new kiplinger reports survey arizona, colorado, and new mexico tax and jobs picture

The Washington-based financial news service Kiplinger is giving high marks to Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico for tax policies that spur economic growth and investment.

The publishing giant classifies Arizona in the “most tax-friendly” category for its relatively low personal income and property tax rates, also noting that Arizona’s average state and local sales tax rate currently stands at 8.3 percent.

Both Colorado and New Mexico are listed in the marginally less favorable categories of “tax friendly.”

Colorado is applauded for having a lower than average income and property tax rate, with an overall sales tax rate of 7.6 percent.

New Mexico’s income and property tax rate is also lower than the national average, while its sales tax currently stands at a competitive 7.8 percent.

Meanwhile, jobs in the three states are slated to increase anywhere from 1.9 percent to 2.5 percent in 2020, with Arizona hitting the 2.5 percent mark.

Those jobs, says Kiplinger, will be “well distributed across sectors from good paying blue-collar work in construction, manufacturing, and trucking businesses to sophisticated R&D expansions.”

Colorado will see a 2.1 percent increase in jobs, although the state’s growth may occur at a “moderately slower pace than last year because the supply of skilled workers is running low.”

New Mexico will see a 1.9 percent increase in jobs, with “most of the hiring gains in the state’s mining sector which includes oil and gas extraction.”

The publication states: “New Mexico is the only one of the energy-producing states not to have seen a reduction in rights because of the fall in oil prices.”

The publication says that on a national level, 2020 promises the “best growth since before the Great Recession.”

By Garry Boulard

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