Giving Money Back to the People

It looks like we're going to be getting some of our hard earned money back from the government (subscription):

With unprecedented speed and cooperation, Congress and the White House forged a deal Thursday to begin rushing tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 to most tax filers by spring, hoping they will spend the money just as quickly and jolt the ailing economy to life.

Rebates would be even higher for families with children.

The one-time tax rebates are at the center of a hard-won agreement to pump about $150 billion into the economy this year and perhaps stave off the first recession since 2001. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican leader John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson worked out the details in negotiations that stretched into Wednesday night at the Capitol.

About two-thirds of the tax relief would go out in rebate checks to 117 million families beginning in May. Businesses would get $50 billion in incentives to invest in new plants and equipment.

The premise behind this is simple. We've given people back their money before and had good results. People choosing how to spend their hard earned money, not bigger government, is what can stimulate the economy. So, if we know this, why are Democrats so eager to let the Bush tax cuts sunset in 2011? Instead, they ought to make the tax cuts permanent and sunset government spending.

A City Council Candidate's First Misstep

I always encourage candidates for office to blog. I think it's a great way to get your story out there and keep your potential constituents engaged. I like to point out that when I ran for the State Legislature in 2004, my campaign website (not a blog at the time) had about 750 visits between January 2004 and June 2004. In order to get those visitors, I knocked on hundreds of doors and spent over $20,000 in campaign materials.

The next year, I turned that website into the blog you're reading today, and between January 2005 and June 2005, I ended up with over 10,000 unique visitors - without spending a single dollar. That's right, I went from 750 to over 10,000 readers in the same six month period. Today, those numbers are larger, much larger.

Now with all that said, one of the rules a candidate should follow, if they're going to blog, is to stick to the truth. See, in the blogosphere it is just too easy to be called to task if what you're trying to do is build a campaign on outright lies.

Here, let me give you an example.

A woman named Paulette de' Pascal is running in District 4 for Albuquerque City Council. From her bio and her picture, she seems like a nice enough lady, and you have to applaud her decision to blog. As I've pointed out, it's a nice low cost way to communicate, and it will make a great complement to all of the out of pocket expenses she is already able to avoid by opting to run her campaign on the taxpayer's dime. Not the way I would go, but hey, those are the new rules, so more power to her.

Ms. de'Pascal started out her campaign blog with a nice first post:

Hello
Allow me to introduce myself, I am Paulette de'Pascal,
Candidate for City Council, Albuquerque, NM, District 4.
Please feel free to share your issues and concerns with me.
It is my intention to communicate your interests, as your Councilor.
Thank you.

Unfortunately, it took less than a week for Ms. de'Pascal to depart from the niceties and begin to go quickly downhill:

Before I close today's blog, I'd like to touch on the desire of our current City Councilor who does not agree with our Mayor on lowering the the sales tax. For some of our constituants, a lower tax would mean the difference in the type of bread, milk or cereal they buy, every penny adds up.

Now, I'm not one to have a problem with pointing out an opponent's record. That's just part of politics. The problem is that City Councilor Brad Winter, the councilor to whom Ms. de'Pascal is referring, did agree with "our Mayor" on lowering the sales tax. And, I know because I took to task the one Republican Councilor who did not support the tax cut.

I'm also pretty sure that Ms. de'Pascal is aware of Councilor Winter's actual voting record. After all, the vote and position of all the candidates was very clearly reported in the Albuquerque Journal (subscription):

Craig Loy, Sally Mayer, Ken Sanchez and Brad Winter voted against delaying the tax reduction. Voting to delay were Isaac Benton, Michael Cadigan, Don Harris, Martin Heinrich and Debbie O'Malley.

She is probably also aware that it was Councilor Brad Winter that sponsored another 1/8 cent tax cut that went into effect on January of this year. And, I'm sure she knows that Councilor Winter was one of three city councilors to oppose a tax extension championed by "our Mayor" to build a streetcar.

So, what could Ms. de'Pascal possibly be thinking? After all, this does not exactly launch her campaign in the most positive light. Maybe she figured she could leverage the negative and slanderous ads that were recently run by some unknown entity billing themselves as the 'Citizens for Responsible Budget:"

Why are City Councilors Brad Winter and Don Harris voting to raise out taxes? Good question. Brad Winter and Don Harris ran as fiscal conservatives, promising to cut city spending and taxes. Now they are going back on their word voting against a tax cut and making those campaign promises look like a lot of hot air. City Councilors Brad Winter and Don Harris opposed the tax cut and voted for more spending at a time when Albuquerque's economy is booming and tax revenues are at record levels. Call Brad Winter and Don Harris at 768-3100. Tell them to keep their word to Albuquerque voters. When candidates Brad Winter and Don Harris said they would cut taxes and spending, was it the truth or just a campaign gimmick? Call Brad Winter and Don Harris at 768-3100. Tell them to hold the line on spending and cut taxes. Remember, Brad and Don, it's our money, not yours.
Paid for by Citizens for Responsible Budget.

