Thursday, May 21, 2009Raton Racino: Hold Your Horses? Plus: Bonding With Mayor Marty, And: One Man TV Bands--Old School Style
Chairman Norvell
![]() Observers ask if NM needs to rush into awarding a gambling license under these circumstances? Correra hasn't been accused of any lawbreaking, but as State Rep. Brian Egolf recently remarked, the whole placement agent episode "smells fishy." Former NM Attorney General Norvell may be challenged to observe the legal niceties in denying the Raton license to Correra, but if the Gaming Board caves, the fish smell Egolf and company are complaining about is going to have the scent of an open sewer. INN OF THE MOUNTAIN LAYOFFS? ![]() CHARGING IT The New Mexico congressional delegation has been effusive in its praise of the credit card reform bill that passed Congress this week and which was the focus of President Obama's recent town hall at Rio Rancho. While the measure does ease some of the more onerous credit card regs, for our money Senator Tom Udall's vote in favor of capping at 15 percent the interest rate credit card companies could charge was the real meat on the dish that the lawmakers passed over. Even a cap of 20 percent would have been welcome since consumers can get better loans rates from the Mob than some of the major banks. The proposed cap by independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was scuttled when only 33 Senators of the 60 needed to move the bill voted in favor. BONDING WITH MARTY ![]() But the real story is not our strong bond rating. The money used to pay back bonds we issue for public improvements comes from very reliable property tax collections from ABQ homeowners. The real story remains the plunge in the gross receipts tax. As economic activity contracts, those taxes--the main funding source for the city's ongoing operating budget---continue to fall off the cliff. That keeps the threat of reduced city services and lost jobs hanging over the heads of City Hall hall policy makers. You won't hear the mayor or the council bragging about that. UP THE ANTE Now NM will get as much as $3 billion in federal stimulus money, up from the oft-quoted $1.8 billion. Former NM Governor Toney Anaya, in charge of the NM Recovery and Reinvestment office, charged with seeing the federal money gets distributed in the next year or so, says over $500 million of that amount will go the state Medicaid program and a similar amount to education. Question: Can Toney and the Feds make sure some of the money isn't "diverted" into "personal stimulus" plans? This is New Mexico, after all... DON'T FORGET ME Freshman ABQ Dem West Side State Rep. Ben Rodefer says don't forget him when it comes to recounting Obama's recent visit to Rio Rancho High School: President Obama and I had the opportunity to meet and spoke of the Carbon Emissions Cap and Trade bills, the National bill which he is still pushing, and the New Mexico bill that I carried last session, and will continue to push. From our brief interaction I can affirm the President is extraordinarily intelligent, relaxed and personable. Rep. Ben will likely use that pic of him and the prez in next year's campaign, although not everywhere. He won the normally Republican seat over Eric Youngberg. No word yet on who the R's will field to try to take the seat back. THE ONE MAN BAND ![]() There are a number of us who were "one man bands" back in the day. And sound. That was a big deal--not everyone got to shoot sound. It was mostly silent film (yes, film. First, black and white and then color). Film had to be exposed properly (hopefully) then run thru a processor at the lab and edited with glue for a voice over by the anchor--who might have been Dick Knipfing or me...Remember, Joe? Indeed I do, Rodger. Covering the county courthouse in the mid-70's for radio news, I would see the fellas shooting with their little black and white cameras and reporters complaining about having to get film processed in time for the nightly news. With modern technology, today's one man bands won't have nearly the amount of work TV news folks had in those black and white days of the 60's. E-mail your news and comments. Interested in advertising here? Drop us a line. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009 Not for reproduction without permission of the author |
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