Richardson, Goodbye Presidency
Bill Richardson has dropped his bid for President. While we certainly are not shy about criticizing Richardson’s policies here in New Mexico, the reasons for Richardson’s failure to gain traction are only partially his fault. A big part of Richardson’s difficulties stems from the process itself.
First and foremost, Richardson did not run a great campaign. He made too many gaffes and tried to have it both ways on policy issues that required an obvious stance. This recent discussion between Richardson and Barack Obama on the issue of carbon caps and whether or not it would increase prices for consumers is a perfect example.
As for the reasons that were not necessarily his fault, except for the Iraq War, Richardson was a “centrist” relative to his fellow Democrats. On taxes, guns, and trade, Richardson was to the right of his fellow Democrats.
Unfortunately for Richardson, Democratic primaries tend to reward those on the left and penalize centrists. Only in the general election do centrists have the advantage. Even though we at the Rio Grande Foundation weren’t overly enthusiastic about Richardson as a President, his run did bring great attention to New Mexico. From that perspective, we are sad to see him drop out.
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School Employees and Raises
Today’s Albuquerque Journal included a column from Kathy Chavez, President of an organization called Albuquerque the Educational Assistants Association. The organization even has a website here.
Essentially, Chavez argues that while teachers and principals have received salary increases of 20 percent to 40 percent over the last three year, “classified employees,” that is, those who handle non-classroom related functions, have seen stagnant salaries. Chavez wants a raise for those people and takes Sen. John Arthur Smith to task for proposing a 2 percent increase next year.
Who’s right? It is hard to say because there is no such thing as a free market in education. Public education is a government monopoly with almost no competition in the system. Therefore, it is hard to tell what pay structure is “fair” and schools and districts have no need to compete for staff. If Chavez and her ilk are serious about increasing pay, they must seriously consider educational choice as a means of increasing salaries. Given the AFT’s statement on both vouchers and privatization, the AFT seems unlikely to embrace any market-based education reforms in the near future.
Lastly, while I’m not saying Chavez doesn’t have some point, New Mexico spends more on administration and other outside-the-classroom costs than any other state in the nation…that is, less of each education dollar in New Mexico goes to the classroom than any other state. Go here and click on NM on the map of the USA. Clearly, we are spending large sums on administration, where it is going is anyone’s guess.
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Improving Health Care Without Breaking the Bank
Those who understand economics understand that capitalism and free markets are the most efficient and fairest means of allocating resources in any society. Unfortunately, most people (including our elected officials) don’t necessarily understand that. Thus, we fall prey to those who would lead us to believe that some central planning agency will allocate resources more effectively than individuals and companies interacting in a free market. This was the thinking among economic planners in the old Soviet Union and it is the thinking behind New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s health care proposal.
In response to the Governor’s government planning model, the Rio Grande Foundation recently released an issue brief, “Cutting Costs and Improving Health Care in New Mexico,” that outlines several ways in which New Mexico could cut health care costs, improve quality, and improve upon its ranking as the state with the third-highest rate of uninsured in the nation.
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The Problems of NM’s Gross Receipts Tax Come to Maryland
The Rio Grande Foundation has long decried New Mexico’s economically-destructive Gross Receipts Tax and urged other states to avoid our mistakes.
Unfortunately, at least in Maryland, that message seems to be falling on deaf ears. That state recently decided to levy a 6 percent tax on companies that provide computer support services, computer programming, consulting services for computer systems design and disaster recovery.
Critics say the tax will be a “small-business tax,” as many smaller companies outsource their computer network maintenance work. Of course, those who like bigger government call the $200 million tax hike a “fiscal necessity.”
One would think that Maryland, a state with the 5th-highest personal incomes in the country would not be taking economic policy cues from New Mexico, a state with the 45th highest personal income level in the nation, but revenue-hungry governments are not known for their discretion. If Maryland is wise, they will refrain from adopting the rest of New Mexico’s GRT “model” which includes rates as high as 8 percent and includes nearly all services, not just those related to computers.
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Jason Marks Misses the Mark
I didn’t come up with the title for this piece which appeared in today’s Albuquerque Journal so the point is not that renewable energy should be considered at the same level as fossil fuels.
My real point is that Marks unfairly targets the very energy industry that does so much for New Mexico’s economy in a recent opinion piece. If New Mexico produced little in the way of oil and gas, bashing the industry that fuels America’s economy would be reprehensible enough. Since we do rely disproportionately on oil and gas severance taxes, it is just ignorant and foolhardy.
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Journal Op-eds Miss the Mark on Health Care
No wonder the health care debate here in New Mexico has gotten so off track. The policymakers and advocates seem to have little or no understanding not just of markets, but of how bureaucracies actually operate. Two opinion pieces that somehow managed to get published in today’s Albuquerque Journal are perfect examples.
