Making Local Government Work
Gil Heredia is running for District 7 in Alamogordo. Unlike so many politicians who feel that the only way to improve city services is to raise taxes, Heredia is advocating private sector solutions that are likely to reduce Alamogordo’s tax burden (which is heavier than other Southeast New Mexico cities) while improving service delivery at the same time. He outlined some of his ideas including privatizing municipal golf courses and the city-owned airport — most of which are applicable in cities large and small — in an article in the Alamogordo Daily-News.
Candidates for local office across New Mexico should be encouraged to borrow Heredia’s ideas on limited government. Heredia should be commended for his efforts and innovative approach to governance.
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Health Care Special Session Ahead
By now, most of you are probably aware that Governor Richardson has called a special session in an attempt to get his health care bill passed. This was no surprise given the Governor’s fixation on health care before the session began, but with little in the way of agreement on the issues, Richardson’s move seems somewhat desperate. After all, even House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said of the prospects for a special session, “It won’t be fruitful for the governor to call a special session if there is not mutual agreement.”
This is the rub. The House which Richardson normally counts on for support didn’t even go along with the Governor, but instead gutted the bill. The Senate is even further away from the Governor than that.
Crazy things can happen in a special session, but if legislators seemed skittish about reforming health care in a short, 30-day session, it seems even less likely that they’ll go along with the Governor during a special session that is sure to be unpopular with legislators of both parties, particularly since they’ve already rejected his reforms once. Lashing out at those who don’t go along with his wishes seems to be the Governor’s current mode of operation. Only time will tell whether legislators cow-tow to the Governor.
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How Socialized Health Care Would Really Work
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What’s Wrong with the Governor?
Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that we do not engage in personal attacks. We may have policy disagreements, but we don’t generally go after people as individuals. That said, I’m not really sure Governor Richardson has been on an even keel since he return from the campaign trail. First was the statement that doctors were being “greedy” for not going along with his health care plan. While I think this statement is false on its face, it is hard to see the political wisdom of publicly attacking the very health care professionals whose mission it is to make us well. Besides, doctors are people we all deal with personally and, while we may associate their presence with both physical and financial pain, they are certainly viewed more favorably than the nameless and faceless insurance companies.
Of course, attacking doctors was only the start for Richardson. Today he essentially told the Legislature — both houses of which are dominated by his fellow Democrats — “bring it on” (subscription required) when some lawmakers suggested he’s entered his lame duck phase as governor.
As if this belligerent attitude were not enough, the Governor topped his rhetoric off by publicly disagreeing with his Attorney General (also a Democrat) regarding what should be a relatively minor bill deadline and then challenging his Lieutenant Governor over whether she is deserving of security or not.
Something is just not right. While it is to be expected that the Governor would disagree with Republicans and veto their projects from the just-signed budget, he seems to be lashing out at anyone and everyone who crosses him, possibly due to his frustrations on the campaign trail.
While we at the Rio Grande Foundation don’t agree with him very often on policy matters, it would seem that the “wounded bear” routine won’t do much for his efforts to pass his health care agenda and other items. Perhaps he’ll shake it off, but until he does, he isn’t doing himself any favors…and that’s probably a good thing for taxpayers.
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RGF and others speak out against ABQ Chamber on Health Care
As you probably know, the Rio Grande Foundation has been among the most prominent organizations opposed to more government intervention in the health care sector and supporting market-based reforms.
While most New Mexico businesses and business organizations have opposed Governor Richardson’s plans for a massive new government-run health system, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce came out in support of the Governor’s plan. Recently, a group of businesses and other organizations including the Rio Grande Foundation sent a letter to the Chamber outlining concerns with the Chamber’s support for even more government intervention in health care and the negative impact such policies would have on small businesses. Mario Burgos blogs about the issue here.
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Galisteo Basin Drilling a Boon, not Bane, for New Mexico
The issue of whether or not to drill in the Galisteo Basin has consumed Santa Fe’s local politics over the next several months. Not surprisingly, given Santa Fe’s politics, this has gone over about as well as well as a third term for President Bush would. Governor Richardson has responded to the outcry by the area’s wealthy, well-connected residents by placing a six month moratorium on drilling in the area.
In an opinion piece that was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican over the weekend, James Taylor, a Santa Fe resident and former oil man who is advising the Foundation on oil and gas issues, wrote that if oil and gas are indeed found in the Galisteo Basin, it would be a good thing for the area and the state. After all, we all use oil and all New Mexicans benefit from the largesse it provides. Besides, oil and gas drilling are fine in Farmington and Roswell, is it only OK to drill in less wealthy areas of the state, are there some in New Mexico who are simply too wealthy to tolerate drilling in their general midst?
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Who are Urban Conservatives?
Along with Michael Barone, Grover Norquist, and several other prominent conservatives, I recently participated in a symposium on what it means to be an urban conservative that was sponsored by the Minnesota-based Center of the American Experiment. You can read my thoughts and those of the others who took part here.
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Schools Losing Workers to Wal-Mart
This article about a new Wal Mart being built in Edgewood, NM, really caught my attention. In the article, it was revealed that the Edgewood Schools have lost three bus drivers to the retailer, with as many as five additional employees considering a job move. Wal Mart plans to hire as many as 400 people in this town of about 2,000.
Clearly, if people are making the move from government jobs to Wal Mart, then America’s largest retailer must not be paying the “slave wages” critics so often accuse them of.
And don’t assume that the public schools in New Mexico don’t have adequate resources to pay bus drivers and other professionals, because they do. First and foremost, as the Rio Grande Foundation has shown in a recent study, education spending in the state is higher than that of our neighbors. New Mexico also spends more on administration and other expenses “outside the classroom” than any other state in the nation. Perhaps it is being mismanaged, but that is nothing new.
The fact is that Wal Mart pays competitive wages and will be a boon for Edgewood residents who will have access to inexpensive goods. That is the free market at work.
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New Mexico’s Problem Solvers
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Call off the Water Nannies!
Micha Gisser has an excellent opinion piece on the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Water Authority’s power grab in today’s Albuquerque Journal
Among his more salient points is the fact that from 1994 to 2006 the price of water, adjusted for inflation, increased by from 35 to 45 percent, thus causing consumers to reduce consumption. Presumably, if water is scarce and getting scarcer, this trend will continue with or without these ridiculous regulations.
Gisser also notes that installing rain water collection systems is simply not economically viable. Since the variable charge per unit of water is not in excess of $2 or $3. Consequently, at the most, the annual saving for the household for the required equipment will be $50. Assuming that the gutters-and-barrel structure has a lifetime of 20 years, at a 5 percent annual interest the break-even investment is approximately $625.
Concludes Gisser, ” Let the price of water— reflecting all production costs, including the cost of the new conversion dam and the rental cost of water rights— guide users on how much water to consume. People do not need water nannies, they can decide for themselves how to conserve toilet water and if and when to replace their lawns by desert shrubs and invest in rain barrels.”
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