Let me see if I get this straight. The current tax situation in New Mexico is so poor that we rank pretty close to the bottom when it comes to the quality of our business climate. Now, let me try to imagine how that tax money might be spent with regard to public record maintenance….
A portion of the taxes pay for someone to input public record information. The current taxes also pay for the computer programs used to store that information. Another percentage of these collected taxes pays for the computer servers on which that information resides. Yet, more of the tax money is used to ensure state employees have internet access.
We know the internet makes it possible to access information in many cases at zero additional costs (e.g. you didn’t need to pay to read this).
However, if businesses wants to electronically access the public information that their taxes paid for, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has decided, in their infinite wisdom, that they should pay a royalty.
Last time I checked royalties were paid on proprietary information, not information already paid for by the public. How many times does the same system intend to tax? As if our current system of pyramiding taxes isn’t bad enough, now the courts want to add more to our already heavy burden.