{"id":523876,"date":"2018-02-14T20:20:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T03:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=523876"},"modified":"2018-02-14T20:20:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T03:20:06","slug":"legislature-oks-bill-that-would-impose-tax-on-nonprofit-lanl-contractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/02\/legislature-oks-bill-that-would-impose-tax-on-nonprofit-lanl-contractor\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislature OKs bill that would impose tax on nonprofit LANL contractor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_68140\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/larry1732\/7753373502\/in\/photolist-geZGR2-cP94Pu-9YrggZ-77mo8-BxHcn-BxGUr-BxGZe-BxHgX-BxH6F-5kjXta-6Z68Po-5kim1e-54gHFM-eRshz5-3Pyg5A-aXbjoa-9Xec8-ai7UQt-ai7UQc-9Xe6f-9Xedu-b4UhuX-vcCASK-vcveWj-fhx61Z\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-68140\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL-771x443.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"771\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL-771x443.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL-336x193.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL-768x441.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL-1170x672.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/LANL.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Larry Lamsa \/ Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Alamos National Laboratory.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gov. Susana Martinez will have to decide whether to sign a bill designed to prevent the state government, as well as local governments in Northern New Mexico, from losing tax revenue if a nonprofit university takes over management of Los Alamos National Laboratory later this year.<\/p>\n<p>That possibility is real, as two Texas universities have submitted bids for the contract.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2018 legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;We stand to lose about $30 million in gross receipts revenue to the state should a nonprofit contractor receive the [operations contract] at the national laboratory in Los Alamos,&#8221; Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, told the House of Representatives late\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_368860498\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Tuesday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0night before it voted 48-19 in favor of the measure, <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=17&amp;year=18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Senate Bill 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia Richard&#8217;s number is consistent with a fiscal impact report by the Legislative Finance Committee, which estimates the state&#8217;s gross receipts tax losses at $25 million to $30 million if a nonprofit is chosen to run the lab.<\/p>\n<p>Both the University of Texas System Board of Regents and Texas A&amp;M submitted formal bids on the lab management contract in December. Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s proposal was in partnership with the University of California, which currently operates the lab with the industrial giant Bechtel and other partners. The consortium&#8217;s contract ends\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_368860499\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Sept. 30, 2018<\/span><\/span>, with the new operator assuming control\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_368860500\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Oct. 1<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>SB 17, sponsored by Sens. Carlos Cisneros, D-Taos, and Richard Martinez, D-Espa\u00f1ola, as well as Garcia Richard, passed the Senate earlier in the session on a vote of 31-4.<\/p>\n<p>Spokesmen for the governor did not respond\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_368860501\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Wednesday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to a question about whether Martinez would sign the measure.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, who has pushed for a comprehensive overhaul of the state&#8217;s tax structure, argued against the bill saying, &#8220;Tax policy should be uniform, broad and neutral. &#8230; It shouldn&#8217;t pick winners and losers.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Harper said he recently received a call from a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee who was concerned about the bill. The congressman told him, &#8220;It looks like the state is telling the labs how to run the labs,&#8221; Harper said, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;m worried this sends a message to some folks that we&#8217;re ungrateful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In November, the Legislature&#8217;s Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee discussed data that shows the lab management consortium, Los Alamos National Security LLC, paid between $48 million and $100 million a year in gross receipts taxes. Some of that money went to the state to pay for day-to-day government services, including public education. Another portion was distributed to local governments in and around the lab.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, the most recent year for data, $76 million was collected and $22 million of that stayed with the state government. The rest was distributed to local governments, including the city and county of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba County and tribal governments.<\/p>\n<p>Los Alamos County got the largest share, some $20 million a year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Steve Terrell at (505) 986-3037 or <a href=\"mailto:sterrell@sfnewmexica\u00adn.com\">sterrell@sfnewmexica\u00adn.com<\/a>. Read his blog at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/roundhouse_roundup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/roundhouse_roundup&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1518750447089000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEIt1VBA1mbdTRyZ6ufMJJiTEKs5Q\">santafenewmexican.com\/<wbr \/>roundhouse_roundup<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without the bill, state and local governments could lose tens of millions of dollars if a nonprofit university takes over management of Los Alamos National Laboratory later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3634,1187,107,271],"class_list":["post-523876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-legislative-session","tag-lanl","tag-roundhouse","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}