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| (Austria, Journal) |
For eight years Gov. Martinez got it wrong with her insistence on fiscal austerity in the midst of an historic downturn that helped set the state on its current course of permanent stagnation.
Now Gov. Lujan Grisham has joined their ranks by getting scared off a potentially game-changing tax reform package.
MLG's vetoes of a rewrite of the personal income tax brackets that would have benefited lower income households most and of a cut in the onerous gross receipts tax--after initially supporting the cut--were done, as she openly admitted, because she fears the future:
Given the unpredictable nature of the economy and our state’s reliance on oil and gas revenues, I am not confident this package is fiscally responsible.
But these are not the Richardson or the Martinez years. These are the history-making years of the Permian Basin that is providing dollars so vast that any downturn can be easily absorbed by immense surpluses in the general fund (over $3 billion), the revenue stabilization fund (over $2 billion) and the early childhood trust fund (on the path to $5 billion).
Those steel coated safety valves--as the Legislature recognized with their tax package--do not call for a risk-off environment.
FEAR FACTOR
Another big miss for the Governor and the state in the gutting of the tax package was her disappointing and hard to explain veto of a minuscule increase in the alcohol tax--about a penny a drink and the first increase in 30 years in a state that has the ignominious standing of worst in the nation for alcohol deaths--nearly 2,300 alone in 2021.
MLG is in the doghouse with her ill-advised vetoes but her fans say it could be worse--Republican Mark Ronchetti could be Governor. Speaking of which. . .
The attorney hired by Go Big Media to defend them against the Ronchetti lawsuit is ABQ's Chris Saucedo, a Republican who was appointed to the NMSU Board of Regents by Governor Martinez whose chief political adviser was Jay McCleskey. Saucedo, who is vice-chair of the Regents, also made a run as a Republican for the state House in District 15 in ABQ in 2012.
The fear factor is old news and the Governor was given cover for it by none other than austerity hawk and former Senate Finance Committee chairman John Arthur Smith who aided and abetted Martinez's wrongheaded economic policy for a decade. He penned this op-ed from his political graveyard in Deming urging MLG to keep the clock turned back.
Someone needs to tell the Governor and Smith et al. that tax policy can be adjusted up and down to meet the demands of the times. Right now is the time to seize opportunity as oil booms not cower behind mattresses stuffed with cash.
We don't like saying it but the "fiscal conservatism" cited by MLG and Smith too often seems rooted in a desire to keep individuals who are not at the top of the economic pyramid "in their place."
That vetoed half percent cut in the gross receipts tax and better tax rates for the middle class were not earthshaking but they would have been very important in establishing a new trend moving forward. But with these vetoes we're standing still.
ANOTHER BIG MISS
Experts testified that higher prices cut alcohol consumption.
The Governor's feeble explanations for the veto--that the "numbers were not quite right"--or that the budget includes $2 million for alcohol abuse-- causes cynics to again site the liquor lobby as the real reason for her veto. She's received nearly $100,000 in campaign donations from them in the past six years with $2,500 coming from the NM Brewers Guild before the legislative session.
Again, the alcohol tax is not earthshaking but her veto rejects the opportunity to set a new course by attacking woeful generational social conditions in the state. And that's big.
These vetoes makes one wonder about the point of this Democratic governorship.
It seems the executive is living in the times of Richardson or Bruce King when, yes, we had our problems, but they were more benign and more easily evaded. Today there is economic malaise--not growth; widespread drug and alcohol addiction; a child abuse epidemic that has overwhelmed the CYFD and unrelenting crime and violence resulting in "keep out" signs posted at the state's borders.
We don't hear ownership of any of that that from the state's leading Democrat. Instead we get a pledge that the next legislative session will be headlined by a fight over a doomed-to die ban on assault weapons. Really? That's the big issue facing our troubled state? If only we had a veto pen. . . .
COULD BE WORSE
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| Ronchetti |
The former TV weatherman has now gone to court against one of his own consultants.
It's a strange deal with Ronchetti saying Go Big Media--a digital media firm that specializes in Republican candidates--erroneously allowed his website to go public too early the night of October 21, 2021.
He says that release resulted in his immediate dismissal from federally licensed KRQE-TV. He's claiming that he had not made a "final decision" on whether to run for Governor when the website went live and wants damages.
Ronchetti also says in his lawsuit that he hired the same company for his 2020 US Senate campaign and they made the same early release error. (So why hire them for '22?)
The company says it is not to blame for the early releases.
Ronchetti's lawsuit against Go Big Media asks for punitive damages, presumably in line with the $200,000 a year he was apparently pulling down at KRQE. That was his salary, according to a 2020 federal financial form he filed.
It's hard to believe that Ronchetti had not made a final decision about running for Governor when his website went live early. Word of his forthcoming candidacy had already spread to the GOP faithful to keep them in line and their money away from possible rivals. The first public notice of his possible candidacy was on this blog on September 1, 2021.
THERE'S MORE
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| Saucedo |
McCleskey was the lead media consultant on both of Ronchetti's campaigns.
The attorneys for Ronchetti are Paul Kennedy and Jessica Hernandez who were part of the Martinez/McCleskey regime. Kennedy earned large dollars as a contract lawyer for the state and Hernandez served as the Governor's legal counsel.
Legal Beagles report lawsuits like Ronchetti's rarely go to trial but do often go to settlement talks with an insurance company. In this case that insurance company would be looking at Ronchetti and Go Big attorneys hired to take opposing sides but with closely shared friendships and political connections.
Hey, maybe they won't need a settlement conference in court. They could all get together at Jay's house for a barbecue and cut a deal.
Meanwhile, on Facebook Ronchetti now calls his page "Broadcast and media production company."
Unlike when he lost in 2020 KRQE has not rehired him after his last defeat.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023