“I understand their bitching,” Smith said. “They have a legitimate complaint. We just don’t have the resources to hold them harmless.”
“THEIR BITCHING” -- it's a phrase tucked in at the very bottom of a report on the legislature, but it speaks volumes. These are the words Sen. John Arthur Smith used in response to outrage over the regressive tax policies and cuts to vital public services he’s presided over in the New Mexico state senate.
If we didn’t know what Sen. John Arthur Smith thought of New Mexico’s working families before, we do now. It’s glaring.
The budget bill he and his committee passed this week stripped a
meager progressive tax provision from the FY 2011 New Mexico state budget proposed by the House of Representatives, plus a temporary half cent increase in the gross receipts tax. It added a modified food tax proposed by Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, Senate Bill 10, that would raise only half of the revenue proposed by the House. And then it slashed and burned state programs, services, and public jobs.
But we all know that the resources are there...if only Smith and his buddies in the Senate served all New Mexicans rather than just the wealthy classes--who pay much less in taxes than NM's lowest income earners as a percentage of income.
Let’s talk about that modified food tax proposal for a second.SWOP is well aware that our communities are dying from a health epidemic, with obesity, diabetes, and heart disease at the top of the list of culprits. For this reason we support tax measures that promote the consumption of food that is fresh, high in fiber and other nutrients over processed JUNK food and sugar sweetened beverages. We also think it is vital to support the use of culturally specific food that strengthens and preserves our New Mexico community traditions.
Unfortunately, the modified food tax sponsored by Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, SB 10, takes a
Backwards Approach by taxing all food and then exempting categories that are deemed healthy. The bill exempts foods covered by the
state nutritional program for Women, Infants, and Children, plus fresh meats, chicken and poultry. That’s a pretty good chunk of healthy food—but it’s incomplete. It doesn’t include all bread, for instance. What about Rye and Sourdough bread? It doesn’t include all tortillas…just whole wheat tortillas. This is NEW MEXICO! It DOES NOT include RED CHILE POWDER. Again, this is NEW MEXICO.
Like we said, it’s a BACKWARDS Approach, and a very poor substitute for the targeted tax bills introduced but shot down in committees earlier in the session.
The legislature has a little under a week left. The first thing they can do is DROP Senate Bill 10 from the budget bill and ADD a tax targeted explicitly to processed junk foods and sugar sweetened beverages. At the VERY minimum, Senate Bill 10 should be amended to comprehensively exempt all staple New Mexican foods - to narrow this proposed "food tax" and make it more like a "reverse" junk food tax.
Beyond the food tax debate...The
BEST THING the legislature can do is stand up for the vast swath of New Mexicans who are tired of the budget being balanced on their backs while the wealthy class goes about its merry way.
It’s time to change the extremely regressive tax code that Gov. Bill Richardson ushered in, and restore fairness in how we collectively support government.
Please
call your Senator and Representative TODAY and tell them you are watching what they do -- it's time to stand up for working New Mexicans, not the rich and wealthy:
1. The budget must include
House Bill 9, the surtax on the highest income earners, first and foremost. The Legislature should also GET ON BOARD with raising the top income tax rate in general.
House Bill 234 would do that.
2. The budget must protect the jobs of state workers -- our economy can't afford any further increases in unemployment.
3. The budget must hold the line on education -- NO MORE CUTS!
4. The budget must save Medicaid funding -- with its significant match from the federal government, it's the best possible investment we can make in health care.
It is with deep sadness that we inform all of you that community leader and long time SWOP supporter and member, Berna Facio, has passed away. Those who worked with Berna knew her deep passion for social justice as an activist, artist and educator.
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