In May voters in the City of Santa Fe overwhelmingly rejected a soda tax:
Then voters in Los Alamos denied the political establishment a massive new recreation bond:
Recently, voters in Santa Fe County turned down a 1/16th hike in the GRT 70 to 30 percent:
And just this week, Eddy County voters overwhelmingly turned down two 1/8th cent GRT hikes:
Folks at the Mercatus Center find that New Mexico is lacking in “fiscal slack” ranking it 49th. In other words, relative to other states, raising taxes would be more detrimental to New Mexico’s economy than all but one other state.
New Mexico voters agree that raising taxes when their State remains in dire economic straits is not a good idea. The only group in New Mexico that thinks tax hikes are a good idea these days are the Democrats who control New Mexico’s Legislature. To be fair, a few Republicans did vote for higher taxes in the 2017 session, but I haven’t seen them out touting that fact in recent months.
I can only speak for the Santa Fe area, but it seems, after observing the shifting tides of political influence, that the folks have awakened to the evils of Progressivism policy. Add to that the expense of living here and the dependence on government (both caused and embraced by the Dems) and the folks have had it.
Yes, the two recent votes on whether to raise taxes were good indicators of that. The rubber hits the road when voters in Santa Fe are asked to decide on their councilors and mayor. They need at least sane Democrats because running as a Republican in Santa Fe remains beyond the pale.
The City of Roswell just increase GRT tax for a new $23M Recreational and Swim Center without voter approval. The City also contracted for a $20 upgrade to smart water meters without any citizen votes. Now the City is expanding their City Center for another $7M from Lodgers Taxes.
WOW! This was all done by a very aggressive Republican Mayor. Let’s see what the voters say in this springs election.
The only good thing I can say about all this is: no property tax increase – Yahoo!
Yes, we won against the Rec Bond vote in Los Alamos but now Council is implementing a majority of it anyhow. Why ask for a vote if you’re going to ignore it?
The same is happening with the Sick Leave policy in ABQ. The pro
Sick Leavers lost but they will cram through something anyhow.