But following Sonic in the “How stupid do they think the public is?” ad wars is McDonald's. Gone is the syrupy “You deserve a break today!” jingle replaced instead by an urban anthem P-Diddy could have ghostwritten. Listen, like Dennis Miller, I like rap as much any other slightly intimidated white guy, but we're talking about ground beef here. I don't care how hip the soundtrack is, guys—it's still a Happy Meal.
On that note, following are a couple of other observations from the press side of the red carpet.
Payne's World
Spending by state government will increase $271 million—or 6.6 percent next year—well ahead of the rate of inflation. The money for that spending increase isn't being created out of thin air. A lot of it's coming from increased taxes.
While the news media of New Mexico have, in their Pavlovian fashion when it comes to Richardson, fallen all over themselves reporting the removal of the gross receipts tax on food, they've neglected to zero in on the resulting tax increase that's being imposed on other goods and services to pay for it. For example, if you go to the store and buy a bunch of bananas, a frozen pizza and some toilet paper thinking you'll pay less tax, think again. The only item of the three that will cost you less is the bananas—the tax on the pizza and toilet paper (essentials if there ever were such a thing) will go up.
More commonly, this is known as a “bait and switch.” Even though it's done by people in pinstripes and cufflinks, what we're talking about is still a shell game played in a way that's meant to keep the suckers from catching on.
I don't want to give Richardson too hard a time, however. He's had one of the better political quotes in a while. Asked after the special session of the Legislature about the tax increases that were approved, Gov. Richardson said, “I'm still the tax-cutting governor. This is just a modest increase.” Bill Clinton couldn't have said it better.
Payne's World
What's frustrating, though, is the way the symptoms of its demise are being handled. The body of this public policy has been exposed to anthrax and everyone's acting like it needs rhinoplasty.
The latest setback came in the form of a joint letter to the Albuquerque Journal signed by Councilor Michael Cadigan and County Commissioner Alan Armijo. In their letter, Cadigan and Armijo pledged cooperation in the county's ongoing efforts to cement its hostile takeover of the city's water utility—now known officially in Soviet-style parlance as “The Water Authority”.
The hypocrisy here—especially from the editorial board of the Albuquerque Journal—is the insistence that city officials cooperate with the growth and development Neanderthals at the county in the seizure of Albuquerque's water utility. But when it comes to mutual cooperation on growth management policies like those embodied in the PGS (which the Water Authority does not currently have), well … it's everyone for themselves.
Hypocrisy, however, is actually too kind a word to describe the actions of Commissioners Alan Armijo and Tim Cummins, both of whom, as Albuquerque City Councilors, were original sponsors of the Planned Growth Strategy but now act like a couple of deadbeat dads when it comes to the PGS.
How did the change of heart for Cummins and Armijo take place? Were lucrative insider deals on Westside land a consideration? Were campaign contributions a factor? Who knows? But it's a question their constituents ought to ask when re-election time rolls around.
In the meantime, hang in there PGS! You won big at the last city elections. With any luck, that'll count for something someday.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the author. Payne, a former city councilor, can be reached at greg@alibi.com.
