Given Gov. Bill Richardson's refusal to allow the Legislature to even consider raising taxes in the recent special session, does anyone else find it slightly amusing that he now says raising them is inevitable?
Keep in mind, his instructions to lawmakers to basically not even think about tax increases nearly caused them to go into an extraordinary session, one in which they would call the shots, and presumably would have increased some taxes, including on alcohol, cigarettes and probably motor vehicles.
His narrowly written proclamation also provoked hours of debate about what was -- and wasn't -- relevant to the session, costing thousands of state dollars and exhausting legislators.
But Richardson said at a press conference today that revenue increases will have to be made because of the state's budget crisis. Just a guess, but if I was a lawmaker right about now, I might be a little upset with Richardson, who didn't say what tax increases are on the table.
I agree. I was stunned when I heard on the news what the gov said. Now his argument might be that he figured that out AFTER talking to people who went to his office. But I think that overall his leadership leaves much to be desired.
ReplyDelete