A New Mexico legislative committee this month passed a bill to stop the prime contractor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from claiming state tax credits for making nuclear-weapon cores.
If signed into law the bill would go into effect on July 1 and exclude Los Alamos National Laboratory prime contractor Triad National Security from tens of millions of dollars in benefits codified in a 1969 law that gives tax breaks to state businesses selling goods and services used in manufacturing.
HB 0117 passed the state House of Representatives’ Commerce and Economic Development Committee on Feb. 3, the eighth day of the state’s legislative session. It now needs a vote on the House floor and approval by the state Senate before it can be sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) for a signature.
Blocking a tax exemption for the manufacture of plutonium pits at Los Alamos would net the state more than $81 million over New Mexico’s next four fiscal years. That breaks out to about $20.3 million a year, according to a report prepared by New Mexico’s Taxation and Revenue Department.
Los Alamos County would get $76 million over the next four years, or $19 million annually, according to the state’s report. The New Mexico fiscal year begins July 1.
State Rep. Kristina Ortez (D) sponsored the bill. The southern tip of the 42nd state district she represents, all within Taos County, is a little more than 45 miles by road from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The northern end of the district stretches to the Colorado border.
Los Alamos National Laboratory plans to start stockpiling plutonium pits for the W87-1 warhead in late 2024 and to manufacture at least 30 such pits annually by 2028, senior lab officials told the Exchange Monitor in February at the Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
