Priorities

Bernalillo County Fire Chief John Garcia made an appearance Tuesday night in front of the Bernalillo County Commission. His objective was to get commissioners to approve a 1/4 cent tax increase in hopes that a large portion of that tax revenue would be used to replace the aging equipment and infrastructure in his department.

According to our Eyes, the Bernalillo County Fire Department needs about $5 MILLION for station renovation and equipment replacement. All or part of a 1/4 cent tax increase would be used to fund the endeavor.

We don't blame the chief for asking for the tax increase as the Eyes have it that he genuinely needs at least part of the money that he's requested. Our problem is that it has become necessary for the chief to ask for a tax increase to pay for needed equipment and infrastructure in the first place.

County commissioners approved a $4 million bond deal to finance the purchase and some renovations of Hiland in 2003. They took ownership of the theater from Musical Theatre Southwest, then rented it back to the nonprofit.

County officials intended for rent from the group to cover debt payments on the theater purchase. Eventually, however, Musical Theatre Southwest was unable to afford keeping the Hiland open, and the county began looking at other options.

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

As you can see, back in 2003 the county was able to come up with some $4 MILLION to purchase the decaying Hiland Theater. Two years later the commission slipped another $1 MILLION past tax payers in a bond issue that was used to fix up the Hiland but sold as a general fixer upper for county buildings.

The county is closing in on a $42 million deal to acquire the 500 Marquette office building, once home to the swanky Petroleum Club. The 15-story building lies across the street from the County Commission's current home, the City Hall complex it shares with Albuquerque city government and the water utility authority.

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

The county seems to be able to come up with $4 MILLION or even $42 MILLION on short notice as long as it's for a cathedral for themselves or a theater for the profitably challenged. But when it comes to public safety - you know, police, fire, detention - there's not enough money to go around, so we need a tax increase.

What that tells us is that the county is busy spending money on things it shouldn't to the detriment of the things that it should. Government is tasked with certain functions that are core responsibilities, public safety is chief among them. In the county's case, they are also responsible for the operation of the West Side Jail.

When voters are forced to decide whether or not to vote for a tax to fund basic services, they are actually funding other non-essential spending - usually benefiting a very few. Whether it's a theater for the profitably challenged, a crystal cathedral for the commission, a downtown arena, or a shiny new trolley, spending outside of the core functions and responsibilities of government inevitably result in higher taxes.

We are -and have been - in a crisis of upside down priorities. Our governments are spending money meant for core functions on programs that are not a part of government's intent. Meanwhile, governments raise taxes to pay for core functions that should have been a top priority to begin with.

In reality, public safety taxes are an admission that government is failing at its job and ignoring its responsibilities - much like a gambler betting their food or rent money. The difference being one ends up being homeless and hungry, the other simply raises taxes.

Tax Crunch

While everyone was out doing their last minute shopping and enjoying their family, friends and a well deserved eggnog, the governor's Task Force on Mortgage Lending weighed in its report on how to fix the subprime lending "crisis." The Christmas Eve story in the Journal is a perfect example of how government tries to slip a story past the public at a time when they are distracted by more pressing concerns. The last time we saw this type of chicanery was when the Almighty Alcalde tried to slip his trolley past the voters while we were focused on the 2006 mid-term elections.

According to the Journal, the Task Force's mission "was to evaluate the potential local impact of the subprime lending crisis and to come up with ways to protect consumers against abusive lending practices. (ABQ Journal - Subscription)." First of all, beware any time the government starts trying to "protect" the public, especially when it has to do with your money. Generally the result is your money being sent somewhere you don't want your money to go.

Strictly speaking the subprime mortgage "crisis" is not a crisis at all. It's the logical result of over-eager lenders making money available to people who shouldn't be getting it in the first place. The result is a tightening of the money available by the very people who were practically begging you to take out a loan just a year ago. The reality is that not everyone should own a home; there are those whose financial position is better suited to renting at least for now.

Back to the governor's Task Force... Since the subprime "crisis" was created by over-zealous lenders and brokers, you'd think that the recommendation of the task force would be some sort of restrictions on lending (not that we'd like that much either). Nooooo... The task force's recommendation is to make all private home sale prices public. Why? Because the task force blames the "crisis" on "unscrupulous appraiser[s]."

"One of the problems in the mortgage meltdown were loans based on inflated values," said task force co-chair Michael Loftin, who is executive director of Homewise, a nonprofit home ownership organization in Santa Fe. "So if you make more transparent what the values (home sales prices) are, it makes it harder to cook an appraisal."

