Lujan Grisham lauds tax bill

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., told Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce members Thursday she’s hopeful that corporate tax cuts approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Susana Martinez will produce jobs.

“I was really happy to see the tax-works bill in the Legislature,” Lujan Grisham said.

She said she is aware of fears in some quarters that the legislation benefits corporations while burdening taxpayers, but added, “I can be cautiously optimistic.”

“As a jobs-investment package, we should be doing everything we can to invest in growing the economy,” the first-term congresswoman from Albuquerque said.

“It was bipartisan,” she added. “Congratulations for that effort.”

“The No. 1 thing everyone in Congress should be working on is jobs,” Lujan Grisham said.

The Democratic congresswoman said she voted last month for a continuing resolution to keep government operating through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 to “minimize the damage” of federal budget cuts in New Mexico.

“It provides flexibility to defense,” she said, suggesting that defense budget cuts would hurt Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

Lujan, who took her seat in the House at the beginning of the year, explained her assignments to the House committees on agriculture, budget and government oversight.

She said the Agriculture Committee assignment is important because it deals with water issues, the U.S. Forest Service — a major Albuquerque employer — alternative energy investments and “food security” and makes “significant national investments in rural economies.”

Her district encompasses Bernalillo and Torrance counties and parts of Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valenica counties.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal