Check out the news in the last few months, and it’s hard to miss the increased spending occurring at breakneck speed by state and municipal governments throughout the Land of Enchantment. Government coffers are overflowing with taxpayer funds. In fact, the only city that saw a decline in revenue was the city of Santa Fe.
So someone explain to me what type of elected official in their right mind would consider now a good time to further increase our taxes? Apparently, for the answer you need to look no further than the Bernalillo County Commission (subscription):
Bernalillo County commissioners this week will consider moving forward with three tax increases – one for arts and cultural programs, the others to help fund health care for the poor.
You read that correctly. These folks are considering, not one, not two, but three tax increases.
If the quality-of-life and health-care taxes are approved, the rates will climb to 6.0625 percent and 7.25 percent, respectively.
I guess that’s one way to stop the growth. Mind you, Governor Richardson’s statewide increase of the gross receipts tax just came into effect on January 1, 2005, and already we’re looking at another increase in gross receipts taxes. If passed, this would equate to an increase of our county taxes by more than 12% in just three years and an increase of our city taxes by a whopping 19.58% during the same period of time.