- ABQ Journal

First of all, the market has a perfectly functional mechanism for taking care of unscrupulous appraisers who either over-value or under-value property - lenders stop using them. Lending institutions rely on accurate appraisals to determine risk. When appraisals are inflated, lenders run the risk of having to foreclose on a property that cannot be sold at a price that allows them to recover their investment.

Second, the Journal story implies that appraisers have no access to sales price data and are somehow working in a vacuum seemingly coming up with prices based on some kind of gut feeling or something. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It's safe to say that most houses in Albuquerque are sold by Realtors using their private Multiple Listing Service. Every house sold through the MLS is recorded along with its sales price. Appraisers use this data (and have for years) to determine comparable prices or comps for a specific property. Since most homes are sold through the MLS the comps are usually very accurate.

So what is all of this really about? Since 2004 New Mexico has required that all sales prices be reported to the county assessors. That data was not to be used for assessing value. Of course if they have the data they will find a way to use it. Before 2004, property owners could choose to provide the sales price but weren't required to do so.

(Sidebar)
The Bernalillo County Assessor's office used to send out a very official letter to new homeowners that asked them to report the sales price. The letter was constructed in such a way as to make you believe that casual observers would believe that they had to report their sales price. In other words, before 2004 the county assessors would trick you into reporting your own sales price.

(End Sidebar)

Of course this whole thing isn't about protecting anyone from predatory lending; it's about separating you from your money. Requiring every sale price to be reported will allow the assessors to easily increase your property value and therefore increase your property taxes.

Before you start thinking "it's only fair that the assessed value track the market," remember that there's a very real possibility that people who have lived in a home for an extended period of time will be taxed right out of their home. In addition, our assessment system was taken into account when our property taxes were set so changing the assessment method will simply result in increased revenue not originally planned for. In other words, a tax increase where the hardest hit will be those on fixed incomes. (How's that for progressive taxation?!) Plus, you know that the sales data will be used to support an increase in assessed value and won't reflect market corrections when they occur.

With the state facing a substantial reduction in new revenue, we'd bet that Governor Richardson sees fit to put this on his upcoming legislative agenda. Make no mistake, this is about money not consumer protection and should New Mexico become a disclosure state we'll be filling state coffers on the backs of people who can least afford it.

Money, Money, Money

Money was on the agenda Monday night down at city hall... money for budgets, a little less money from the scam-era system, and money for the county. Money, money, money... in fact $490 MILLION of your hard earned tax money was allocated as part of the city's overall budget plan (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required).

Talking about the city budget or taxes is like watching paint dry (or like trying to sit through a typical City Council meeting without falling asleep or attempting suicide). We bet that you didn't even flinch when you read that the city approved a budget of almost half a billion dollars. Let us say that again... HALF A BILLION DOLLARS! That's your money and that's our money and how it is spent is of tremendous importance to not only our pocketbooks now, but to our future ability to fill those pocket books.

The past six or so years Mayor Almighty with his willing accomplices on the council, have been on a spending spree increasing the city budget by $125 MILLION more (we told you about it here) than can be accounted for by the rate of inflation (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required). The city has been and continues to act as if the party will never end and thus they believe they will always the revenue to support their ambitions and their insatiable appetite for our money.

What have we gotten for all of our taxpayer generosity? A whole lot of shiny new amenities (read as taxpayer responsibilities), a dysfunctional police department, and a trolley on the way. That's right, the council voted to include our mayor's favorite 19th Century Streetcar as part of the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).

The move doesn't allocate funding for the trolley, but it makes its inclusion part of our overall transportation plan. I thought that at least the Benton sales... ah, "study" group would at least regale us with how important the trolley was before they included it in the plan. Must be some sort of governmental thing... plan for the need before you determine that you have a need, and if you already have (like more police officers on the street) a need - ignore it.

As for taxes (of all sorts) the council voted to keep the 1/8 cent sales tax in place until July 2008 citing the need to support the county jail with the $9 MILLION expected to come in through the continuance of the tax. We do know that the new jail is struggling to find space for all of the bad guys that are being shipped out to the West side. We do know that a large percentage of those miscreants come from our fair city and that the county often complains that the city isn't carrying its share of the fiscal burden (perhaps it isn't).

However, one hundred percent of those enjoying the hospitality of the county's west side facility are Bernalillo county prisoners; otherwise they'd be locked up in some other county jail. More importantly, whose hare-brained idea was it to give a one-time no strings attached, $9 MILLION bonus to the county? And exactly how does it solve the problem of the inability of the city to get along with the county? Here's an idea... give us back our money before you find another excuse to continue to waste it.

