Chamber Advocates for Taxing Food

This is one of those "Say What!" moments. I actually had to read it two or three times before I could believe what I was reading.

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, told the committee that she'd spoken with food banks and others who distribute food to the poor. "They tell me the tax break hasn't really been that helpful to the very poor," she said. Cole said it might be more helpful to bring back the food tax and have the state directly fund food distributions to the needy.

The food tax repeal costs the state about $200 million a year, Cole said.

Okay, this is wrong on so many levels. First a few disclaimers are in order. I used to be a Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce member. I opted not to renew my membership when the Chamber made the decision to be the only Chamber of Commerce in the State of New Mexico to support Governor Richardson's anti-business and ultimately ill-fated healthcare initiative. I've not looked back since, and with the Albuquerque Chamber now cheerleading regressive tax increases, I don't think I ever will.

The second disclaimer is that I support food banks. We are Roadrunner Food Bank Full Plate Society members, and I'd encourage all readers of this blog to consider supporting this or other food bank efforts during these trying economic times.

So, with the disclaimers out of the way, let's dive into the problems here. Teri Cole's assertion that the tax break on food hasn't been very helpful to those getting food from food banks is absurd. Of course, they aren't helped by the tax break on food. They're not buying the food. They're given the food. So, there isn't any tax for them to get a tax break. But, there are so many other families in need not utilizing food banks that are benefiting from that tax break.

Let's also consider the cost of this break we got on food. You might remember that when the food tax was introduced, it was paired with another tax increase that resulted in a net tax gain:

CLAIM #4
eliminating the tax on food

FACT #4
"So while New Mexico is giving up gross receipts taxes on these qualifying medical and food receipts, it is going to be taking more from all other taxable receipts. According to Fred Winter, local CPA, "This means that the overall gross receipts tax rate will increase from 7.00% to 7.50% for the Town of Taos."

Now, the Albuquerque Chamber wants to see the reduced tax increase piled on top of this previous tax increase. Are you kidding me?

And, the rationale for this increase?

The food tax repeal costs the state about $200 million a year, Cole said.

If the state passed a net tax increase along with the the tax cut. The state didn't lose any money. It gained money. If you take the Chamber's position to an extreme, consider how much money not having a 100% tax on all income is costing the state.

Since when does a Chamber of Commerce advocate for giving the government more of our hard-earned money?

Global Warming Myth Follow Up

Yesterday, I pointed out that single working moms can't buy milk for their four year olds because of questionable science and government intervention, which has foisted ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels. Even if you were to choose to ignore that New Mexico's economy would collapse tomorrow if it weren't for fossil fuels. You've got to recognize that ranching communities, including those in New Mexico, are suffering because of the high cost of feed as a result of such misguided efforts as federal subsidies for ethanol production. So, we've got rising milk prices. We've got rising beef prices. Oh, and did I mention that we have less jobs:

“Rural communities need both livestock and ethanol production,” says Lawrence, who was also a key BQS presenter. But livestock production is worth more jobs.

According to studies at Iowa State University, using a 50-million-gal. ethanol plant as an example, 18.5 million bu. of corn are required. The plant accounts for 35 workers directly, as well as 98 created and induced jobs, or 133 jobs all together. Funnel that same amount of corn through a feedlot, and you're talking 140 jobs before considering the employment created further downstream in packing and processing.

“Ethanol production is a low-labor business; livestock production is a high-labor business,” Lawrence says.

All of these changes are occurring because the government has embraced the idea that the world is warming. Now, for the global warming irony:

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

Read that last sentence again, "Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans." This coming from a report on National Public Radio - not exactly a beacon of conservatism.

Burying the Culprit in the Last Line

The Law of Unintended Consequences is at play again. This time, it is making it hard for a working mother to buy milk for children (subscription):

Maybe instead of "thank you," the folks who have just checked out your groceries should say "sorry."

Not that it's their fault your food bill is wiping out your movie money and vacation fund. Checkers are also spending 37 percent more on eggs and 29 percent more on milk than they did a year ago. Industry watchers are saying 80 percent of grocery prices are likely to rise and stay high for years.

Moms are reporting they're cutting their children's milk consumption.

Elaine Martinez had just finished her shopping at Lowe's Super Save at Lomas and 12th. She considers herself lucky that her 4-year-old, Christopher, likes healthful foods, but he can't have as much as he used to.

"It's awful to tell him he can't have milk; he has to have water," she said. "It's not something as a mother I want to say to my child."

Now if you didn't read this whole article until the end, you might think this would be an article about economic recession. You know, something that Democrats might try to blame on the Republicans, but it's not.

But corn is also a factor. It used to be food for humans and cattle. Now a lot of it is used for corn-derived ethanol to replace gasoline. Fields previously devoted to wheat, soy beans and corn for human consumption are producing corn for ethanol.

That's right, producing food for human consumption has taken a backseat to dealing with the mythical global warming crisis. This is a result of the environmental hysteria created by people like Al Gore, which has in turn led to the nonsensical production of ethanol.

The next time you hear a candidate running on their environmental record and telling you how important it is that we use alternative sources of fuel for our vehicles, I hope you picture a 4-year old boy like Christopher who has to drink water instead of milk.