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.

3 Responses “We Are Known By Our Deeds – Not By Our Words”

  1. Bob Steiner says:

    As usual , Mr. Ring is perceptive, prolific, and profound. He is truly one of the few proponents of lower taxation in South Santa Fe County and he seems able to shed light on the incompentence (?) by our elected representatives in dealing with taxes. This current ” exposure “should be required reading for all of our town and South county officials who are elected or appointed by the people!

  2. Jack Sullivan says:

    A clarification: Commissioner Anaya voted in favor of the $80,000,000 transit tax and placing it on the Nov. 4th ballot. Two of the five Santa Fe County Commissioners, Sullivan and Campos, voted against. I have consistently voted in favor of the County assisting Edgewood in the construction of its wastewater treatment plant.

  3. Chuck Ring says:

    Commissioner Sullivan,

    Your vote for funding Edgewood’s waste water treatment plant had a ball of string compressed around it so that the effort was almost insulting. The county insisted on an ownership position of the facility and the sum which was to have been provided was paltry considering Edgewood’s contribution through the tax and the other taxes that fly out of Edgewood to Santa Fe. Thus far Edgewood has received zero (make that zero) from Santa Fe County for the plant.

    I am fully aware of Commissioner Anaya’s efforts toward the transit tax and have “acknowledged” his role. I am against the tax and I am sorry that he has decided to support something that takes more money from this community.

    What state legislators, county commissioners and distant cities, i.e., Santa Fe, seem not to realize is that each time they pass their provincial taxes and fail to provide mechanisms for Edgewood to consistently derive benefits concomitant with its contribution, then our noses are rubbed in the muck and mire of pigsty politics at its very worse.

    If a lame duck commissioner wanted to accomplish something that would truly be memorable and beneficial to all the constituents, but particularly Edgewood, (we have a lot of neglect that needs to be righted) then that commissioner would see to it that the county ordinances which governs such issues would be changed to be more inclusive on the getting as well as the giving side. Such a commissioner could start with ammending the County Capital Outlay Gross Receipts Tax, hop over to the regional dispatch/emt documents to change the inequities there and then to cap it off write an ordinance that would prevent future raids of Edgewood’s resources without a kiss or other recompense.

    Edgewood citizens are not adverse to helping, we just want to be recognized as something other than a cash cow.

    Finally, I do appreciate your comments and I trust they were given as clarification, but the fact remains … the county has not been a true partner to or with Edgewood.

    One last comment. Anything I have said, is my personal opinion. I am no longer a member of the Edgewood Town Council after having served nine years as a councilor and I have no clear idea how all of the present governing body members feel.

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