Tax chicanery is afoot. Bernalillo County wants an increase in the gross receipts tax to buy open space. Mayor Berry and the city council just passed a stealth tax tacked on to the garbage rates to maintain city medians, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District just passed a tax hike with no effort at publicizing it to the district taxpayers. A death of a thousand cuts.
In fact the Conservancy district is really providing another subsidy for the agricultural community. As those in the district know, it is the homeowners and businesses that pay most of the costs of the irrigation system while not getting to use the water that it provides. The media and press know and care little of this agency which has been mired in corruption and dishonesty for years.
The problem with the city and county is that they keep relying on the gross receipts tax to make ends meet. This regressive tax lets the rich off the hook while really putting it to the poor and middle class. This simply has to stop. Along with the automatic 3% property tax hikes by the county and others that hit the retired seniors so hard every year.
In the beginning of another long torturous saga, democrat Gary King has begun his journey of watching millions of dollars being spent to turn him into an ogre by rightwing money provided to the coffers of Governor Susana Martinez. The GOP Governors are spending more in one week of mudslinging TV commercials than Gary has in is entire bank account. This is going to be a long and embarrassing trek for King, unless some miracle happens.
In fact the Conservancy district is really providing another subsidy for the agricultural community. As those in the district know, it is the homeowners and businesses that pay most of the costs of the irrigation system while not getting to use the water that it provides. The media and press know and care little of this agency which has been mired in corruption and dishonesty for years.
The problem with the city and county is that they keep relying on the gross receipts tax to make ends meet. This regressive tax lets the rich off the hook while really putting it to the poor and middle class. This simply has to stop. Along with the automatic 3% property tax hikes by the county and others that hit the retired seniors so hard every year.
In the beginning of another long torturous saga, democrat Gary King has begun his journey of watching millions of dollars being spent to turn him into an ogre by rightwing money provided to the coffers of Governor Susana Martinez. The GOP Governors are spending more in one week of mudslinging TV commercials than Gary has in is entire bank account. This is going to be a long and embarrassing trek for King, unless some miracle happens.
9 comments:
I challenge everyone to find something to like about Gary King and voting for him. New Mexico CANNOT withstand another four years of the Martinez McClesky Koch Train. I personally appreciate Gary King's efforts to ban the slaughter of horses in New Mexico.
The viciousness, nastiness and downright grotesque side of the Republican Party and Jay McClusky will now be on full display and view over next five months as Susana "our governor" spends close to one million dollars a month to destroy and humiliate King with as big of landslide as possible to further her national and future ambitions. What is as equally disgusting and grotesque is how major Democrats will do virtually nothing to help King hoping privately that he looses.
Sam Bregman never wanted King in the first place and was said to have recruited a few candidates to run against King when Bregman's own ambitions to run for Governor after he was elected party chair caused a back lash and fizzled. If Bregman truly cared for the party, he would approach King and tender his resignation as party chair and let King decide who he wants as his Party Chair.
Tom Udall, Ben Ray Lujan and Mitchel Lujan Grisham will all keep their mouths shut, not endorse or help King in any way to raise money and go about their own elections, all to the determinant of their own party. Ben Ray Lujan especially should help King with money and even a TV ad considering what Susana's people said about his father, but he won't.
Then you have Martin Heinrick who will also do absolutely nothing to help King or raise money for him following in the footsteps of the self centered Jeff Bingaman. Heinrick probably has the most to loose with a Martinez re-election. Martinez has said she always wanted to be a US Senator before she wanted to be Governor so why not become the first Latina US Senator from New Mexico and run against Heinrick who has a good environmental record but has done absolutely nothing to really help New Mexico pull out of this recession and attract jobs. People need jobs to feed themselves before they can enjoy our scenic beauty!
The up and comers in the Democratic party so desperately want King to loose so they will not have to run against an incumbent in four years, not realizing that if Susana wins with a landslide, the House will likely go Republican. Hector Balderas, Tim Keller, Tim Eichenberg, Joe Cervantes and even Ben Ray Lujan are said to be looking at running for Governor in four years, so lets watch how much help and money they will give King. Nada is the answer.
If the GOP, Susana and McClusky would spend just a 10th of the effort they spend on destroying people and our State, New Mexico perhaps would not be dead last in jobs, child care and education. They are only interested in themselves and retaining power and really could careless about New Mexico. New Mexicans will again vote against their own best interests while leading Democrats do nothing.
