Stimulus — yea or nay?

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By Carter Bundy The federal stimulus package is like nothing we’ve ever seen, and for a reason: We’re in times like we’ve never seen (unless you’re an octogenarian or nonagenarian, of course). I have mixed feelings about it. Anyone concerned with our deficits would have to. Part of me agrees with Heath (click here to read that column) that the whole thing is crazy — spending hundreds of billions to get us out of a recession/borderline depression that was largely caused by the last administration’s insane fiscal irresponsibility. But part of me also knows when I’m in over my head, and since a strong majority of economists — liberal and conservative — all agree that some stimulus is needed to arrest our economic death spiral, I defer on this one. Continue Reading

The art of compromise

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By Carter Bundy Politics is often called the art of compromise. This year, one of the most hotly debated, controversial and expensive proposals in state history, tax increment financing (TIF, whose vehicle is known as tax increment development districts, or TIDDs) is ground zero for New Mexico politics. So is there room for compromise? On one side are developers, most of whom, to their credit, have outstanding plans for mixed-use, smart growth. These developers want taxpayers to foot the bills for the entire infrastructure costs of their developments. Continue Reading

Crisis management

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By Carter Bundy The Legislature and administration should be praised for working together in a cordial, bipartisan manner to fix our fiscal year 2009 shortfall. They did it quickly and they did it in a way that didn’t significantly cut services at a time when people need them more than ever. But they didn’t do it alone. State employees agreed to a zero percent raise, meaning that after health insurance increases and increases in things like workers’ comp, they’re actually agreeing to a take-home pay cut. Workers are sacrificing more than pay. Continue Reading

Fresh starts

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By Carter Bundy While we all would have loved to have been in Washington on Jan. 20, the Herculean tasks confronting New Mexico called hundreds of us to Santa Fe instead. Fortunately, the lieutenant governor and Santa Fe’s Mayor Coss, among others, hosted a big breakfast party that let hundreds of us preparing to start the session enjoy the sensation of being part of a huge community event. The Santa Fe Convention Center’s main room was packed, with every table filled and standing room only throughout the back and sides of the room. Two moments and one non-moment stood out for me. Continue Reading

PERA in perspective

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By Carter Bundy The N.M. Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) just voted to introduce legislation to significantly reduce benefits in New Mexico’s public employee retirement plans (PERA). This is one of the least understood subjects in the state, yet affects tens of thousands of New Mexican families and retirees and impacts local economies in every corner of the state. As a background to the current discussion, we should remember that just four months ago, PERA was in excellent shape. PERA, like any good pension fund, works with a 30- or 50-year horizon. Since mid-September, however, PERA’s investments have been hit hard, and that is driving understandably strong fears about future solvency. Continue Reading

Drawing the lines

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By Carter Bundy Between the Blagojevich and CDR investigations, there have been literally thousands of articles and hundreds of hours of talking-head analysis. I haven’t read or watched all of it, but what amazes me most is the lack of frank discussion of what constitutes corruption and what drives it. There seems to be an almost intellectually lazy approach to the analysis of these investigations: Either a person is good or bad, and we’ll know corruption when we see it. Not only is that a sloppy way of addressing the actual present-day issues, it encourages us to ignore systemic problems that will linger long after prosecutors rest their cases in Illinois and New Mexico. Some behavior is obviously over the line, and we owe it to ourselves as taxpayers and citizens to establish what those lines are. Continue Reading

Looking for blame in all the wrong places

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By Carter Bundy Over the last few months, as the problems in Detroit have reached catastrophic levels (and no, that’s not a Lions reference), there has been a curious intensity of anger directed at the United Auto Workers (UAW). America’s autoworkers have made a good living for decades, largely thanks to their union. They’ve had good health care and a decent retirement, which used to be staples of the American worker’s compensation package, at least at large companies. Having it both ways One of the first things conservative union-bashers point to is the cost of health care in the automotive industry. Two questions: First, do they realize that countries like Japan and Germany have health care for all of their people, giving their companies a built-in structural advantage? Continue Reading

