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Sunday, December 5, 2004

Council Moved To Cover Basic Needs, Make Life Better

By Martin Heinrich
City Councilor
    Imagine an Albuquerque where the sidewalks are safer for kids riding bikes. Imagine sidewalks in older parts of town on which you can actually walk your dog without tripping. Imagine high quality streetscape improvements that encourage strolling and interaction outside of the vehicle. Imagine the success of Downtown revitalization mimicked in Uptown, at Montgomery and Juan Tabo and on Fourth Street NW.
    All these projects could be paid for out of the city's capital program— the brick-and-mortar funding and the most basic obligation a government must provide to its citizens.
    But Mayor Martin Chávez has his eye on the capital coin purse. He wants to offer a tax cut right before running for re-election. So, the City Council took action.
    I was primary sponsor on an amendment to move one mill of the city's property tax levy from the general fund back into the capital improvement program where it belongs. The funds— about $80 million over 10 years— are badly needed for basic city services— streets, sidewalks, streetlights, crosswalks, fixing potholes and medians.
    Two years ago, when the city was in the middle of a severe budget deficit, the mayor proposed and the council agreed to move this portion of property taxes out of the capital program and into the general fund to help pay for city operations. The move was a stop-gap measure and not intended to be a permanent infusion to the general fund.
    Over the past two years, the city has made up the lost revenues so that we can now afford to replace the capital funds and still meet the general fund needs of the city.
    Providing for basic needs should be our fundamental focus. Disturbingly, however, as our basic needs have grown due to population growth and the tremendous stress upon our infrastructure created by sprawl development, our available dollars for capital improvements are actually decreasing.
    City estimates show that over the past 14 years, we have seen a 20 percent decrease in inflation-adjusted dollars for the capital improvement program. When coupled with our population growth over the same period, this means the city is spending between 40 and 50 percent less per person on basic infrastructure. We have backlogged rehabilitation needs estimated at between $822 million and $1.02 billion.
    If the mayor had his way, he would issue a politically-motivated election year tax cut of $16 a person at the expense of drastically dwindling funds for sidewalks, street lights and crosswalks.
    The better, more efficient method of accomplishing a tax cut is to cut pork from the general fund budget, not to irresponsibly take money from the sole funding source for our basic needs, arguably the first priority of any government.