City Hall launched an environmental task force on Thursday that will recommend ways for local governments and residents to address global warming.
Mayor Martin Chávez joined County Commission Chairman Alan Armijo and City Councilor Isaac Benton to announce the 35-member group, which includes representatives from Sandia National Laboratories, environmental organizations and government agencies.
Chávez said he hopes the task force will compile a “climate action plan” within six months.
The group’s plan should have value even to those who aren’t concerned about the environment, he said.
What's a climate action plan? Basically, it's a politician's sound bite that's guaranteed to cost us, the taxpayers, money and hassle.
Gov. Bill Richardson has signed an executive order creating a telework and alternative work schedule program for state workers.
It creates a framework for the creation of things like four-day work weeks to cut down on commuting and allowing workers to telecommute. Richardson said it would help reduce fuel use and taxpayer costs.
Um, after nearly doubling the budget, he is now going to pretend to care about saving taxpayer's money. Right. My guess is that despite the bloated state budget, I'm going to try and walk into a state agency office and instead of service discover longer lines, or worse that it is closed, as a result of an executive order that allowed a flexible work week.
It looks like Congressman Tom Udall has a new TV spot that is a little less than honest when it comes to his record on funding for Los Alamos labs:
At the end of the ad Congressman Udall says:
That's why I voted for funding to expand the mission of Los Alamos to create new jobs in counterterrorism and energy research. I'm Tom Udall and I approved this message because we have to do what's right for New Mexico.
Ok.... let's see... let me try and start this off with a positive. That is Tom Udall in that ad. We can all agree that he should be doing what's right for New Mexico. And, there is no question that Los Alamos plays a critical role in countering terrorism and energy research.
Look, Tom Udall is entitled to vote for his own priorities. But, he should not get a pass on trying to rewrite his history to run away from his votes to cut funding for our labs.
"I do believe these 'I Believe' plates will not see the light of day because the courts, I'm confident, will see through this," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group's executive director.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, asks a judge to stop the state from making the plates and rule that the law allowing them violates the First Amendment.
Seriously, I don't get what all the hoopla is about. "State law allows private groups to create specialty plates as long as they first collect either a $4,000 deposit or 400 prepaid orders." So, someone can create plates for their favorite University team, charitable organization or anything else for that matter, but people go bonkers if they want to advertise their faith?
Let's get real here. People are already advertising their beliefs on the their vehicles. Heck, it seems like every fifth car in New Mexico has a little fish on their trunk (with and without legs). Is anyone offended? I'm not.
Allowing people to express their beliefs is yet another thing that makes this country great.
There is absolutely nothing stopping another religious entity from creating their own customized plates, so live and live is what I say. Plus, if we're paying for those dang plates anyway, shouldn't we be able to customize them as we see fit?
After canceling a request for competitive proposals, the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson awarded a no-bid deal to a political supporter and onetime appointee to supply automated teller machines for the State Fair.
Automated Financial Technologies of Albuquerque, headed by Rafael Gutierrez, got the deal in 2004— about a year after Gutierrez resigned an appointment by Richardson to the staff of the Gaming Control Board.
Automated's machines replaced those of a competitor, California-based Mobilemoney, which had provided the service and wanted to compete for the business.
Expo New Mexico in July 2004 issued a request for bids to supply ATMs for year-round use and to bring in additional machines at fair time.
Expo officials canceled the request a month later and never reissued it. Automated took over Mobilemoney's job of supplying additional machines for the State Fair later that year— even though Mobilemoney offered the fair more money than it's getting now.
Larry Dunnwald, president of Mobilemoney, said he believes the company lost the State Fair business because Gutierrez is a Richardson friend.
Well, Mr. Gutierrez obviously didn't win the business because he offered the Fair a better deal, so it would seem Mr. Dunwald's belief has some merit. One thing to keep in mind here is that we, the taxpayers, are subsidizing the Fair's operations, so when antics like this occur, it is our pockets that are being picked.
With a day's worth of bottled water— the recommended 64 ounces— costing hundreds to thousands of dollars a year depending on the brand, more people are opting to slurp water that comes straight from the sink.