Finally, and at long last, the city council voted last night to move the deck chairs. After careful consideration and much debate, we'll get $50 off the first infraction, and $200 off the second, along with an additional 15 days in which to appeal our conviction (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required). We say conviction because we long ago established that you are guilty until proven innocent under this Kangaroo Camera-Court system.

The only sense came from Councilor Winter who pointed out that moving around the deck chairs does nothing to repair the damage done by due process iceberg. Perhaps the councilors are trying to hurry along the abducted bride syndrome described by Chief Schultz by lowering the fines to make it appear that we can all live without the very foundation of our legal system - due process.

Money, money, money... they'll take more of it (an 1/8th cent for the county and MILLIONs from the Red Light Scam-eras). They'll spend more of it (Almost a HALF BILLION DOLLARS for the city budget). And they'll continue to work on ways to keep every cent of tax revenue (1/4 cent Transportation Infrastructure Tax for the trolley - 1/8th cent sales tax for the jail now and who knows what later).

This is our money folks... and as much as we at Eye on Albuquerque complain about, deride, and make fun of the mayor and council for their spend happy ways; it's everyone's fault that they get away with it. We keep electing them and they keep spending. Why are we surprised?

Tax Addiction - How it Starts

Addictions come in all shapes and sizes these days. Addictions to alcohol, illegal drugs, sex, money, power, have all become common place. In the world of government, the most tempting addiction is your tax dollars... the crack of government. An addiction so strong that once tried, it's almost impossible to break away from.

Our Eyes tell us that last Thursday night, The Mayer (Councilor Mayer) used the most common excuse known to addicts when justifying her support of the extension of the Transportation Infrastructure Tax... we need it and we can't live without it. Like any addict Councilor Mayer believes that without her fix of 1/4 cent, the city's streets, bikeways, and walkways would cease to exist or fall into utter disrepair.

Unwittingly, she also gave us the reason why we should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER impose a tax on ourselves... It will never go away. Once we let those addicts down at city hall get their first fix, they're hooked.

They become dependent through a process called supplanting. Once the public passes a tax on itself to achieve a specific goal that was originally funded through the city's general fund, the money in the general fund is shifted to pay for other things that are usually more about leaving a legacy (See Marty's MyCentennial Towers) than about the basic and most important functions of government.

Sometimes we have a hazy memory, but we're pretty sure that the City of Albuquerque had roads, bike paths, and walkways before the imposition of the Transportation Infrastructure Tax back in 1999. Now addicts like The Mayer tell us that there's no way we can survive without that tax, an addiction shared by the Almighty One's Chief of Operations, Ed Adams who defended the tax extension in just those terms.

It always starts innocently enough... that first taste of taxation bliss. A tax to fund public safety, or for better parks, or transportation or quality of life; before you know it they're hooked and you're broke.

A New Way to Spell Betrayal: Deferred

be·tray (b-tr)tr.v. be·trayed, be·tray·ing, be·trays
6. To lead astray; deceive. See Synonyms at deceive.

It started right at the beginning of the meeting... Public Input bill: Deferred, Councilor Harris' Transportation Study: Deferred, Councilor Benton's Study: Deferred, Councilor Winter's Transportation Study: Deferred. By 6:00 PM there hardly seemed to be anything left of the Council's Agenda and the only Trolley bill left was the promised repeal of the Transportation Infrastructure Tax. Surely that bill would quickly move through the Council with a minimum of debate and be approved.

WRONG! The Council once again showed its true colors by deferring the one bill that the Mayor and the Council all claim to be in favor of... repealing the Transportation Infrastructure Tax extension. This is the type of ham-fisted political maneuvering that causes us to see red.

The truth is that this Council (with the exception of Councilor Winter) wants to keep the money provided by the Transportation Infrastructure Tax in order to fund their plunge back to the 19th century. The easiest way to achieve that goal is to betray their promises by deferring the repeal until their opposition loses interest or determination. Then they'll quietly roll the 19th Century Trolley through a City Council meeting and "all aboard! Next stop... New Taxationville!"

-----UPDATE-----

We want to make sure to give credit where credit is due. Councilors Cadigan, Harris, and Winter all voted to repeal the Transportation Infrastructure Tax. (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required) But we stand by the assertion that the Council is trying to find a way to implement the 19th Century Streetcar. By the way... who does The Mayer (Councilor Mayer) think she's fooling? She tables the repeal in committee, votes to bring it out of committee two weeks ago, and then claims we've got plenty of time and votes to defer it. She voted against it, before she voted for it, before she voted against it?!