Sticker Shock

“We must cultivate our gardens”–Voltaire

Well, my fellow survivalists, life just got a little more expensive in this fine valley under the rainbows down by the red willows. On Monday, Sept. 20, the TMS Board confirmed that the accelerated sales of bonds would be paid for by property owners, beginning asap with a tax rate increase. The Town, County, and TMS all supported the bond election in a joint resolution back in the fall of 2008. More than 90% of the citizens voted to extend property taxes to pay for the bonds.

We were told the TMS bonds would be phased in so taxes wouldn’t go up but we were naïve to think that $40 million in bonds could be sold without raising rates. TMS accelerated the construction process to save money and now the taxpayers are paying the piper to the tune of about a 20 % increase. C’est la vie, M. Voltaire.

In 2007, a majority of us voted for a GRT –financed bond in the County to build the new 135,000 square foot Judicial and Admin Complex. We were told that the County was building a $32 million dollar facility. That project– partially due to federal loans, has grown by some $15 million, according to reports to some $47 million. So the GRT will go on and on.

Last week the KCEC Trustees voted to raise electric rates an average of 13% to pay for loans incurred due to upgrades for the system throughout the community during the last decade. Revenue has dropped and the Coop is not making its mandated tiers to pay for overhead. Members had no say so over this one—the “traveling trustees” made the decision. On Monday, Ken Blair told the TMS board he would lay people off from his hotels due to tax increases. Wait till he hears about electrical rates.

Here’s the bright side: We are investing or have invested the money in our little social democracy aqui en Taos for the sake of students, residents, and members of the disadvantaged social classes (inmates). Some politicos with big egos want their names on buildings or they just have a yen to travel on the public dime. But human nature is like the weather and we must deal with it.

We may disagree with the details of the way these deals are done–but at least we aren’t throwing money down a rat hole in Iraq, Afghanistan, or bailing out Wall Street swindlers. In all likelihood, the proposed rise in GRT at the Town will die, due to sticker shock when the county sends out tax bills. Yesterday’s meeting at TMS was particularly instructive re: taxes, bonds, mills, and appraisals. These are the kind of conversations and forums that should occur prior to passage of raising taxes or rates.

Representative democracy is a strange beast. And the naysayers always get attacked. Retaliation against local critics is a common and vicious practice here in Taos. Constitutional safeguards are only as good as the attorneys you hire to defend your rights as an American in this slightly foreign country. Below, our wonderfully entertaining gadfly and courageous naysayer copies us with letters sent to the media and the Town. Jeff will be tried for crimes against Mayor Cordova on Thu. at 9 am in Judge Dickie’s Muni Court.

Jeff’s Correspondence

Allen and Abigail:

I’m guessing you both understand how disappointed I was with the councils 3-1 vote to basically ban political protest, even giving it a much less standing in town ordinances than business interests. Allen, with your sensitivity to the topic, you must be shocked. But you could have been much stronger in giving these basically ignorant and hateful councilman better leadership and understanding of the foolishness of their decision.

You may recall that when the three of us (Allen, Abigail, and me) were having discussions this spring on granting a temporary waiver from the sign code adopted last December the subject of town jurisdiction over the control of signage on state highways was discussed; there was some doubt on the town’s right to control signage on the state’s 15 foot buffer that the state controls from the edge of the right-away. I mentioned that I had a sign (actually the eight foot tall wood rabbit) at Jack-Wrap-It in the late 1990’s that was about 12 feet off the roadway– a guy from the state highway department contacted me and told me to move it so that it was not within 15 feet of the roadway.

Further, as we discussed, I spoke of the warning letter I received from the Sheriff’s police (given to them by, I recall, the assistant county manager) about 18 months ago. I was picketing at the county complex at the time about conditions at Stray Hearts Animal Shelter. The letter was from the New Mexico Department of Transportation, and said that my signs were illegal. Sgt. Holgate took possession of the 15 or so signs. Over the course of the next week I had several conversations with the NMDOT on the free speech aspects of my signs, and they agreed that they had made a mistake, and I was allowed to return to picketing on that spot, along with many other spots along the state highways. No meanness, no lawyers, no battles….. just a short time to recognize the law.