The lousy economy may be accomplishing what environmentalists have been trying to do for years— wean people off the disposable plastic bottles of water that were sold as stylish, portable, healthier and safer than water from the tap.
We're not just talking about water here. The market can fix suburban sprawl issues, fossil fuel consumption, escalating health care and just about any of the other multitude of government caused problems that now plagues us, but we have to let it work.
I have to admit that I'm not one of these guys who has always been hooked on politics. In fact, my ten year old son probably - no, make that definitely - has more political awareness than I had until the end of my college years. It just wasn't really my thing in my earlier years.
What I do remember is that the first Presidential election in which I took a keen interest was the 1992 election. In fact, I was inspired to register to vote by that little man from Texas with the big ears, Ross Perot. But, when he withdrew and then re-entered, I lost interest.
A quick glance confirms that our government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. So, someone please explain to me why, with all of this growth in revenue, the Democratic Congress and the Democratic Presidential candidate would like to see a sunset of the Bush Tax Cuts?
There's no denying it. Most Americans are feeling an economic pinch. And, when dollars are tight, families (and everyone else for that matter) look at taking vacations that aren't likely to take quite as big of a bite out of the family budget.
Vacations a little closer to home start looking very attractive. Vacations like camping in a National Park, or boating on a lake on federal lands. These shouldn't cost too much, right? Wrong! The Recreation Access Tax just keeps on increasing:
The U.S. House of Representatives has decided to take a serious look at the much-criticized implementation, if not over-implementation, of the Federal Lands Recreational Enhancement Act (FLREA), This is the law that has saddled us the pandemic of new and ever-increasing recreation fees to enter and use our public lands, which is why it’s called RAT, for Recreation Access Tax, by its distracters.
It's about time. This is NOT a partisan issue. We already work four months of every year to pay for our government. Should we really have to pay more and more every year to pay to enjoy the PUBLIC lands our taxes are already supporting. I don't think so.
Democrats have been in charge of Congress for two years and the economy is slipping. I'm personally feeling the pinch. I can say without a doubt I was better off two years ago than I am today. I did not like the spending spree the Republicans went on when they controlled Congress, but the future, from a small business owners perspective, with the Democrats in control is downright scary.
“If everything goes perfect with our new KC-45 acquisition — which isn’t likely — the last KC-135 will not retire until 2043,” he said. “We’ve never flown 80-year-old airplanes — no one has. So we’re headed into the unknown.”
It’s not just air tankers that are getting old. The average age of the Air Force’s workhorse fighters — the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon — is more than 20 years.
“At the end of the Vietnam war, the average military aircraft was about 8 years old,” Suminsby said. “At the end of Desert Storm, it was about 17 years old. Today, the average (Air Force) aircraft is nearly 25 years old, and that’s climbing steadily.”
Suminsby admits he’d like Congress to fund all the Air Force’s needs, including its $18.8 billion “wish list.”
But more importantly, he said, America needs to address two fundamental problems with the federal budget: the mismatch between our national security strategy and its associated costs; and burgeoning entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Security gap.
Suminsby says there’s a huge gap between the nation’s security strategy — which is to maintain the capability to fight two major conflicts concurrently or in rapid succession — and what it’s willing to pay to implement that strategy.
The role of government is moving closer and closer everyday to providing entitlement programs to take care of everyone, and further and further away from making security and infrastructure the number one priority. If the Democrats take complete control of the government, we will see an acceleration of this shift.
We need to wakeup and smell the coffee. Throughout history, world wars have begun because others smell weakness. The wolves will begin to circle when the best we can do is protect ourselves with 80 year old weapons. This a time honored tradition. Nature abhors a vacuum.
That would be devastating if gas became that expensive, right? Wrong. I hope gas prices keep going up. Don't get me wrong, I'm cringing at the pump just like everyone else. But, I've got faith in American ingenuity to solve that problem. And, it's already happening.
An automotive revolution could soon appear in a driveway near you— a car that needs a lot less gasoline than the one sitting there now.
