RGF notches TWO big local policy wins in ABQ Metro this week

After months of back-and-forth and multiple victories over Councilor Brook Bassan’s plan to increase the local gross receipts tax by nearly half-a-cent, the Rio Grande Foundation (finally) won the “war” over the proposed tax hike on Monday night. 

Incredibly, this particular battle wasn’t over final passage of the tax but whether it could be introduced at all. On a 7-2 vote Council (more or less) said “we’ve already voted on this issue, you can’t just switch sponsors and introduce the same tax hike once again.”

So, without enough time left for Bassan and her newfound sponsor Klarissa Peña (who happens to be the Council President), the tax hike WILL NOT appear on ballots this fall. Of course, this plan or other similar plans could be introduced next year, but for the time being this is a major win for taxpayers and RGF.

And, as if that’s not enough winning for this week, we have been notified by Bernalillo County Commissioner Eric Olivas that he plans to commission a study on public campaign financing rather than pushing it to appear on ballots this fall. RGF opposes public (taxpayer) financing of election campaigns and specifically points to Albuquerque’s mayoral race as a failed “model.” But, we will keep an eye on the situation and whatever study is done and will weigh in as appropriate.

In a text, Commissioner Walt Benson (the only Republican on County Commission) wrote, ” Hallelujah, I was told by several people it was a waste of time to fight this because the issue had 4 votes. So, I wrote the opinion piece, you put the topic on the air, and I think we got a lot of community support through emails and phone calls. Never give up!”

Needless to say, we are very pleased with these wins!