I mentioned in a previous blog post that I heard Lt. Governor Diane Denish on the campaign trail saying, “Now is not the time to raise taxes.” All too often politicians say one thing on the campaign trail and do an entirely different thing when they are elected to the office for which they are campaigning.
Looks like we don’t even have to wait to elect the Lt. Governor to see her live up to that long tradition of saying one thing and doing another. Consider this from a recent press release by GOP candidate for Governor Susana Martinez:
Denish initially claimed to oppose an “across-the-board tax on all food.” That sounded to me like a cleverly-worded statement that left the door open to a “partial” tax increase on “certain” foods (like maybe tortillas, for example, as was proposed during the regular session). So in January, [https://cts.vresp.com/c/?SusanaMartinezforGov/b794e4993b/c534fc8f02/dc0b33a94e] I called on her to clarify.
Her response? Silence.
Sure enough, as the “partial” reinstatement of the food tax was flying though the legislature and she was presiding over the state Senate, she did nothing.
And just last week, Denish was acting Governor… As acting Governor, she even signed legislation.
So, that raises this question: If Denish is so opposed to the food tax, and she was acting Governor, why didn’t she take the opportunity to show real leadership and VETO the food tax increase?
It’s a good question.