Archive for September 17, 2008

North To Taxland

by Chuck Ring

Readers will recall a short notice posted  on the 5th of September with an announcement of a meeting on September 10th. If you don’t recall here is the notice  Taxation & Transportation, ETC 

The notice provides an attachment which was supposed to give the meeting time (6:30 PM) and the meeting location (the Edgewood Community Center). Myself and three others appeared for the meeting at 6:30 PM, but there was no one present to open the facility. At approximately 6:45 PM, Mr. Ivan Guillen, the Assistant Regional Coordinator for the North Central Regional Transit District (the district),  arrived to apologize, stating that the meeting was supposed to have been announced for 7:30 PM rather than 6:30 PM. Mr. Guillen was very gracious and offered to provide information for those of us present so we would not have to wait until 7:30 PM for the new meeting time.

Mr. Guillen took questions from those present regarding the existing system operated by the district from Eldorado south and in response to a question regarding the daily ridership from Edgewood north since January 2008 and through August 2008 stated that the average ridership to and from the communites served was as follows:

  • Edgewood – 5
  • Moriarty  – 3
  • Stanley – 3
  • Eldorado – 25

Mr. Guillen stated that the present cost of the transportation is $240,000 per year and the funds are provided through a federal grant and stipends from Santa Fe County and Santa Fe City as well as some other member entities of the district. At present there is no fee paid by the riders of the 57 passenger bus provided by the district. In a telephone conversation with Mr. Guillen today (September 17, 2008) I was informed by him that the operating  contract cost for Fiscal Year 2010 for the system which serves Edgewood north to Santa Fe will be $319,000 plus gross receipts tax.

I asked Mr. Guillen if the 1/8 cent gross receipts tax (previously the subject of at least one other article by this writer) Eh! We Will! No, We Won’t — Well, We Might? would be the financing vehicle for the continuation of the system and he replied that one-half of the tax would help finance the system, while the remaining 1/16 cent would accrue to the Railrunner. No doubt to keep the bird’s beak above water and full of lizards.

The reader of this article and the previous article hyperlinked should recognize several things when considering the impact of  the district operations and the Railrunner:

  • few folks from Stanley south are/will directly benefit from the district’s operations
  • few people, if any, from Stanley south will directly benefit from the Railrunner operation
  • Governor Richardson’s  GRIP which is the daddy of the Railrunner has been a gaint milking machine that certainly has a “GRIP” on most of New Mexico’s population
  • this 1/8 cent tax is yet another example of Santa Fe County’s propensity to tax without any consideration for allowing citizens from this town to serve on the board governing the beneficiary, i.e., the district or to provide any real direct benefit
  • the water/wastewater tax and the dispatch/emt tax are two more examples of the above
  • without opposition from the citizens of Santa Fe City, this tax will pass because the rest of the county does not have votes enough to defeat the referendum
  • “Death and Taxes?” There will be more of each.

It is our money. I guess we can toss it to the great northern sucking machine and let it go for nothing if we desire.

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