The first article, “Start Health Care Reform in ‘08,” by Charlotte Roybal of the Health Care for All campaign first discusses New Mexico’s failure, despite reports to the otherwise, to reduce uninsured numbers. Fine, without reform, little change is to be expected.
Roybal then goes on to discuss the Governor’s proposed Health Care Authority and how it would slash administrative costs and should generally be accountable. Of course, no specifics are offered, but plenty of buzzwords like “transparency”, “meeting health care policy needs”, and “clear balance of power.” None of this actually gets to the heart of what the Authority will actually do and how it is supposed to control health care costs (in reality that will be rationing), but we’ll just figure it all out after it passes I suppose.
The second article, Health Care Fixes Require Thought, by Dr. J. Deane Waldman at the University of New Mexico, starts out like the author is making a case for Evidence Based Medicine, a concept that would bring the scientific method to health care. The practice, while it sounds good, if imposed in a bureaucratic and governmentally-controlled system, would result in utter stagnation in innovation as doctors would be unable to offer new and patient-unique treatments.
Strangely, the author does not dwell on the topic and instead launches into the doctor and nurse shortage in New Mexico, all without mentioning that we are one of the only states nationwide that taxes health care services under the gross receipts/sales tax. There are many reasons that fewer Americans are studying to be doctors and nurses, but the most important one is socialism. We have a quasi-socialized system already and we are on the verge of going all the way. The only way to improve health care is by restoring the individual to the equation, not by adding more government on top of what we already have.
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The Gross Receipts Tax and NM Health Care
An editorial in today’s Albuquerque Journal discusses ways in which the state can do a better job of attracting dentists. New Mexico has no dental school and I’m sure that is a hindrance on some level, thus measures have been taken to attract dentists to the state, but the Journal is not optimistic about one reform that would do more than others to attract dentists: stop charging them the state’s gross receipts tax!
As the Foundation has pointed out on a number of occasions here, and here as well, New Mexico’s gross receipts tax is economically-devastating with rates upwards of 8 percent in some areas. This would be bad enough if the tax were only applied to retail purchases, but the tax is also levied on services provided by dentists, doctors’ co-pays, and deductibles, and all fee-for-service procedures.
Clearly, before we embark on a “universal coverage” scheme of indeterminate cost, we should enact simple reforms like eliminating unnecessary taxation, right?
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The Albuquerque Tribune and “Right Wing” media
Newspaper readers throughout New Mexico are aware of the financial problems and the very real potential for closure at Albuquerque’s afternoon newspaper, the Tribune. While I am certainly sympathetic with the plight of the Trib and hope that new ownership can be found, I take issue with a recent article in the paper which cited the Trib’s potential demise as an example of “concentrated media ownership” and argued that “A huge majority of columnists in most daily newspapers are right-wing.”
First and foremost, while the Tribune is indeed in trouble, that has little to do with media consolidation. Instead, it is the result of increased competition from other news sources (including blogs) and declining readership among newspapers — especially afternoon papers — nationwide.
The author cites a recent report from a group called Media Matters which found that a majority of newspaper columnists carried in major newspapers nationwide are “right-of-center,” writers, this may be a response to reader demands. After all, liberal newspapers like the New York Times are losing readers faster than their more conservative counterparts.
Hopefully the Trib pulls through, but if it doesn’t, it is market trends, not “conservative, corporate media ownership” that will have caused the loss of the paper.
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Can we afford a Richardson Presidency?
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has failed to gain the vaunted status of “front-runner” in either New Hampshire or Iowa that would generate the scrutiny that we’ve seen of say Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs or Barack Obama’s past drug use.
Nonetheless, in attempting to educate voters nationwide on Bill Richardson’s record — especially as it relates to the state’s all-important energy industry — I wrote this article for nationwide distribution.
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Bernalillo: Let us tax more, but we won’t use the power…yet.
Bernalillo County will be lobbying the Legislature during the 2008 session for the ability to raise property taxes on County residents. Leaving aside whether it is proper for our elected representatives to use our tax money to further increase our taxes, this request, if fulfilled, will inevitably result in higher taxes, no matter what the County Commission might say.
Ostensibly, the increase is “necessary” to fund the jail and there are major problems with who places people in the jail and whether or not they are financially responsible for them. But, those problems should be addressed before the County simply sticks its hands further into taxpayers’ pockets.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the article in today’s Tribune is the expressed willingness of some of our political leaders to increase the gross receipts tax in lieu of the property tax. The gross receipts tax is simply the worst, most economically-destructive form of taxation here in New Mexico and further increasing it would hurt the Bernalillo County economy.
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