{"id":14993,"date":"2010-03-24T14:14:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14993"},"modified":"2010-03-25T09:04:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T15:04:46","slug":"richardson-vetoes-food-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/richardson-vetoes-food-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson vetoes food tax"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

In cigarette tax increase bill, governor also vetoes sunset provision and earmark for education<\/h4>\n

Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> vetoed the food tax today in what a news release from his office called \u201cthe final legislative action of his two terms as governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not willing to put this burden on working families in the form of an unfair tax on food. I agree with those who call this a cruel tax,\u201d Richardson said in the release. \u201cIt is especially cruel during the worst financial crisis New Mexico has ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the veto, Richardson \u201cmade good on a campaign promise when he led the charge in 2004 to eliminate the tax on food,\u201d the release states. While line-item vetoing the food tax, Richardson signed the larger revenue package into law.<\/p>\n

The veto leaves a gap of an estimated $68 million in the budget, but Richardson said he would use $20 million in federal stimulus money and, if necessary, the authority the Legislature gave him to impose spending cuts across state government to plug that hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2004, I told New Mexicans that we eliminated the food tax forever, putting hundreds of dollars into the pockets of working families,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cI\u2019m not about to open the door again and resurrect a tax on food that disproportionately hurts poor and middle-income families.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to signing the revenue-raising bill, Senate Bill 10<\/a>, Richardson signed two other pieces of the budget-balancing package:<\/p>\n

\u2022 House Bill 2<\/a>, the budget bill which, according to the release from Richardson, \u201cgives the governor the authority to make additional spending cuts across state government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor will exercise that option if cash reserves decline as a result of the food tax veto,\u201d the release states. \u201cThe governor is also prepared to use $20 million in stimulus money to balance the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 House Bill 3<\/a>, which increases the tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. Richardson vetoed a provision in the bill that would have diverted some of that funding to education, saying in the release that the \u201cbill was intended to raise revenue to balance the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor also vetoed language that would have ended the tax after four years,\u201d Richardson\u2019s release states. \u201cBecause the tax is meant to deter young from smoking, the sunset provision is not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, who first announced her opposition to the food tax in December<\/a>, applauded Richardson\u2019s veto of the food tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said from day one, the Legislature should have done everything possible to cut costs and make government more efficient before even considering regressive taxes that target working families,\u201d the Democrats\u2019 gubernatorial candidate said in a release. \u201cUnfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other gubernatorial candidates didn\u2019t immediately release statements following Richardson\u2019s action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed the food tax today in what a news release from his office called \u201cthe final legislative action of his two terms as governor.\u201d \u201cI am not willing to put this burden on working families in the form of an unfair tax on food,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[112,118,107],"class_list":["post-14993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-richardson","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14993","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}