Who benefits when taxes are collected?
Your Taxation and Revenue Department works hard to collect the taxes and other fees enacted by the Legislature and to do so in a fair and efficient manner, working in partnership with your local government and school districts.
Because no one lives in isolation, tax dollars from a variety of sources benefit you, your family and your neighbors, no matter the size of income.
Every time you get into your car and travel on a public highway, you ride on roads built, maintained, and paid for by state and local road funds replenished by tax dollars.
Children who attend public schools benefit from 47% of tax dollars collected. When your children receive adequate educations in well-funded school systems, your own quality of life is improved and so is your community, your state and your country.
If you or your children attend a college or university in New Mexico, you benefit from 15% of taxes collected. In turn, college graduates qualify for better jobs and are less likely to be unemployed in a recessed or depressed economy.
Tax dollars also pay for public safety for your neighborhood. Seven per cent of tax dollars fund police and other law-enforcement units.
Twenty per cent of tax dollars help families through the work of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Finally, your county or local municipality has a share in 40% of the gross receipts taxes collected by the state and distributed to local and county governments.
There are many other examples, of course, but if you want to know more about specifics, please check economic and statistics available under our Tax Resources & Statistics section.