Memo to New Mexico Politicians: Stop Replacing Tax Payers with Tax Eaters

County Commissioner Michael Weiner is proposing that Bernalillo County purchase the County Line Restaurant and turn it into a community center due to disagreements over noise from outside musical performances.

Weiner’s is a bad idea for many reasons. Most importantly, while I don’t know how how much the County Line pays in taxes, it is a taxpayer. I’ll bet a decent amount of the money spent at the place is from tourists who want a bite to eat after visiting the Tram. Noise issues can be difficult to resolve because they involve two sets of conflicting property rights, but I think that as long as the noise is kept to reasonable levels and is not done late into the night, deference should be given.

The bigger issue is that New Mexico needs every private sector job it can get. Using taxpayer money to close down a restaurant and put a community center in is a bad idea. The neighbors need to sit down directly with the restaurant management to work something out.