Archive for October 12, 2008

We Are Known By Our Deeds – Not By Our Words

by Chuck Ring

One can find allies in the oddest places. Take most any war or human conflict. It seems there is always someone to be found that will agree to ally themselves with another for a price or the sake of a credo. So it is with Santa Fe Commissioner Jack Sullivan and myself – although the Commissioner is likely oblivious to our partnership.

I first met Jack Sullivan just after he started his first term as a Santa Fe County Commissioner. I suppose it was around the beginning of 2000 when he attended our first town event approximately one year after Edgewood’s incorporation. I was a neophyte Edgewood Town Councilor and found Sullivan’s then stated concepts regarding taxation and assistance from the county to Edgewood, to be akin to my own. The ensuing years were to offer less than positive reinforcement to my opinion of Commissioner Sullivan’s actual taxing policies.

Fast forward to 2002 when Santa Fe City and Santa Fe County initiated efforts toward placing a quarter cent gross receipts tax on a referendum for or against the tax which was commonly referred to as a water/wastewater tax. This referendum passed and with what appeared to be a “hands across the waters” attempt, Commissioner Sullivan penned a letter dated February 6, 2003 wherein he enumerated what each of them (county and city) could have if they could but agree one with the other. Click Me To See The Letter The goodies subsequently received and action taken by each entity is a study in provincialism and greed on the part of Santa Fe City and Santa Fe County. An in-depth study of Commissioner Sullivan’s letter will leave no doubt that the process of doling out the money to Santa Fe County and Santa Fe City, along with a few paltry crumbs to to other Northern Santa Fe County entities, was meant to be tight-fisted unless the benefactors were “real” players in the process.

A cursory examination of the minutes and work history of the Santa Fe County/Santa Fe City Regional Planning Authority (RPA) Some Examples Of RPA Work will serve to reinforce what is stated above. Additionally, the governing board of  the RPA consists of Santa Fe County Commissioners and Santa Fe City Councilors. What’s the point in all of this nagging?

Here’s the point. In all the years that the “water/wastewater tax” (actually titled “County Capital Outlay Gross Receipts Tax”) has been in place, no monies from the fund created by the tax has accrued to Edgewood or the greater Edgewood Community. Instead, to put a twist on an old observation, the money has flowed uphill. It has flowed uphill to the two Santa Fe entities’ joint projects. Edgewood tax proceeds have unfortunately proceeded post-haste to Santa Fe to the tune of close to a million dollars.

In several letters and observations made by Commissioner Sullivan in recent months, the eighth cent gross receipts transportation tax has been denigrated by Commissioner Sullivan as “taxation without representation.” Commissioner Sullivan cites the one-sided composition of the Regional Transit Authority’s board as proof of under representation from Santa Fe City and County. Of course, I agree that the tax is another case of taxation without representation and I am opposed to the tax for that reason and a few other reasons. But, I have to wonder where Commissioner Sullivan and the rest of the Santa Fe County Commission (excepting Commissioner Mike Anaya who has fought an uphill battle for Edgewood) have been when Edgewood Town Government members and staff have journeyed to Santa Fe to get a thin slice of the pie that we in the Edgewood Community have helped to bake.

I will vote against the eighth cent transportation tax on November 4, 2008 and will work to convince others to oppose the tax, but just as important, I will continue to “rail” against the unfair taxing policies of Santa Fe County and their city partner regarding the water/wastewater tax and other similar taxes where Edgewood gives, but Edgewood does not receive.

Anyone desirous of stopping the unfair treatment of Edgewood in the future might consider penning their own letter or email to their county commissioners, state representatives and senators pointing out the sheer inequities foisted on Edgewood through taxing policy that allows taxing of small communities for the sole benefit of counties and larger communities.