‘God’s love’ vs. kindness

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By Carter Bundy Nov. 4, 2008 will largely be remembered as a great day exemplifying how far America has come in terms of tolerance, acceptance, diversity and even love for other humans. It’s not just that Sen. Obama garnered a record numbers of votes. Even a sizeable number, probably a significant majority, of those who voted for Sen. McCain celebrate America’s historic shattering of a racial barrier. Unfortunately, Nov. Continue Reading

A dream come true

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By Carter Bundy For many of us, Nov. 4, 2008, will go down as one of the greatest days in American history. There are so many ways in which this election is a watershed moment for this country, and even for the world. The racial component of the election of the first African American president (bi-racial, which is a growing and overlooked component of the American population) is simultaneously the most superficial change but also the deepest. For a nation with 250 years of slavery and 100 years of apartheid to elect an African American after a mere 44 years of legal equality (and less of de facto equality) is stunning. Continue Reading

The wind and the sun

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By Carter Bundy I was skeptical about Barack Obama’s infomercial. While no one likes prevent defense, at the very least most of us understand that with a lead and time running out, you don’t start throwing the ball down the field. But Obama’s got a pretty strong fearless streak. In the third debate, he exemplified his willingness to tackle any issue head-on when he spoke about his plans for reducing abortion. Many pro-choice candidates tend to duck abortion, knowing that there is some segment of the population who vote pro-life to the exclusion of every other issue. Continue Reading

Obama’s fiscal sanity

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By Carter Bundy Last week I promised I’d provide a little of the math behind how we can save hundreds of billions of dollars with an Obama administration and Democratic filibuster-proof Senate, simply by changing one part of one law. Allowing Medicare D to negotiate for bulk purchasing rates, a core fiscal conservative principle if there ever was one, will do just that. Volume, volume, volume A few facts: Medicare D is going to be by far the largest consumer of prescription drugs anywhere in the world. Also, the marginal cost of making each pill for most drugs is almost de minimis. Ingredients, energy and other overhead, packaging, marketing and distribution won’t amount to more than a few pennies per pill. Continue Reading

Attack of the ideologues

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By Carter Bundy Down the stretch they come, and the national GOP is running the same scare campaign they’ve run for the last few presidential cycles. There are two elements: First, the Democratic nominee is a terrorist who secretly hates America. That’s been covered as much as Tony Romo’s pinky, and it’s one of those things that you either fall for or you don’t. The second element out of the Republican fear-mongering playbook is to paint the Dem as a socialist, or better yet, communist. It’s on right-wing radio, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page every day, and makes its way into McCain TV ads on a regular basis now. Continue Reading

Religulous and the real Jesus

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By Carter Bundy There is an awful lot of awful truth to Bill Maher’s movie “Religulous.” Some social conservatives take vicious Old Testament teachings and try to pass them off as part of a religion named after Jesus Christ. Some Jews hypocritically find phony ways around their own rules. There is violence and intolerance in too much of Islam. Maher even picks on the far-outness of the backstories of Mormonism and Scientology, but mostly to make viewers question the literalist, anti-scientific stories adopted by fundamentalist believers of all religions. Maher doesn’t just mock, though. Continue Reading

Catch-700 Billion

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By Carter Bundy Most of us who follow politics, lobby, campaign or even just talk back to political TV ads would love to have a vote in Congress or in Santa Fe on any number of issues. On rare occasion, though, there’s an incredibly difficult vote that no one wants to cast. The bailout bill is one of them. There seem to be very few economists or financial analysts of any political persuasion who don’t think some kind of temporary rescue is necessary to avoid crippling our credit markets. You almost never see this kind of unanimity among economists and policy analysts, much less among leading political figures in both major parties. Continue Reading

Quarantine

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This column was written before C. de Baca resigned earlier today. By Carter Bundy Fernando C. de Baca has been in New Mexico many decades longer than I’ve been alive, much less lived here. In early 2002, shortly after AFSCME successfully gutted Jeb Bush’s plan to turn Florida’s government into a patronage system, I chose to move to New Mexico instead of taking a job in Maine, or staying in Florida, or moving back to D.C., Virginia, New York or the West Coast. Some of the major factors in my move were the sunshine, unparalleled moderate, four-season climate, the gorgeous mountains and the chance to play a role in an exciting gubernatorial race. When I got here, all those things were as I’d hoped and more. Continue Reading