Earlier this year, Congress created a new tax incentive for businesses that hire new employees, with an additional incentive if those employees are retained for at least one year.  This builds on tax incentives that Congress created in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act to promote manufacturing, which not only helps create jobs, it provides consumers with American-made products, from cars to clean energy components.

The clean energy manufacturing tax credit alone has helped create jobs at three locations in New Mexico—at Schott Solar in Albuquerque, Johnson Plate & Tower in Santa Teresa, and Sumco Phoenix in Albuquerque—and has helped over two hundred companies across the country.  This not only put New Mexicans to work, it is helping ensure our state remains a leader in clean energy production.

Small businesses create more than half of the new jobs in the country, and right now the Senate is debating legislation that gives more help to small businesses.  The Small Business Jobs Act will ease the flow of credit to small businesses and create tax incentives for businesses that grow.

There is also an underutilized federal resource that can help New Mexican businesses expand their sales and create more jobs in the U.S. Export Assistance Centers in Santa Fe and in El Paso.  These Centers are one-stop shops that help businesses learn how to export for the first time, find new customers, line up export financing, or solve export-related business problems.  These Centers also hold export workshops around the state, like the upcoming market briefing about China.