Depending on how you drive it, the car may need no gasoline at all. Most of its energy, if not all, could come from plugging it in and charging it all night.
As gas price continue to increase, it is not just the car choices that will change. Where people live will change too. All of the concern about "suburban sprawl" will become a non-issue as people choose to make their homes in communities where they can live, work and play without burning gas to get from one place to another.
Free markets trump government intervention every time.
A former employee of the state Children, Youth and Families Department and several other Silver City-area residents have been accused of defrauding the state of more than half a million dollars.
Andrea Munoz, 34, allegedly received kickbacks from people who were fraudulently reimbursed for child care services never provided. The alleged scheme involved the department's Child Care Program, which reimburses low-income parents for baby-sitting services.
Court documents allege 16 people admitted receiving checks from CYFD, cashing them and splitting the proceeds with Munoz between 2001 and 2006.
Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for CYFD, said $574,000 was allegedly taken.
Serna said the scale of the alleged fraud is the largest the agency has encountered.
Yeah right. How about we just get rid of unnecessary government welfare programs that hand out checks? That would be a much better way of eliminating these situations. Every time the government doles out cash, the end result is fraud.
It's kind of hard to argue with the logic shown in the video above. It was produced by Freedom Works, and I couldn't agree with them more. Here is an excerpt from an email they sent to me today:
Last Thursday the House of Representatives voted 266-154 to advance a $300 billion program of taxpayer-financed mortgages to home speculators and their lenders.
The bill does not protect taxpayers. The bill gives six-figure taxpayer loans to people who have terrible credit scores and to people who have made fewer than 12 payments on their existing mortgages. The bill even provides these taxpayer handouts to non-citizens. The plan lets banks cherry-pick the worst loans in their portfolios and sticks taxpayers with 100 percent of the risk.
However, our "Angry Renter.com" campaign is making a difference and the opposition is growing to this bailout plan. Renters and responsible homeowners are the "forgotten man" of this debate, as Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida put it in his speech on the House floor.
Can you help spread the news about this legislation so we can stop it?
On Tuesday President Bush came out strongly against the bill, saying "First of all, we are committed to a good housing bill that will help folks stay in their house, as opposed to a housing bill that will reward speculators and lenders. I will veto the bill that's moving through the House today if it makes it to my desk."
Even though the bailout bill passed the House, it was not by margins large enough to override the president's veto.
This week the battle turns to the U.S. Senate.
There, Senator Bunning of Kentucky is leading the charge against a flipper bailout in the Finance Committee. Senate rules make it easier to offer amendments, so we should see greater debate about the risky and unfair aspects of the bill.
FreedomWorks has identified five key senators as targets on the housing bailout bill. Please take a moment to call them and urge them to oppose this flawed piece of legislation.
Sen. Dole: 202-224-6342 Sen. Bennett: 202-224-5444 Sen. McConnell: 202-224-2541 Sen. Bayh: 202-224-5623 Sen. Carper: 202-224-2441
This is a great opportunity to encourage your friends to get involved. These issues affect everyone and a robust opposition has the power to do great things. Ask your friends to sign the Angry Renter petition, and to join you in calling their senator.
Well friends, I'm asking you to sign the Angry Renter petition. Now, I don't rent, but trust me when I tell you, I have been impacted by the collapse of the housing crisis as much as anyone. However, I'm not looking for any federal bailout, and neither should anyone else.
Days after he took office in January 2007, Attorney General Gary King told me, through a spokesman, that an investigation of the scandal that toppled most of the state’s affordable housing system in 2006 would be a top priority.
Sixteen months later, some are beginning to wonder.
It’s not that nothing has happened. The AG has successfully obtained court orders to boot three tenants from homes owned by the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority because they didn’t qualify for affordable housing. Two were employees of the authority and one was a board member.
What do you think? Could this have all been avoided if only we had had an ethics commission in place to "provide training for public officials and public employees" involved in this scandal?
Unfortunately, there are those that choose to ignore their gut. Those people are criminal. Those people should be prosecuted and thrown in jail. We don't need a commission to educate them on what is ethical, we need a prosecutor willing to do their job.
