Tax losses, tax lessons
Two special elections. Two defeats for increases in taxes. It is tempting to take the results of the May city special election on whether to tax sales of sugary drinks and this month’s proposed increase in countywide GRTs and conclude that voters just won’t put up with tax increases.
That would be an overreach. Voters rejected the increases, but we believe the message is more complex than, “We’re mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore.” The defeats were about keeping tax increases at a minimum, yes, but also about what the business of local government should be.
Take the sugary-drinks tax, proposed as a way to pay for early childhood education in Santa Fe. That essentially would have meant the city was taking over some of the responsibility of educating young people, which many voters felt belongs to parents, local school districts and even the state as a whole.
Threaded through the entire debate, too, was the clear impression that many voters mistrusted city government — not to run early childhood centers, not to collect the money and not to spend the money wisely. This mistrust is a legacy of financial mishaps big and small over the past decade or so: mismanagement of park bonds, moving money from the water department to cover general fund shortfalls, even a case of embezzlement from parking meter funds, and so on.
When you combine that sense of skepticism with a general dislike of taxes as a way to alter behavior and the belief that education is not the city’s business, a tax will lose.
In Santa Fe County, where election interest was almost nonexistent despite the greater impact of a general GRT hike versus taxing one product, we don’t see an angry citizenry ready to storm county commission chambers with a demand to lower taxes, either. The money raised, about $2 million a year, would have been directed to pay for public safety positions and staffing at a new behavioral health center being built in the county. Already, county commissioners took the brave step of voting for an eighth-of-a-cent GRT increase to help pay to operate the center; that increase goes into effect Jan. 1.
Had citizens been furious about taxes, more people would have voted. Instead, only about 8 percent of voters turned out to weigh in on the proposed one-sixteenth-of-a-cent GRT hike. The margin of defeat was wide, 70 percent to 30 percent against, but the prospect of higher taxes did not send droves of voters to the polls. In the city special election, in contrast, some 38 percent of voters showed up. Elected officials, though, have been warned. Citizens are tired of special elections. They cost money. Costs of the city election were $59,000, while the county special election was expected to be around $134,000. Citizens also are wary of government competence. There’s a reason the election for mayor of Santa Fe, 2018, is turning to a focus on basics. Those same issues are likely to surface in elections for county commissioner next year as well, when two seats will be on the ballot.
Cities and counties have taken on additional services as the federal and state governments have shed responsibilities. Mayor Javier Gonzales was correct in saying that better early childhood education can change lives and eventually make Santa Fe a better place for all of us. The benefits, too, of decreased consumption of sugary drinks cannot be disputed. Educating small children, though, apparently will be left up to the state.
County commissioners, too, deserve credit for choosing to provide additional mental health and substance abuse services. Santa Fe lacks adequate care for people who are suffering. Unaddressed problems cause a multitude of other complications — everything from increases in property crime and homelessness to the brutality of sick people stuck in jail without the treatment they need. With expanded treatment, Santa Fe County eventually will be improving the lives of citizens and saving money — two tax increases were just too much, even for many supporters of this initiative.
These two elections aren’t a signal — yet — that citizens of Santa Fe County are demanding stripped-down services and markedly lower taxes. What voters did make clear, however, is this: Spend money wisely or pay the price. Stick to your area of expertise. And one tax increase in a year is plenty.