{"id":13873,"date":"2010-03-01T07:58:43","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T14:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=13873"},"modified":"2010-03-01T08:03:34","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T15:03:34","slug":"time-for-a-joint-nm-house-and-senate-democratic-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/time-for-a-joint-nm-house-and-senate-democratic-caucus\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for a joint NM House and Senate Democratic caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13875\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13875\" title=\"Rodefer, Ben\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Rodefer-Ben.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Benjamin Rodefer<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I am calling today for an immediate joint caucus of New Mexico\u2019s House and Senate Democrats. There has been too much difficulty and miscommunication surrounding our recent attempts to address the state\u2019s very serious budget woes.<\/p>\n<p>We are all on the same team,\u00a0and now is precisely the time to start acting that way, working together to address the very serious challenges facing our beloved New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>We Democrats hold a significant majority in both of New Mexico\u2019s legislative chambers, but such a joint caucus as I am calling for is extremely unusual, having not been called for in years.<\/p>\n<p>Today we will begin considering a budget deal orchestrated in private by the governor and a small handful of legislative leaders. The deal calls for further cuts to schools and also includes several\u00a0regressive taxes, including an increase to the\u00a0gross receipts tax\u00a0and a partial reinstatement of the food tax.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-12877\" title=\"Guest-column\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Guest-column.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And we are not simply talking a tortilla tax here, we are talking a food tax on everything.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201cdeal\u201d gives the rich \u2013 to whom Governor Richardson gave huge tax breaks to in 2003 \u2013 and large, out-of-state corporations like Wal Mart a complete pass, instead balancing the budget once again on the backs of\u00a0New Mexico\u2019s middle-class and working families.<\/p>\n<p>The very citizens who are struggling the most now. The very people we are supposed to be reaching out to and helping through these tough times.<\/p>\n<p>This deal, though, is not even close to the will and intent of either Democratic caucus. It is high time that we all get together, sit in the same room, talk this thing through, and work as a team to create a better future for all New Mexicans.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/benrodefer.com\/\"><em>Rodefer<\/em><\/a><em> is a Democratic state representative from Corrales.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am calling for an immediate joint caucus of House and Senate Democrats. There has been too much difficulty and miscommunication surrounding our attempts to address the budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[118,107],"class_list":["post-13873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}