Matt, my friend, the people's government can be held accountable every day. We don't have to wait until an election. We can draw attention to prosecutors who fail to prosecute. We can shine a spotlight on those who conduct their unethical behavior in the shadows. We can even demand justice.
But, what we must not do is create yet another government commission that makes people feel like they don't need to be diligent and civilly active because of the assumption that some third party is going to take care of it for them. Just because many other states have chosen to rely on this crutch, does not make it right.
The Federal Reserve and other regulators are planning tighter rules to stop credit card companies from unfairly raising interest rates and to make sure they give people enough time to pay their bills.
-Placing unfair time constraints on payments. A payment could not be deemed late unless the borrower is given a reasonable period of time, such as 21 days, to pay;
-Unfairly allocating payments among balances with different interest rates;
- Unfairly raising annual percentage rates on outstanding balances;
-Placing too-high fees for exceeding the credit limit solely because of a hold placed on the account;
-Unfairly computing balances;
-Unfairly adding security deposits and fees for issuing credit or making credit available;
-Making deceptive offers of credit.
This is more unnecessary regulation. Credit cards are unsecured debt. If you don't like the terms being offered, don't get a credit card. If you're not happy with the fees and penalties of one credit card company, then switch to the another. As to "deceptive offers of credit," I'm sure we already have laws that deal with fraud. If it's fraudulent, then the government should prosecute those committing fraud as opposed to creating new regulations for an entire industry.
The answer to the credit card problem is education, not regulation. Teach financial literacy to children in math classes, and then let personal responsibility trump govern behavior.
Two months after Arizona enacted a law punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, the law is already achieving one of its goals: Scores of immigrants are fleeing to other states or back to their Latin American homelands.
Gaby Espinoza, who has been unemployed since November, is among those affected. She gave up looking for a job because of the law and may have to return to Mexico.
Business groups succeeded in getting the bill to narrow the employees to whom the law applies and to create protections for employers who make good-faith efforts to follow the rules. Even so, they don't think the state should have its own employer sanctions because they said cracking down on illegal hirings is the responsibility of the federal government.
The original law, which took effect in January, was intended to lessen the economic incentive for foreign workers to sneak into Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the nation's southern border. An estimated one in 10 workers in Arizona is an illegal immigrant.
Personally, I think the state should hold strong and continue to back a policy that was making a difference. To argue that this is a federal government problem is ridiculous. Too many businesses are willing to look the other way in order to pad their bottom line, and that's not just not right.
"These new initiatives are a creative way for us to continue improving graduation rates, classroom instruction and student and community involvement," Richardson said.
Starting next year, eighth-graders would have to be near proficient or better on a standardized test to be eligible for a driver's license when they come of age, while ninth-graders would have to have an attendance rate of at least 90 percent.
If students fail to reach either benchmark, they would have to wait six months before getting their license. They would be in for a 12-month delay if they fail to reach both benchmarks or if they drop out of school before age 16.
Funny, I always thought it was up to a parent to decide when their minor child could drive. My guess is that this is going to get challenged in court and ruled unconstitutional. At least it should be for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is:
The Public Education Department still needs to work out many details, including options for special education and homeschool students as well as how private schools would participate.
Nothing like unveiling a new initiative without actually working out the details of the new initiative. The more government tries to overstep it bounds into parenting, the more likely parents are to look for alternative means of educating their children. I know I will.
New Mexico began converting this week to new, high-tech driver's licenses and identification cards that state officials say will provide more protection from identity theft.
For the first time, applicants won't leave MVD counters with their new licenses, but rather with temporary, paper licenses good for 45 days. Permanent licenses— which will be produced in another state— will be sent by mail and should arrive within a couple of weeks, officials said.
This is the way the system will work from now on.
Your kidding me, right? From now on you will have to carry a paper license for 45 days while you are waiting for your license to be produced in another state? That's absurd. I've had drivers licenses in my life from five different states and in two different countries and have never, NEVER had to wait forty-five days to receive it. In fact, I've always walked out of the office with my license.
