Stimulate the Economy: Eliminate the Death Tax

Having spent trillions of dollars on economic stimuli and bailouts all while unemployment has continued to spiral out of control and jobs still scarce, it will be interesting to see what President Obama and Congress do regarding the estate or death tax. According to a new study (see release here), New Mexico could add some [...]

Posted on June 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Voices for Children has a valid point

Gerry Bradley of Voices for Children, the left-wing counterpart to the Rio Grande Foundation, had an interesting article in the Albuquerque Journal yesterday. In the article, he discussed so-called “tax loopholes.” Of course, one man’s tax loophole is what another would simply call an incentive. That’s because every tax creates perverse incentives and penalizes behaviors [...]

Posted on April 21, 2009 at 10:01 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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How about a Tea Party????

Awhile back I blogged about CNBC’s Rick Santelli and his articulate rant against some of the federal government’s poorly-designed and unfair policies. During his tirade, Santelli talked about holding a “Chicago Tea Party” to protest these policies which are killing our economy and foisting massive debt on our children and grandchildren.
Well, Santelli has started something. [...]

Posted on March 16, 2009 at 1:39 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Who Voted for Higher Taxes?

Good like finding House votes on New Mexico’s legislative website. They’re not posted there and are never made available on the site, even in a historical fashion for past sessions. That’s one of the reasons the Rio Grande Foundation created NewMexicoVotes.org. We wanted average citizens and voters to know how their legislators were voting.
Yesterday afternoon, [...]

Posted on March 14, 2009 at 2:25 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Sanity in Santa Fe: Kudos to Friends of Capitalism

In case you missed it, yesterday, the voters of Santa Fe rejected a tax hike. The real estate transfer tax was the only measure on the ballot yesterday and it would have imposed a 1 percent fee onto any portion of a home sale price higher than $750,000.
4,557 of the more than 8,400 voters who [...]

Posted on March 11, 2009 at 8:53 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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The Case Against Tax Hikes: Even in The Alibi

The fact that tax hikes are a bad idea right now is so self-evident that even Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino — one of the most left-wing members of the New Mexico Legislature — didn’t make an overt call for specific tax hikes in his recent column in The Alibi. Better still, I was not [...]

Posted on March 10, 2009 at 10:39 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Glad to Have Big Bill Back?

I say that Richardson’s return to New Mexico is a blessing for fiscal conservatives….
While most conservatives and libertarians seem to have nothing but scorn for Governor Richardson and his failed bid for Commerce Secretary (and subsequent return to New Mexico), I am optimistic. Why is that? First and foremost, as discussed on the front page [...]

Posted on January 13, 2009 at 9:07 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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State Investment Council Needs a Closer Look

The Rio Grande Foundation has been doing a good deal of work on New Mexico’s State Investment Council. The problem is, as I point out in a new column in the Las Cruces Sun-News is that the Council really doesn’t know what is going on with taxpayers’ money and has invested in some truly corrupt [...]

Posted on January 12, 2009 at 8:55 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Tax Lightning Still Shocking

“Tax Lightning” was first used to describe the shock a homeowner experiences upon receiving the initial property tax assessment from their respective county. It has since become more of an umbrella term to reference a larger problem: a severe property tax inequity among homeowners in New Mexico. When ownership of a property transfers, the property [...]

Posted on December 16, 2008 at 12:44 pm by ctcarlson · Permalink · 8 Comments
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Eliminating Taxpayer-Financed Tax Grabs

Regardless of how you feel about the results of the recent election, it would seem that taxpayers of all stripes should be concerned that government officials are able to tilt the balance of ballot elections by using tax money to advertise on behalf of those ballot measures. Opponents of higher taxes, like the Rio Grande [...]

Posted on November 16, 2008 at 10:05 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · One Comment
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