{"id":27687,"date":"2011-03-25T09:28:49","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T15:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27687"},"modified":"2011-03-26T22:42:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T04:42:19","slug":"a-bankrupt-rationale-for-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/a-bankrupt-rationale-for-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"A bankrupt rationale for budget cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)<\/p><\/div>\n

Senate, House Democratic and Republican majorities failed to raise revenues in the legislative session. Instead, they voted to cut New Mexico\u2019s colleges and universities by $47 million. They voted to cut K-12 public schools by $35 million. They voted to cut $111 million from paychecks of education employees and public workers by increasing retirement deductions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all be confident in knowing that by continuing to do our part, we\u2019ll get through these tough times,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos, Democrat of Las Vegas, in an\u00a0ABQ Journal op-ed and an\u00a0NMPolitics.net\u00a0commentary<\/a>. But the richest New Mexicans, who net $73,000 a year or more,\u00a0aren\u2019t doing their part.<\/p>\n

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee would not allow the Senate to vote on whether the 2003 personal state income tax rates for the richest New Mexicans need to be restored.<\/p>\n

In 2003, the Democratic and Republican majorities voted to cut state income tax rates from 8 percent to 4 percent for the richest New Mexicans (see this graph<\/a>). These tax cuts cheat New Mexico\u2019s universities, colleges, and K-12 schools out of $350 million a year in revenues. The cuts also help create state budget deficits.<\/p>\n

No better time to raise revenue<\/h3>\n

\u201cThis is not a time to raise revenue,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos. There is no better time for a Democratic majority to\u00a0stand up for the 98 percent of New Mexicans who don\u2019t benefit from the 2003 personal state income tax cuts. While the majority of New Mexicans pay about 10 percent of their income in taxes, the richest New Mexicans pay only 4.5 percent.<\/p>\n

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee could have voted to send revenue-raising bills to the floor for a vote. Then, the\u00a0Democratic majority in the Senate could have voted to send those bills on to Gov. Martinez, and put the monkey on her back.<\/p>\n

Hurting in-state businesses<\/h3>\n

\u201cEach dollar we cut hurts businesses,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos. The Democratic and Republican majorities do hurt, and tax, in-state businesses. Perhaps their budget cuts\u00a0hurt out-of-state corporations like\u00a0Walmart, KASA2\/KRQE TV13, and Yates Petroleum, too. But, they don\u2019t tax the profits of these out-of-state corporations.<\/p>\n

The Senate Rules Committee (Democratic Senators Phil Griego, George Mu\u00f1oz, and John Sapien joined with Republicans) voted to kill Senate Bill 6<\/a>. The bill would have closed tax loopholes used by out-of-state corporations to\u00a0not pay\u00a0state income taxes on profits made in the Land of Enchantment.<\/p>\n

This tax loophole cheats New Mexico\u2019s universities, colleges, and K-12 schools out of $100 million in revenues. This loophole also fails to create a level playing field for in-state businesses, which are required by lawmakers to pay income taxes on profits made in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

High unemployment<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe have managed our way through this financial crisis,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos. After three years of budget cuts by the Democratic and Republican majorities, the state has the\u00a0highest number of unemployed New Mexicans since the 1940s.<\/p>\n

If you have a public, taxpayer-supported job like Sen. Campos, who is president of a New Mexico community college, this is a recession. But, if you\u2019re unemployed like too many New Mexicans, this is a depression.<\/p>\n

Another year of budget cuts by the Democratic and Republican majorities may create even more unemployment in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Some aren\u2019t tightening belts<\/h3>\n

\u201cVirtually every New Mexican continues to tighten (their) belt,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos.\u00a0A minority of New Mexicans aren\u2019t tightening their belts. The richest among us, about\u00a02 percent of the 1.9 million people who live in New Mexico, benefit from the 2003 personal state income tax cuts. These same New Mexicans\u00a0also benefit from the Bush 2001 personal federal income tax cuts.<\/p>\n

Out-of-state corporations aren\u2019t tightening their belts either.\u00a0Walmart, Channel 2\/13, and Yates Petroleum\u00a0benefit by not paying corporate state income taxes on profits made in the Land of Enchantment.<\/p>\n

Highly paid lobbyists<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe economy forced legislators to cut spending,\u201d wrote Sen. Campos.\u00a0No, it\u00a0was highly paid lobbyists for the richest New Mexicans and out-of-state corporations who forced the Democratic majority to cut spending and\u00a0not raise revenues. Those lobbyists didn\u2019t have to force the Republican majority to support budget cuts.<\/p>\n

House Republicans voted against the state budget because the\u00a0cuts\u00a0didn’t go\u00a0deep enough.\u00a0They said budget cuts were \u201ctoo conservative.\u201d Ironically, by cutting almost $200 million from the budget, the Democratic and Republican majorities not only reduced public spending for the fourth year in a row, they may also help prolong New Mexico\u2019s economic recovery.<\/p>\n

As a result, tax revenues may be down again next year, and lawmakers may be faced with more deficits.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Adams,\u201d with\u00a0Red Chili Revolution Productions<\/a>, is a native New Mexican born in Roosevelt County. He works in the north. He is a public employee union member with 44 years teaching experience at university and secondary levels. For now,\u00a0\u201cJohn Adams\u201d conceals his full identity\u00a0due to\u00a0retaliatory threats to \u201ccease and desist\u201d from using social media\u00a0as a means\u00a0for\u00a0organizing, advocating and pressuring our state lawmakers to\u00a0raise revenues. A prior version of this posting incorrectly linked to SB 7 instead of SB 6.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe economy forced legislators to cut spending,\u201d Sen. Campos wrote recently. No, it was highly paid lobbyists for the richest New Mexicans and out-of-state corporations who forced the Democratic majority to cut spending and not raise revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2076,"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-27687","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\/27687","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\/2076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}