Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today voted to approve an extension of an expiring tax cut that has helped thousands of New Mexicans this year.  The bill failed on a party-line vote.

The proposal would have expanded the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers' payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in New Mexico, with a median income of around $44,000, would receive a tax cut of around $1,360.

The proposal also would have cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level. In New Mexico, 40,000 firms would have received a payroll tax cut.

"The payroll tax cut has benefited thousands of New Mexicans who have used it to buy groceries, pay utility bills and to boost our state's economy in many other ways.  Working New Mexicans cannot afford to have this tax cut expire, and I hope we find a way to extend it in the coming weeks," Bingaman said.

The bill would have been paid for with a 3.25 percent surcharge on incomes above $1 million, which would not affected 99.9 percent of New Mexicans.