439.1 million in FY23, 
3.8 percent of general fund revenue, due to the shifting of pass-through entity revenue to 
the corporate income tax program at the half-way point in FY24. The closer alignment of 
pass-through entity filings with the corporate income tax program required this 
accounting change. In FY25 pass-through entity revenue will be fully recognized in 
corporate income tax. This is forecasted to result in corporate income tax becoming 5.4 
percent of recurring general fund revenue in FY25. Both corporate income tax and 
personal income tax are aggregated as one revenue source, income taxes, on the 
consensus revenue estimating group’s forecast. Shifting one income tax source from the 
general fund will mark a significant change. 
Corporate income tax revenue is notably volatile due to a large share of corporate 
revenue being tied to oil and natural gas extraction and the volatility of that industry. 
With new pass-through entity revenue recognized in corporate income tax, the volatility 
may increase as the entity-level tax is new and taxpayer preference on how to file is still 
being observed. In addition, changes at the federal level, including possible changes to 
the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and its imposition of a state and local tax 
deduction cap, could lead to changes at the state level for pass-through entities. While 
this volatility leads to challenges in forecasting the revenue for the general fund, being 
only 5.4 percent of general fund revenue, the general fund can absorb the volatility more 
easily. Shifting this revenue to the state road fund would more than double the revenue to 
this fund and lead to over 50 percent of the fund being subject to volatility. This would 
substantially increase the amount of revenue for budgeting but would likely lead to 
higher uncertainty in the budget planning of funding road projects. 
While corporate taxpayers’ use and need of roads could validate corporate income tax 
revenue being diverted to the state road fund to aid in maintaining roads, individual 
taxpayers also use roads. The diversion of Motor Vehicle Excise Tax is seen as a 
supportable earmark to the fund to directly tie vehicles sales to 
 
 
 
 
  Senate Bill 28 – Page 3 
 
 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS  
 
TRD Administrative Services Division will need to update the general ledger, revenue 
reporting and create a new distribution. It is anticipated this work will take approximately 60 
hours split between 2 FTE of a pay band 70 and a pay band 80 at a cost of approximately 
$3,800. Collaboration and input from the Department of Finance and Administration is 
required as this will decrease general fund revenue distributions. 
 
Implementing this bill will have a moderate impact on TRD Information Technology 
Division, approximately 510 hours or 3 months for an estimated $33,900 of staff workload 
costs. 
 
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