Egolf recaps legislative session
House speaker states support for early childhood education, raising cap on film industry tax credit
The speaker of the state House of Representatives said Sunday that lawmakers will continue to attempt to find ways to draw money from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to expand early childhood education programs.
On top of that, Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe said, the state may have tens of millions of dollars more to invest in early education programs next year if oil and gas revenues hold steady or increase.
Egolf said he does not agree with critics who say that any attempt to take more money from the permanent fund will weaken it for future generations.
“There’s still plenty of room to grow and invest the permanent fund. … We need this investment [in early childhood educational programs] now,” he said.
Egolf made the comments to a gathering of about 60 people at Collected Works Bookstore.
Recent legislative efforts for a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide whether the state should draw an additional 1 percent from the $17 billion permanent fund failed last month for the eighth consecutive year.
Egolf ’s Democratic majority in the House authorized the ballot issue by the barest possible margin, getting the votes of 36 of 70 representatives. All who voted for it are Democrats.
However, Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, chairman of Senate Finance Committee, declined to give the bill a hearing. That killed the proposal. Smith said he knew the measure did not have the votes to pass his committee, and the clock expired on the 30-day session.
The endowment grows through investments and royalties paid by companies extracting oil and natural gas from state land. This year, the endowment provided more than $680 million to K-12 public schools.
Egolf gave a recap on this year’s legislative session and offered some insight into what next year’s 60-day session might bring.
Among other measures, he said he thinks there will be a push to raise the $50 million cap on tax credits for filmmakers to $100 million to attract more movie productions, which invest heavily in the state while they are anchored here.
“There’s a concern that we may hit that cap this year or next … and that could have a bad impact on the faith the industry has in our being able to pay out the credits,” Egolf said. “Like any business, if you have a profitable industry you don’t want to cap it.”
Under the state’s incentive program, film and television operations may apply to receive a refund of 25 percent or 30 percent on qualified expenses in New Mexico. Some say the state’s $50 million annual cap restricts the potential of a growing business, but Democrats’ efforts to raise that cap by just a few million dollars to account for inflation failed during this year’s legislative session.
Film and television productions spent a record $387 million in the state in fiscal year 2016, and Egolf said the state can double that amount and create more jobs if more production companies film movies and television shows in New Mexico.
On other issues, Egolf said he does not think New Mexico has any power to stop President Donald Trump from building a wall along the border with Mexico. Nor can the Legislature act on the building of a proposed Pilot Flying J truck stop outside the city limits. Egolf, though, said, he opposes the truck stop.
Asked by one member of the audience if the Legislature could do anything about water conservation or the lack of precipitation this winter, Egolf joked, “I would love it if we could pass a law increasing our snowpack.”
But, he said, if the state does not see more rain or snow in the coming months “it is going to be a scary fire season.”
Gov. Susana Martinez traveled to Park City, Utah, on Sunday for meetings with the Republican Governors Association. The group is paying for her travel. Martinez is scheduled to return Tuesday ahead of a March 7 deadline to act on legislation approved during the session. Any bill she does not act on will be automatically vetoed.