New Voting Rights Act Ready To Go But Needs A Few Tweaks, Plus: Booze Tax: Hurts The Poor Or Helps? Also: Getting "Down And Brown" In Española

Let's look at the revised NM Voting Rights Act. Last year it fell victim to a filibuster but this week passed the House 41 to 26 and now heads to the Senate. HB4 looks more palatable but there are a few issues: 

Automatic voter registration at Motor Vehicle Division offices? No. 

This is the hottest of the hot buttons in the bill. The new voters would be informed that they've been added to the voter rolls and be sent a postcard that would let them opt out. But a no option registration gives the state too much power over the individual. First ask us, then we will agree or not. 

Let voters sign up just once to get absentee ballots before every election? Yes.

This is a convenience and the voter has given initial permission to get a ballot. 

Require each county to have at least two secure boxes so voters can drop off absentee ballots? Yes. 

This is particularly helpful in our large rural counties and modern camera surveillance provides the needed protection.

Declare Election Day a school holiday? No.

Most voters now cast ballots before the actual Election Day when schools are the used for the balloting. That percentage will only grow, lessening any disruptions, Besides, the Legislature is all abuzz about making the school year longer to improve poor performance. More time off is not the answer. 

Enact a Native American Voting Rights Act to improve access to the polls on tribal land. Yes. 

Native American voter participation has much room to grow. 

Restore a felon's voting rights when they leave state custody instead of waiting after their parole? Yes.

This is an overdue change. They've served their time for what they were found guilty of. 

If these sound like relatively minor changes, they are. New Mexico has done a solid job in advancing voter rights. Registering to vote and casting a ballot here is among the most hassle-free in the USA. 

The Senate sponsor of the bill is Dem Katy Duhigg of ABQ, who is an attorney and served as ABQ City Clerk. If she makes room for a few tweaks, a good bill should pass.  

BOOZE TAX (CONT.)

Let's shoot down another argument making the rounds at the Roundhouse as well-heeled lobbyists fight a proposed increase in the alcohol tax that would amount to about a quarter a drink and would be the first hike in 30 years.

The argument goes that the tax is not fair because it would inflict more pain on the lower income drinker than those well-off. But that's not quite true and also doesn't address the entirety of the matter:

A 2021 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that New Mexican adults with household incomes of more than $100,000 a year were twice as likely to report drinking in the last month as adults in households earning $25,000 or less. That means wealthy residents are more likely than poor ones to pay any alcohol taxes at all, since people who abstain pay nothing. They also point out that alcohol imposes many costs above and beyond its sticker price on those who drink excessively — whether lost income due to missed days of work, medical expenses, or property damage sustained while intoxicated — and poor people are most exposed to them. Federal and state researchers calculated total alcohol-related costs in New Mexico to be $2.23 billion in 2010 ($3.22 billion in 2023 dollars), the costliest per drink consumed of any state.

So New Mexico is not only by far the worst state in the nation for alcohol related deaths, the costs related to alcohol are the highest. And studies shows raising the price cuts down on the boozing. The Dept. of Finance and Administration says this in the impact report on HB230:

Raising taxes on alcohol is an evidence-based strategy that public health policy analysts have studied and much of the research states that raising alcohol taxes will reduce consumption. “Higher alcohol taxes are consistently related to lower total alcohol consumption, and there is very strong evidence for the effectiveness of alcohol taxes in targeting heavy drinkers and excessive alcohol use (Guindon et all 2022).”

 

It's dumbfounding to see such intelligent legislators like Dem Rep. Susan Herrera of northern New Mexico--(where the opioid and booze epidemics have raged in tandem for decades) to dub the booze tax "a poor man's tax." It's a nice slogan to cover for the alcohol lobby and the bar owners, but it doesn't pass the smell test--or in this case the taste test.  Come on Santa Fe, let's save some lives this session.

CLOSED CAPTIONING

This might work best as a voluntary measure with public education because of the enforcement problem but it would be a convenience for everyone--not only the hearing impaired:

HB 288, sponsored by ABQ Dem Rep. Cynthia Borrego, would require any place open to the public to turn on closed captioning for all their TVs, including restaurants, stadiums, hospitals, and hotel lobbies. She says the bill "aims to ensure that everyone--no matter their hearing ability--can have access to any information displayed in public."

DOWN AND BROWN

State Senator Leo Jaramillo of Española may have found his re-election slogan for next year:

Española! Where we are down, brown, and low to the ground! I’m proud to say that I’m from the Lowrider Capital of the World!

The first term lawmaker posted his poetry and the pic of himself steering his favorite chevy on social media. 

You're looking good, Senator. But if you hang a picture of Jesus and some oversized dice on the mirror, the Alligators say you'll double your vote. 

Long live La Politica. 

Reporting this week from Albuquerque, I'm Joe Monahan.

This is the home of New Mexico politics 

E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.  

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023