Friday, October 30, 2009

Tax hikes looking better every day.

Anyone who is being completely honest, will have to admit the budget deficit is not going to be fixed without "enhancing revenues". No one wants to be the first one to climb up on a stump and tell taxpayers what they don't want to hear.

So the legislature came and went, and Governor Bill Richardson is going to wait until November 12th to step up and say what the legislature would not.

In the meantime, at the rate of about one per day, one state agency after another is spotlighted on the news. The director of the agency de jour, testifies before one group or another and points to the very real effect of the proposed cuts.

  • Suicide hot lines point to the number of suicides that will not be prevented.
  • CYFD points to the number of children who will be left in abhorrent conditions because CYFD cannot afford to pull them out.
  • DA Kari Brandenburg points to the cases that will not be prosecuted for lack of funds.
  • Someone, I don't remember who, pointed to police cars that will sit with empty gas tanks.
  • Someone else pointed to 600 inmates that will be released because two prisons must be closed.
  • Etc, etc, etc, ...
The needs are real, the suffering will be real.
And taxes will be raised to alleviate the suffering.

Fortunately for legislators and governors, they won't have
to step up and deliver the bad news personally.

Couldn't have worked out better for them if they had planned it.

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