Remember that Diane Denish went negative on La Susana first, attempting to define her. Nasty didn't work for Diane, and it won't work for Susana either. However, Gary needs to raise some big money quickly.
Anonymous does not understand how the Democratic Party, or our government in general, works. For example, the identity of our state party chair is irrelevant to the process at this point. One of the reasons we are in danger of losing the House is that the previous state party chair gave all the party's money to Diane, and did not pay enough attention to close state House races. That's not Sam Bregman's fault, and he will certainly not make the same mistake.
There are more restrictions on how Federal candidates can use their money than statewide candidates. Campaign finance rules are complicated, and federal candidates cannot make substantial donations to state candidates.
Moreover, how in the world is it Martin Heinrich's fault that the Republican House has blocked every jobs bill the democrats and the President have offered? You can't lay Republican obstructionism at his feet. Blame Steve Pearce if you must have a local whipping boy, but he's only a part of the problem for which national Republicans and their well-heeled owners have created.
Just a couple of points on the gross receipts tax. From a tax policy standpoint, some would say that the best tax is one that has a broad base and low rate, which is what the GRT is (relatively). However, as you stated it is easy to increase the tax by fractions without drawing attention. The regressiveness of the tax can be softened by providing a credit to low-income taxpayers (drugs and food is not taxed already) and the more the rich spend the more tax they pay (On Santa Fe artwork etc)
"APD Forward" Campaign Launched Today
Community-driven campaign will press for sustainable APD reforms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2014
CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or mmccoy@aclu-nm.org
ALBUQUERQUE, NM-Today, Albuquerque community leaders and a broad spectrum of
New Mexico-based organizations announced the launch of the APD Forward
campaign, a community-driven effort to hold the City of Albuquerque and the
Albuquerque Police Department (APD) accountable for implementing reforms of
the city's police department. APD Forward will serve as a powerful, targeted
platform for Albuquerque communities to press for sustainable reforms of APD
policies and procedures.
"The time has come for communities across the city to join together in
pressing for crucial reforms so APD officers can safely and responsibly
protect the people of Albuquerque," said ACLU of New Mexico Executive
Director Peter Simonson. "This is our best opportunity in decades to move
the APD and our city forward so that the people of Albuquerque can believe
in their police department again."
In recent weeks, a Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation confirmed
that longstanding deficiencies in oversight, training and polices have
allowed a culture of aggression and a sense of impunity to thrive within the
Albuquerque Police Department. APD officers frequently use excessive force
against people who pose a minimal threat, including those who are unarmed or
suffering from mental illness. To help fix these serious issues, the APD
Forward campaign will use advocacy, community organizing, and public
education to accomplishing the following four objectives:
1. Achieve a court enforced agreement between the Department of Justice
and the Albuquerque Police Department that ensures that the reforms we need
are fully implemented.
2. Obtain the appointment of a qualified, independent monitoring team
to oversee compliance with the court-ordered agreement.
3. Ensure that the City of Albuquerque dedicates adequate resources to
fully fund the necessary reforms.
4. Obtain sustained evidence that the City of Albuquerque and APD is
complying with the reform agreement and taking real, concrete steps to
address the problems uncovered by the Department of Justice investigation.
"Right now, many Albuquerque residents are justifiably angry that the
political process has failed to bring about long overdue reforms to our
police department," said Strong Families Field Director Adriann Barboa. "The
APD Forward campaign is dedicated to addressing the systemic problems within
our police department that were highlighted by the Department of Justice.
These problems are daunting, but we know they can be fixed if we work
together."
For more news and campaign updates, visit APD Forward online at
www.APDforward.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/APDforward, and on
Twitter at www.twitter.com/APDforward.
APD Forward Partners
Organizations
Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
Disability Rights New Mexico
Equality New Mexico
La Mesa Presbyterian Church
League of Women Voters of Central New Mexico
National Association of Social Workers - New Mexico Chapter
Native American Voters Alliance
New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
Strong Families
Individuals
Fabrizio Bertoletti - former Police Oversight Task Force member
Rev. Susan Allison-Hatch - Missionary to the Homeless, Episcopal Diocese of
the Rio Grande
###
Is the gross receipts tax increase off the table at tonight's City Council meeting? One has been withdrawn and one has been postponed until August 4th.
Did Jim's blog have anything to do with it? The New Media makes more of an impact than the old, stodgy media like the government run newspaper and the three tv stations. You heard it on Jim’s blog first!
Go to:
https://cabq.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
and then download the agenda to find P-14-3 and O-14.
