What is wrong in Las Cruces?

With tax revenues on the wane, New Mexico’s second-largest city is hungry for revenue. Unfortunately, Las Cruces is in a tough spot. Without a Right to Work law, with an income tax, and without oil and gas to prop it up, why in the world would someone live and work in Las Cruces rather than El Paso (which has Right to Work and no income tax)?

Rather than doing whatever it can within the context of New Mexico’s government policies to make itself friendly to businesses and citizens alike, the folks running the City would rather enact draconian measures such as shutting off water and sewer service for photo ticket nonpayment. Critics have repeatedly argued that red light cameras are mere revenue generators and have nothing to do with safety.

In these difficult economic times, the City of Las Cruces, rather than having empathy for someone who may not have the money to pay for a red light ticket, is using its monopoly powers to exact revenge and turn up the pressure on alleged scofflaws.

This use of system-wide power is an excellent argument against red light cameras, but also why governments should not own and operate water and sewer systems themselves.