Auditors question NM tax breaks for health care

Legislative Finance Committee staff told lawmakers on Tuesday that tax deductions and other incentives for health care "lack a clearly defined purpose" and don't have good ways to measure their impact.

The question for legislators is whether the state would be better off repealing some tax breaks, and use the money to finance programs and services.

A 2004 law lifted the gross receipts tax from certain medical services, and the state provides local governments the same amount of revenue they would have received had the tax remained unchanged. Those provisions cost the state $82 million last year, according to a report to the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee.