Opinion

The New Mexico Legislature did a lot of work during the regular 30-day session to prepare good tax policy proposals to fill the “sinkholes” that are threatening the provision of core government services.

Although we had a 30-day window to set the framework to raise sufficient revenues to fund an efficient level of government and to compose a prudent budget, revenue projections have been volatile and we’ve been getting reliable indications that revenues are falling further, perhaps by as much as $100 million.  

Robert Pearson’s Feb. 5 letter in the Optic suggests a response. The Supreme Court’s decision to which he refers is Citizens v. Federal Election Commission, a ruling which did not “overthrow a century of practice and decades of legal rulings” as Pearson states.

Is it me? Or can it be that alcohol, and all its outlets, were not even considered in the quest to increase tax revenues to offset the shortcomings in the state budget? Instead, our august group of lawmakers have pushed the envelope to where they will tax us all with yet another “special” session. Our trek to maintain professional politicians continues. City, county and state pols have learned from our federal politicians that their job is the only one worth saving.

I have been keeping up with the news of the proposed land swap New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is trying to complete. What a disgrace. Shame on this man. The sooner he completes his term in office the better!

Highlands in at it again. Now they are building a new student union building on the corner of National and Eighth. The building will take up the entire parking lot that now has over 200 parking spaces, that are used to capacity every day. The building will add a staff of over 60 people to the area and will have a 700-seat auditorium. Where are these people going to park? Ten blocks away? Oh! The university says it is going to buy the three small properties across Eighth Street and that might give them about 30 spaces. Wow, lose 200 spaces, add 60 staff and gain 30 spaces.

I’ve been talking to some people who are very concerned about oil drilling in Mora County.

I’ll say that I have to agree with one citizen who feels that drilling for oil is just a pretense for getting at our water supply. These big corporations usually print a pretty picture and promise revenues for the county.

I urge all the citizens not to be taken in with offers of money. We call know that our water and our land are our biggest treasures, because we share the water and land as brothers.

Let’s unite as brothers and protect our treasures.

‘You must’ve been such a happy family. All your movies prove it.”

That often came from people who sat through our home movies that showed us opening Christmas gifts sometime back in the ‘40s. Movies don’t lie, but they do exaggerate and can be manipulated.

Need proof? Well, all of the movies of us Trujillos show us much mirthier, earthier and girthier than we really were. Back then. But now, if we take the time to view those pre-historic flicks, we appear quite slim. See? The exaggeration works both ways.

In regards to our city manager and the mayor and council’s inability to enter into a contract with Mr. Tim Dodge, there are some observations that I would like to share with the citizens of our fine city.  

Babies enter this world every day, replacing those who die. OK, OK, I know I have a wonderful knack for the obvious. But I wanted to point out that with each new generation, our society moves in a hopefully more enlightened direction.

In 2008, America elected Barack Obama as president, the first black person in the nation’s highest political office.

Could that have been possible even 20 years ago? Doubtfully.

What’s changed? Well, prejudiced people died, replaced by people who have repudiated this stain on society.