The Trap

Bernalillo County Commissioners and Albuquerque City councilors are setting a trap for themselves. The trap is the continuing hikes in the region's gross receipts tax. There are three new taxes being considered by the County Commission, although some need approval by the voters next November. The end result will be that the sales tax in Albuquerque will have jumped from about 5.8% to 7.25% since I left the Mayor's office. During my term as Mayor our budget increased by less than the rate of inflation over a four year period. We were forced into that situation by the sales tax, which is incredibly vulnerable to every little tick in the economy. As soon as the economy takes a little nose dive, so do the revenues of city and county government. Now we see even more reliance on the sales tax over the last four years. Some future elected officials will be facing incredible cuts in the budget because of this. Painful cuts!

The continued double digit budget increases of the city and county governments guarantee this. If they feel a need for this continued spending, they at least should fund it with more stable revenue sources, such as the property tax. Or, we could just reign ourselves in a little. Stop and think about it. 7.25% added to just about every purchase you make. That is a lot more than our hated state income tax, which too his credit the Governor has managed to cut.