Last week, the legislature gave new life to the food tax in New Mexico.  Currently, there are only 2 states that tax food (Alabama and Mississippi).  What the legislature did was complicated, but in essence they voted to stop reimbursing cities, towns and municipalities for the revenue they lost when the legislature repealed the food tax back in 2005.  That means many of those municipalities will now have to reinstate a local food tax to make up the difference.  The move will put $68 million dollars back in the state coffers to help deal with the ongoing budget shortfall.  Governor Richardson says he “hates the food tax” and is weighing his options on whether or not to line item veto the measure.  We’ll delve into the food tax fight in depth on this week’s episode of NMiF, but we want to give you a taste of just how emotional of an issue this is.  During the segment, we asked Senator Eric Griego why he finally voted in favor of the measure after vocally opposing the food tax throughout the regular and special sessions.  His answer may surprise you.  In essence he says the Governor is partly to blame, despite his strong public words about the food tax.  Take a listen:

Griego bases his claim primarily on the proclamation the Governor issued before the start of the special session. You can read that proclamation here. Senator Griego seems to be implying that the Governor laid the groundwork for the return of the food tax by putting it on the agenda for the special session, while leaving many of the more progressive tax issues (like a personal income tax surcharge for higher income earning people) out of his proclamation. I guess we will all have a better idea on the Governor’s true motivation when we find out if he line item vetoes the food tax issue.  His deadline to sign the bill or line item veto it is March 25th.  Stay tuned!

And be sure to tune in Friday night at 7pm for the rest of our discussion on the food tax.  Our other guest are Fred Nathan of Think New Mexico, Allen Sanchez of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Rio Rancho mayor Tom Swisstack.

This is the time in the week when we scour the news for topics that would make for good discussion on our opinion segment of the show, otherwise known as THE LINE.  Here are just a few of the things we’re following right now:

*More details coming out about the resignation of the state’s top election official - AJ Salazar resigned his post last month, because of what he calls some questionable practices within the Secretary of State’s Office.  Included in the allegations are the ordering of employees to help gather petition signatures for Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s re-election campaign, and asking employees to solicit sponsorships from private companies.  These are all allegations of course, and as of right now, no one knows the full details of Salazar’s resignation letter.  Many media outlets are trying to get their hands on the letter, but so far it hasn’t happened.  Details are starting to trickle out, though, as Heath Haussamen reports on his blog nmpolitics.net.

*The legislature gives up some of the power of the purse strings - in the flurry to finish up a budget comrpomise, something interesting happened in Santa Fe.  Lawmakers gave the Governor more power to adjust individual agency budgets to deal with financial situations that may come up.  It seems the move was a way for lawmakers to tell the Governor “if you don’t like our ideas, come up with your own”.  This issue may come to a head very quickly, if the Governor decides to line item veto the reimposition of the food tax, which was part of the budget compromise reached last week in the Special Session.

*UNM raises admission standards - The Board of Regents on Monday voted to raise admission requirements to the university.  Applicants must now have a minimum grade point average of 2.5, instead of 2.25.  This is an idea that has been floated around for years, but was never approved.  It will be interesting to see what the impact will be.  Will students be better equipped to start their college careers at UNM if they have a higher GPA?  Or, will more students end up at CNM and other community colleges around the state?

*War protestors shot down - a federal jury yesterday sided with the Albuquerque Police Department on all counts stemming from an altercation at a March 2003 protest of the war in Iraq. Protestors claim the police department used excessive force at the event and stymied their right to expression of free speech.  Police officials claim the demonstrators became unruly, and officers did what they had to do to keep the crowd in order. 

What are you paying attention to this week?  What would you like to see us cover at the roundtable?  Let us know!  Leave us a comment, or email us at infocus@knme.org.