BTW, note all of the outside legal services citizens are paying for in this agenda. Maybe they could instead dismantle the army they are building and redirect those funds to assist citizens instead.
Here’s a suggestion about restructuring to better serve the citizens:
Dismantle the army Berry has been building by:
a) Removing Blair - a good police chief could handle her job,
b) Replace Perry with someone who understands and appreciates community involvement in resolution,
c) Remove the Taser consultants and replace them with individuals familiar with the diversity, issues unique to Albuquerque and that can represent the community,
d) Remove the two master commanders - an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy,
e) Remove Huntsman and replace his position with an ombudsman for citizens who understands the issues unique to Albuquerque, not just within APD but all of the city government,
f) Remove Eden and replace him with one of the better qualified candidates who previously applied for the job and who reside outside of NM. They should have an established record of leading by way of community involvement, rather than a militaristic approach,
g) Remove city attorneys such as Levy, Dubois and Tourek who have questionable judgement and qualifications at best as attorneys based on their "leadership" on all of the law suits that we have and will have to pay out. This in in itself could save the city millions.
Instead of the city council approving an increase on the gross receipts tax, use the funds that will be available due to the restructuring to support the mentally ill and homeless. The gross receipts tax is a regressive tax and unfairly taxes the poor.
I realize that some of this is outside the purview of the City Council. Maybe they could get some time with Berry to shift the philosophy so that our government leaders will do what’s best for the citizens rather than create a hitleresque society.
Don Schiff: With all due respect, it sounds like your the one who does not know how the Democratic Party works. Sam Bregman is now appearing in Susana's ads because of his quote. Instead of apologizing to King and taking his comments back, Bregrman says it was a remark made in the heat of litigation, but does he still believe Gary is the worst AG or was he just lying?
The congressional delegation have huge donor lists that they could easily ask to donate to help King, but they wont. Donations do not have to come from them directly. Heinrick has done nothing in the way of promoting the State to try to attract jobs and industry to New Mexico. You wonder how many calls Heinrick has made to Tesla to help get the battery factory to locate to New Mexico? There is more to being a US Senator than just voting and opposing Republican initiatives and being environmentalist. I still have hope that Heinrick will grow into the job, but loosing faith in him rather quickly.
The Garrity Group public relations firm has an interesting survey about New Mexicans that can be found here:
http://www.garritypr.com/blog/garrity-perception-survey-2014
Under the caption “Access of News and Information sources” they state:
“The traditional media sources, while still dominant, are losing ground to digital news and information sources like the Internet (55 percent), social networking (43 percent) and blogs (37 percent). It is interesting to note that over the last year, television dropped 11 percent and social networking increased 10 percent as a news and information source.”
“Television is still the single most accessed source of news and information for New Mexico residents (75 percent), followed by newspapers (58 percent) and radio (57 percent).“
I’d like to see this information based on age. I expect the traditional (old) media viewers are highly skewed to those that won’t be around in 10 years. And in this city and state, the new (digital news) media is the ONLY place to get truthful information and not the propaganda put out by the Martinez/Berry machine.
Now all New Mexico needs is to get the new media viewers to vote, since the old media viewers are skewing the results as they are the majority of voters nowadays.
King is wise to be searching for a new campaign manager. If he’s smart, he’ll do what Obama did and realize that the way to win is via social media and the importance of “big data.” Here’s his latest ad. That’s the way to do it Gary! Martinez needs to be destroyed just like she’s destroying New Mexico!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UBA-Nxg8Ws&feature=youtu.be
Anonymous: I am a Ward chair and State Central Committee member. WHO ARE YOU?? You can't even spell our US Senator's name correctly!
Every candidate has baggage. Gary King's baggage is that the he has tried to please everyone, and therefore has pleased none, especially some core institutional Democratic constituencies. The PR spin is that Gary is moderate, and is being attacked form both sides. Therefore he must be doing something right! Gary pretty much has to run from the center because he's already there, and calibrate moves left in order to raise money and develop campaign infrastructure to get out the heavily Democratic vote in places like Nob Hill. He can't do that from the center, so he'll have to move left as the campaign progresses.
Have Chairman Bregman's comments hurt King? Maybe a little. However, Gary can spin this minor brouhaha to his benefit, since Sam is already perceived by some as a left-wing loose cannon. I trust the candidate and the chairman will come together to play good cop / bad cop, with Gary as good cop and Sam as bad cop.
I can't claim to know what Chairman Bregman is thinking, but I would be shocked if he resigned.
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