Cash-strapped Bernalillo County “celebrates” County Government Month with Billboard

Leave it up to the County that saw one of its commissioners head to Cannes, France on “business” to threaten to raise taxes and then take out a billboard costing $5,000 up to celebrate “County Government Month.” The billboard is on the north side of I-25 North just past the Big I and looks just like the image below:

It’s yet another sign of the out-sized role government plays in New Mexico that this is even a thing.

And, as if that were not absurd enough, the same cash-strapped County is also considering subsidizing the Santolina development with numerous “TIDD’s” (also known as tax increment financing). Of TIF’s, Randal O’Toole says, “City officials regard tax-increment financing as free money, when actually they are stealing it from other taxing entities.” O’Toole also argues that, “Many people see the problems with tax-increment financing and think that TIF laws need reform. But in fact, no reforms will work; tax-increment financing should simply be abolished.”