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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Polled Support Falls Short of Fiscal Bridge
A recent poll provides a measure of what legislators are up against in a year when they have to figure out how to come up with hundreds of millions. Commissioned by two anti-smoking groups, the survey by Research and Polling Inc. gauged support for measures to bridge a shortfall “estimated to be at least $400 million.”
There was little appetite for raising most taxes, with just 34 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly supporting increases in registration fees and state sales tax. From there it went down, with 32 percent supportive of an income tax increase; higher gas taxes, 23 percent; higher property taxes, 21 percent.
But even fewer respondents favored spending cuts in the state's biggest programs. Reducing highway maintenance was supported at least somewhat by 27 percent; Medicaid cuts, 17 percent; higher education, 15 percent; nicking public schools, 11 percent.
One area of consensus among 502 respondents in which smokers made up a minority of 15 percent: 81 percent were OK with raising taxes on tobacco.
There's a bill in the offing that would more than double the tax of 91 cents a pack (Monday's editorial misstated the increase). But the path of least political resistance is also a path of least fiscal relevance, raising only an estimated $29.7 million.
The net must be cast much wider than tobacco. Lawmakers know they will have to burn virtually every constituency this year — unless they're blowing smoke.
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