By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009).

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

The State of New Mexico is looking for money to plug the holes in their budget.

You remember back in 2003 when Governor Bill and the New Mexico legislature removed the gross receipts tax from most food items.  Good, I’m glad you remember, because that means you also remember the shell and pea trick they played on us when they turned right around and passed a one-half cent gross receipt tax on every other purchase.  So, if you brought a big-ticket item, such as a state of the art television, or computer system … or any number of other expensive products, then you could have ended up paying much more than if the food tax had remained and the one-half cent tax had not been passed.

Don’t forget the transportation tax that we in the Edgewood and Stanley areas voted down, but which passed anyway, because the Santa Fe and Taos areas carried it, presumably in one of the Rail Runner cars, or in one of the little or big buses which scuttle back and forth all over northern Santa Fe County and Taos County.  Add to this all the other “little”  gross receipts taxes in Santa Fe County and you soon find that you are taxed beyond comprehension, and certainly beyond desire.

But, just when you might be thinking taxes are  out of consideration, the governor’s State budget task force has other ideas. And what are they touting as a possible way to help balance the budget?  You got it, a tax on food.

According to an article by Steve Terrell in The New Mexican on the 17th, folks on the task force who should shudder at a suggestion of taxing food have come straight out, without apology, to recommend the food tax:

Terri Cole, executive director of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said reinstating the gross-receipts tax on food will be a priority of her organization during the next legislative session.

As we indicated earlier in this article, the food tax cut was mostly bait and switch and others seem to agree with us according to Mr. Terrell. When some members of the task force, who are members of the business community, said they didn’t get a chance to look at cutting government expenses:

This provoked member Bill Jordan, director of New Mexico Voices for Children, to argue that cutting taxes in the first years of the Richardson administration contributed to the current budget crisis.

“Most of those tax cuts were at the urging of the business community,” Jordan later told a reporter. “They got the benefit of those tax cuts. Now that we’re in a crisis they don’t want us to raise taxes, they want to cut services to working families.”

While I can’t wholly agree with Mr. Jordan, because there is room to cut fat from any government, the fact remains our citizens had more disposable income when the food tax went away. At least to the extent that the one-half cent shell and pea tax didn’t apply to their purchases of food. Certainly, the governor and legislature share a great deal of the blame for our large deficit. That is, if it is true that the State budget has increased some fifty percent during Richardson’s administration. We also know that we have a train that burns a deficit each year and there is probably no hope that it will come close to breaking even … ever.

The situation faced by New Mexico citizens might be comical if they didn’t have to place a financially toppled State back to an upright position. Nothing was said by those interviewed regarding tips or suggestions submitted by citizens. Perhaps everyone was busy paying their own obligations.

Read all of Mr. Terrell’s story in the New Mexican … click here