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.
“‘We’ the pronoun means: everyone including me.”
So begins the little essay taped up in the hallway outside the Senate Finance Committee, up on the third floor of the Roundhouse. Pointing out the “seriously declining revenues” of the state, the missive has a schoolmarmish feel to it, taking folks to task for their efforts to ensure funding for programs. It also gives a feel for the pressure members of the committee are under.
The hallways of the state’s Capitol are literally packed with people: legislators, citizen lobbyists and the ubiquitous corporate lobbyist. Something tells me it’s going to be a long 60 days:
“In this era of seriously declining revenues and shortfalls, it is important to remember this definition. ‘We’ does not mean: everyone but me.
“Please remember this when approaching members of the Senate Finance Committee regarding your program needs or important issues. We are all in this together and we all need to make sacrifices for the sake of our state and the nation. Times are tough, and ‘we’ all need to stick together!”
While the Senate Finance Committee lectures the public — which we hope includes those fancy-suited corporate lobbyists — I’ve still not heard much coming out of that building about where legislators might find revenue. One proposal floated before the session began was to raise the gross receipts tax by one cent to fund education. Another was to implement mandatory combined reporting, which would close a loophole allowing multistate corporations to report their income outside the state — avoiding New Mexico’s corporate income tax.
