SANTA FE (AP) — A budget-balancing package of tax increases pending in the state House grew by $90 million Thursday.

The Taxation and Revenue Committee endorsed a proposal to eliminate an income tax deduction for some taxpayers, a move that would generate $90 million next year.

About one-fourth of New Mexico’s tax filers will pay more under the proposal — an average of $271 per tax return, according to the state’s tax agency.

The bill goes to the House floor for consideration and becomes part of a package of tax measures that will provide more than $400 million next year to help balance the state budget and minimize spending cutbacks for public education and other governmental services.

The House is expected to debate the tax proposals today along with a $5.6 billion budget bill.

New Mexico’s personal income tax system allows the same itemized deductions that are used for federal tax purposes. That will stop under the bill approved by the committee on a party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition.

The legislation will apply New Mexico’s personal income tax to the state and local taxes deducted on a federal return. Those taxes will be counted as income for state tax purposes.

“To me, it’s a fairness issue and cleans up our tax system,” said Rep. Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat who sponsored the proposal.

The current system, she said, is unfair because New Mexicans with federal itemized deductions get a tax break that others don’t.

But House Republican Whip Keith Gardner of Roswell disagreed, saying taxpayers benefit from the standardized deductions they take on their federal tax returns if they don’t itemize.

“It is a tax on a tax,” Gardner said of the proposed change.

A similar tax proposal had stalled in another House committee. Stewart proposed a new bill and it moved rapidly through the tax committee.

Households with adjusted gross income of $100,000 or more will pay more than two-thirds of the proposed higher taxes, according to the Taxation and Revenue Department.

Actual increases will vary for each taxpayer depending on the size of their household, their deductions and other factors. The department estimated an increase of $197 for a married couple with two children and income of $100,000.

Supporters of the bill pointed out that the higher state taxes will be partly offset because they lower an individual’s federal tax liability.

The state’s income tax system piggybacks off what is reported on a taxpayer’s federal return. New Mexico is among six states, including Arizona and Oklahoma, that allow a deduction for state and local taxes.

Pending in the House are other bills that would raise $320 million next year. Those include a three-year surtax on upper-income taxpayers and a four-year gross receipts tax increase.

If the tax measures pass the House, they go to the Senate and are expected to run into opposition from conservative Democrats and Republicans, who sometimes form a working majority that can determine the outcome of votes on financial and social policy proposals.

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