The three of us this spring discussed the complicated nature of the various rights and obligations of the state highway running thru a town— maintenance, cleaning, easements, snow removal, etc. However, we were unable to definitively decide on who had jurisdiction on my signs: the town or state. We quickly dropped addressing this issue as we came to an agreement on the number of signs that I would be able to display (10 to 15, depending on the location). But this issue on jurisdiction on the state highway has yet to be resolved.

I will begin picketing within the town limits with multiple signs in the near future. Sometimes I may be along the state highways, sometimes on the town roads. I believe that until you can show irrefutable documentation that you can control and legislate the political signs within 15 feet of a state roadway you need to warn your police to leave me alone; I would appreciate notification at that time as well.

Further, when I picket on town roads I suggest you and your political bosses think long and hard about bothering me. We’re not dealing with petty vindictiveness and political embarrassment; this is the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Darren and Rudy think they’re above it, Amy probably never heard of it, and Michael seems to have abandoned any earlier thoughts of having an open mind and political independence. Gene got the picture.

Again, please leave me and my lawful picketing alone.
Thanks,  Jeff Northrup 9-20-10

To KVOT Radio

(September 16, 2010 9:16:23 PM)

Jim:

Heard the tax increase discussion on your radio show this afternoon. Liked that you and your three guests (two being town employees) and had a full discussion from them on the pros , no con, of the sales tax increase.

One of your guests today was the always hysterical and usually illogical councilman Rudy Abeyta, basically labeling me as the evil plotter to this entire diabolical tax increase protest; he mentioned that he had just seen me at a gas station corner “whining” with my lone sign about the price of gas ( that Chevron station where I was protesting has regular gas at $2.94, $.29 higher than Smith’s gas, up to $.44 if you take the full discount). As you know, the town council will allow me but one sign, causing many motorists to miss the message and possibly thereby paying the high price.

Mr. Abeyta ignored that I worked with Jerome Lucero and a few others in gathering over 380 signatures, almost twice as many as the law calls for. Most people I spoke with couldn’t wait to sign. Yet Rudy was quick to blame the entire tax protest on me, a pathetic malcontent who hates everything the town does. A ”sore loser,” he likes to call me, as if I hadn’t spent a lifetime overseeing government shenanigans.

This is the same Rudy Abeyta who PHYSICALLY ATTACKED ME on the night of July 4, 2010. This is the same Rudy Abeyta who called me “A LITTLE FAG” a few seconds later. This is the same man who constantly misleads the citizens of Taos on the disasters we all face if the sales tax increase is voted down. To hear him talk tonight, along with the mayor and council at other times, if the town does not get the annual $800,000 from the sales tax increase we might lose a multitude of services— police protection, library, youth center, road repair, new police department, matching funds, and much more if this less than 10% of the total town budget is not forthcoming. We’ll be on the road to ruination if they don’t get this money. They’ve made so many promises on what wonderful things they can do for all of us if the increase goes through, and how great our suffering will be if it doesn’t; you’ve heard the biblical stories of turning water into the best wine, or the feeding the multitudes with just a little bread and a few fish? Expect the same sort of results in Taos if we give them the $800,000.

This is the same poverty stricken-town that has submitted a witness list of over a dozen people to testify against me for “criminal trespass” charges brought against me for that same July 4th night (typically, one or two witnesses is a lot). Who can guess how much time and money the town attorney has spent preparing the testimony (if you know what I mean) this gang of friends and family of the mayor expect to give. The charge carries a maximum penalty that is the same as driving without insurance or with expired tags, for instance. I doubt the judge can find me guilty, no matter how elaborate the lies that bunch can cook up. I was on the mayor’s property for less than one minute, touched nothing, threatened no one, and the only weapon I had was a camera to record the crimes be committed on that property by the mayor and his party.

By the way, have you had an opportunity to investigate and interview anyone about Mayor Cordova and dandy Don Francisco Trujillo being investigated by the FBI and NM Attorney General for election related misdeeds. I would love to be on your show to talk about this and a many other issues— but that won’t happen, I suspect. You, along with the other media outlets in Taos, don’t want any part of a citizen protester. Recently Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told anti-government dissidents/protesters that they’d “be beaten upside the head with a truncheon.” And I complain?

You are a man of honor. I hope you can find a way of giving airtime to the people who oppose the sales tax increase; if not, at least don’t be a tool of those who favor the new tax.

Your friend, no matter what…….

Jeff