The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

May 31, 2007

Spinning for Dollars

This upcoming Monday night the city council is set to get its budget back complete with a line item veto from the 11th floor (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required). Mayor Marty is peeved because the council decided to fork over $9 MILLION to the county in order to help support the Metropolitan Detention Center. If the vote goes the way it did on the 21st, the mayor's veto will be overridden.

Unfortunately everyone is trying to play politics with this one. Mayor Marty is all over the media claiming that he's "glad the council voted for my tax cut [emphasis added]. Unfortunately, they missed the point. I want to give a tax cut to Albuquerque families immediately. I don't want the City Council to suck out another $9 million from taxpayers" (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required).

Meanwhile the majority of the council is busy trying to have it both ways (voting for a deferred tax cut while giving $9,000,000 to the county) or trying to save face by being able to claim that they at least voted for a tax cut.

At this point it's all rhetoric. Council President O'Malley came out early and linked the tax cut directly to keeping the 1/8 cent gross receipts tax through July 1, 2008 and fell right into Marty's trap.

You may have heard by now that The Almighty One has shall we say, higher ambitions. Yep, the mayor wants to run again for governor. This tax cut move has been rightly characterized by some of our Eyes as a ploy to make him look like a fiscal conservative. We were suspicious of the move from the very beginning. Since Marty took over, the city has out spent inflation by some $125 MILLION (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required).
(Sidebar)
Remember this is the same Marty who wants to dump $240 MILLION into a 19th century streetcar benefiting a few hundred people along Central. Coincidently, that's about the same amount (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required) that it would take to fix the Paseo Del Norte/I-25 interchange that services tens of thousands of vehicles daily. But we digress...
(End Sidebar)
Right now, the mayor is winning the spin war. He's characterized the council as a bunch of fiscal oafs that want to send $9,000,000 to the county - no strings attached, while the valiant Marty battles to give you back your hard earned cash. Meanwhile his arch rival in the last mayoral election, Brad Winter is being attacked on the radio by a group calling itself the Committee for Responsible Budgets for not cutting taxes (which he did... just not January 1, when the mayor originally proposed).

The result is that the mayor will almost certainly look like the good guy no matter what happens Monday night. The only way that we see for the council to turn the table is for them to readdress the tax cut, moving the effective date to January 1, 2008 and then make the $9,000,000 contribution contingent upon excess city revenue that will hopefully be generated by the tax cut.

We really don't believe that the county should be hitting the city up for cash when their budget is light. After all, city residents are still paying for the jail through an increase in county taxes that was equivalent to a decrease in city taxes. In fact, the county should be taking in more revenue than the city for jail operation due to the increase in tax base.

This budget is not all bad. In fact, Councilor Cadigan shot us an email to point out that there's a 3% pay increase included in this budget for police officers. We just believe that our priorities need to be Police, Fire, Infrastructure, Administrative, Amenities. The Chavez administration has spent an inordinate amount of time and our money building amenities that continue to place an ever increasing burden on the city budget and our wallets.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go MAYOR!

Anonymous said...

He also wants to spend $350 million on a downtown arena. But he won't back the arts tax or a new Amtrack station, which would cost very little in comparison.

Anonymous said...

No need for a new tax for art we already have one..........Why would we spend public tax dollars on a train station to serve only Amtrak customers. Amtrak bares this responsibility as part of their business plan...

Anonymous said...

Good day !.
You re, I guess , perhaps very interested to know how one can collect a huge starting capital .
There is no need to invest much at first. You may commense earning with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you need
The company represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

Its head office is in Panama with structures around the world.
Do you want to become a happy investor?
That`s your chance That`s what you desire!

I feel good, I started to take up real money with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to select a proper companion utilizes your funds in a right way - that`s it!.
I earn US$2,000 per day, and my first deposit was 1 grand only!
It`s easy to join , just click this link http://awavemami.100freemb.com/yqygufa.html
and go! Let`s take our chance together to feel the smell of real money