I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
In a recent story about the concept of a tax expenditure budget, I quoted a local economist who made a point of saying that New Mexico’s tax code was written by Franklin Jones and Gerry Boyle. I could tell that this was meaningful information even though I hadn’t a clue about these fellows.
New Mexico Voices for Children’s Research Director, Gerry Bradley, spoke at length with me about taking classes with Boyle, during our conversation about why New Mexico’s tax code is constructed the way it is. Most of that conversation didn’t make it into the story. But I went looking online for information about the two men and found one page about Franklin Jones on the Web site of the New Mexico Tax Research Institute, which I linked to, but couldn’t find anything about Boyle.
So today I was quite pleased to see Winthrop Quigley highlight Boyle in his Albuquerque Journal Upfront Column. For his column, Quigley interviewed David Abbey — who runs the Legislative Finance Council Staff — about the impact Boyle had on New Mexico’s economists and finance experts:
Abbey said he and a lot of other economists and finance experts learned what public service is supposed to be from Gerry Boyle, either in the economics classroom or working with him in state government. Boyle’s disciples, Abbey said, learned to serve with integrity. They learned to respect elected officials as the people’s representatives. They remembered always that their job was to offer their best advice and their best efforts to accomplish the people’s will.
Boyle influenced a who’s who of policy movers and shakers, most of whom most New Mexicans wouldn’t know but who have made state government what it is, sometimes for worse but mostly for better.
Back to the page about Franklin Jones, the Tax Research Institute gives him credit for writing the tax code. Not to mention, they say, he brought professionalism to tax administration in the state — which was “plagued by political patronage.”
He reformed New Mexico’s tax code, creating the structure still in use, and he transformed tax administration, bringing professionalism to a tax commission plagued by political patronage.
The accomplishments of Franklin Jones are nothing short of extraordinary. He commanded the respect of legislators, even those who disagreed with him, through his honesty and expertise. He crafted a broad revision of state taxes and skillfully navigated the political barriers common to such an enterprise. Even today, his name is invoked whenever there is a need to call to mind an example of civic duty, vigorously and gracefully performed.
I couldn’t help but think of Gerry Bradley’s comments when I read both of these pieces. And I’m glad to have a link for Boyle now in the tax expenditure article I wrote.
