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State Advocacy

New Mexico Thrives' Advocacy Agenda
2023
  • Two bills to address the anti-donation clause:
  • SJR9, An amendment to the anti-donation clause, Article IX, Section 14 and a repeal of Article IV, Section 31
  • A bill, titled the Vibrant Communities Act, will be introduced. It outlines the process for charitable organizations to access state resources.
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2022

  • SJR7, Amendment to the anti-donation clause, Article IX, Section 14

    • SJR7 was heard in Senate Rules and Senate Judiciary, and received a Do Pass from both committees.

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2021

  • Advocating for a more equitable distribution of the American Rescue Plan act funds

  • Amendment to the anti-donation clause, Article IX, Section 14

    • New Mexico Thrives is working with legislators of both parties and nonprofit leaders to propose an amendment that preserves protections of state resources and provides workable guidelines for funding nonprofits.

  • Including nonprofits in the state's efforts to diversify the economy

    • New Mexico Thrives has written a letter to state leaders to let them know about how nonprofits contribute to New Mexico's economy and the potential to do more. Letters were sent to the Governor, House and Senate Leadership.

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2020

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2017-2019

  • Protecting nonprofits' tax exempt status at the state level

    • Nonprofits' 501(c)(3) status from the IRS means that nonprofits do not pay federal taxes on their revenues. With the economic downturn in 2017, the state was looking for new sources of revenue. The main targets were nonprofit hospitals and national labs. The argument for taxing nonprofit hospitals was that they were doing the same thing as for-profit hospitals, but have an unfair tax advantage. There was speculation that one of the national labs would change to a nonprofit structure and therefore not have to pay state gross receipts and other taxes.

    • New Mexico Thrives conducted a survey in 2018 to learn about the potential impact of nonprofits losing their state level tax exemptions and having to pay gross receipts tax on goods.

    • New Mexico Thrives presented to the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on October 29, 2018.

    • New Mexico Thrives followed the introduction, amendments and passage of House Bill 6 in 2019 to ensure that nonprofits would not be harmed by the legislation. New Mexico Thrives met with legislators and attended House Tax and Revenue Committee and Senate Finance Committee meetings.

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Get to Know Your State Representative and Senator:

 

  • Contact your New Mexico Representative and Senator

  • Tell them about your organization, what it does, and how it benefits their constituents. 

  • Let them know how the pandemic has affected the work or your organization. (Has demand for services increased? Were you able to switch to remote operations? Did you face increased costs? Did you lose revenues?) 

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Understanding Committees

New Mexico's legislature meets for 30 days in the even years and 60 days in the odd years.  A lot of the work gets done during the interim committee meetings.

  • Familiarize yourself with the committees that have governance over your issues.

  • Watch and participate in committee meetings.

  • Provide information to committee members.

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Note: if you encourage legislators to vote in a particular way on an issue, you are lobbying. All lobbyists must register with the NM Secretary of State's office.

Become A New Mexico Thrives Member Today!

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