Well, I'm glad to see public funding of campaigns is off to such a great start. Now we, the taxpayers, get to pay for the campaigns in order to leave more money for front groups to spend in slander campaigns. It's a beautiful new day.

Very Troubling Indeed

I wrote about Mayor Martin Chavez's proposed tax cut a little more than a month ago. I caught some flack from my friends at Rio Grande Foundation for not being a Chavez cheerleader on this one. However, I thought I had made my support for the tax cut very clear:

We're not excited because it is just not enough. However, with that said, I'll take what I can get, so I do support the return of our money. I also would recommend that any Republican on the City Counsel considering not supporting the tax cut, immediately stop by the County Clerk's office and change their registration to Democrat because that's where they will need to look for support the next time they are up for re-election.

Well, last night the Albuquerque City Council voted (subscription), and here is the result:

City councilors late Monday night approved a tax cut proposed by Mayor Martin Chávez, but they delayed it for six months to help provide the county with $9 million for jail expenses.

The eighth-cent reduction in gross-receipts taxes will take effect on July 1, 2008. Chávez wanted to cut taxes Jan. 1.

Craig Loy, Sally Mayer, Ken Sanchez and Brad Winter voted against delaying the tax reduction. Voting to delay were Isaac Benton, Michael Cadigan, Don Harris, Martin Heinrich and Debbie O'Malley.

Houston, we have a problem. It seems one Republican thought it was okay to keep on spending money the City shouldn't have had in the first place. Worse, he tried to portray delaying a tax cut as an act of defiance:

[Don] Harris, the council's budget chairman, said the approved plan was "far superior" to the mayor's budget proposal.

"We are doing our job. Our job is not to rubber-stamp whatever the mayor wants to do," Harris said.

Note to Councilor Harris... Republicans ARE NOT going to look kindly on a city councilor who refused to give taxpayers back $9 million. You can't say I didn't warn you back in April. There are places to make a stand, but standing in the way of a tax cut is not one of them.

It's Like a Sale at Macy's

Paul Gessing over at Rio Grande Foundation had an interesting opinion piece recently published in the Albuquerque Journal (subscription) which began:

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has proposed a one-eighth cent reduction in the gross-receipts tax rate. If the City Council goes along with the plan, the rate charged within the city would drop from 6.875 cents to 6.75 cents on each dollar spent, and $18 million that would have been budgeted by the city would be returned to taxpayers.

I've been asked by at least one individual in Mayor Martin Chavez's administration, why aren't we - the Republican blogosphere - all over this. We're talking about a tax cut that is worth in the neighborhood of $200 million when all is said and done. Shouldn't we be singing Mayor Marty's praises? Heralding the fact that he is a tax cutting Mayor. Applauding his sense of financial control. You know, the type of guy we could all get behind for Governor in 2010.

Well, to understand the reason for the lack of enthusiasm, you only need to read the rest of the opinion piece:

Gross-receipts tax rates in Albuquerque have jumped in recent years. The current 6.875 percent rate is 18 percent higher than it was as recently as 2000, when the rate was only 5.8125 percent.

That's right in the span of six or so years, we've seen a whopping 18% increase in the gross receipts tax. Today, it is a full 1.0625% higher than it was just six short years ago. Yet, Mayor Chavez can't understand why we're not heralding him as a conquering hero for offering to give back 0.125%. If that 0.125% give back is worth a couple of hundred million, just how much did that rapid tax increase steal from the back pockets of hardworking taxpayers?

We're not excited because it is just not enough. However, with that said, I'll take what I can get, so I do support the return of our money. I also would recommend that any Republican on the City Counsel considering not supporting the tax cut, immediately stop by the County Clerk's office and change their registration to Democrat because that's where they will need to look for support the next time they are up for re-election.

Not Even a 10% Tipper

Look for Governor Bill Richardson to continue to portray himself this year as a tax cutting governor (subscription):

Richardson has asked lawmakers to enact a $69 million package of tax cuts for individuals and businesses in the coming session.

"The consistent strength of our economy gives me confidence that we can cut taxes, invest in our schools and make health care available to more New Mexicans, while maintaining prudent cash reserves," Richardson said in a news release.

The thing is, the Governor is feasting this year on an additional $720 million in taxpayer funds. So, the Governor's meager $69 million isn't even equal to a ten percent tip back to the taxpayers. Anyone else feel the urge to spit in his food?