Explain to me which brilliant person at the state level decided this was a good idea. If anything this is going to promote more identity theft, not reduce it. Predators now have 45 days to walk around with a duplicable paper license. Everyday citizens have to carry two pieces of identification instead of one:
Driver's license applicants who leave the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division clutching a piece of paper bearing a black-and-white temporary license may wonder who's going to believe them.
Take heart, says Taxation and Revenue Secretary Rick Homans.
He flew to Boston over the weekend and says he had no problem proving his identity at airline security checkpoints.
"The combination of my temporary license and my old license worked just fine," said Homans, whose agency oversees the Motor Vehicle Division. He was among the first to get a new license.
Great, because he didn't have a problem flying into one airport with one set of TSA officers, he assumes everyone is going to process them the same way. Sorry folks, I zig zag across the country all the time and find that more often than not my experience varies from airport to airport.
Plus, what happens to the poor soul who goes to the MVD to get a replacement license for one that was lost or stolen? Exactly, how are they supposed to convince everyone that the black and white temporary copy is a real license. Couldn't anyone now make a temporary license and pretend to be someone they are not.
This is a disaster waiting to happen. I hope this is simply another example of governmental incompetence. I hope no one uncovers this decision was made because of a political contribution. That would be bad.
I'm a small business owner. Actually, I own two. A friend of mine told me once that he wanted to start a business because he "didn't want to spend his entire life working for the man." Like many, he wanted to be his own boss. Control his own destiny. Reap the rewards he sowed instead of creating wealth for someone else's gain.
There is only one problem with all this...
When you are your own boss, you suddenly become painfully aware of just how much of the wealth you are creating is going to the government in the form of taxes. On average, I work 12 to 16 hour days and have from day one of officially becoming an entrepreneur. Yet, thanks to our government's commitment to tax and spend, more than a third of my time is spent working to pay for bigger and bigger government.
People have been conditioned to think of taxes as simply the government collecting a portion of the money you earn. We are taught that money is the root of all evil. So, parting with it for the greater good must be a good thing.
But, that conditioning is wrong. The government is not taxing our money. The government is taxing our time. Whereas, money is of little true value. Time is priceless. Everyone has only a finite amount of time.
If I work 12 hour days, five days a week, and pay thirty percent in taxes, then one full month of my life each and every year is spent working for the government. That's one month that I don't get to use to strengthen my family, improve my community or better the world. Every year the government takes one month of my life. Every year, they take one month of yours.
Is the world better off because of it? I don't think so.
The next time you hear about the government proposing the creation of a new "authority" to deal with, well, with anything, you should call your legislator and tell them to just say, "NO." Government's tax and then the spend. It's what they do. Government created Authorities assess fees and then they increase fees. It's what they do.
Homes and businesses in Mesa del Sol apparently will be the first to get hit by a new Water Utility Authority fee for buying water rights.
Only new buildings constructed outside the water authority's service area will be affected by the rules, which have been incorporated into the water rate ordinance.
The rules will add about $1,250 to the cost of a standard- size home. The fee rises for larger homes, commercial and industrial size projects to as much as $66,000, depending on meter size, said Frank Roth, water authority Senior Policy Manager.
The one-time fee for buildings, called the "water supply charge," will be placed into an account the water authority can only use to buy new water rights or direct toward finding new sources of water.
Lynne Andersen, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties president, said the fees will most likely be passed on to home buyers and business owners.
Here comes the bad part. When elected government officials raise taxes, we at least have an opportunity to vote them out of office the next election cycle. The same is not true for government created Authorities. These folks are appointed, not elected, so the taxpayer has no recourse whatsoever.
It basically boils down to "Taxation without Representation." The last time that got out of control there was a revolution in this country.
I was born a New Yorker and have lived in more places than I can count on one hand. My wanderings included a total of more than two years in Ecuador and nine years in California. The latter being significant as that is where I met the love of my life. Of course, she determined that our progeny would be the tenth generation of her family to be raised in New Mexico. So, this is where my roots will grow long.
