Funny Cigarettes

These tax stamps are old (1943)
I stole this image from www.ericjackson.com 

In  today's New Mexican I wrote about two cases of Indian leaders who have gotten into trouble for having businesses that sold cigarettes without the required state tax stamps.

The first case is that of Paul Rainbird, former lieutenant governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo and head of the Southwest Association for Indian Affairs (which sponsors Santa Fe Indian Market) . He was sentenced to prison last week for his Internet smoke business.

The other case is current secretary of the state Indian Affairs Department, Arthur Allison, whose store near Farmington, at least earlier this year, was selling cigarette without tax stamps as well as a brand of cigarettes, Seneca, which isn't on the state list of approved brands.

Attorney General Gary King wrote to Gov. Susana Martinez about this in May (that letter is HERE) but the Associated Press was able to buy the forbidden cigarettes in Allison's store in June.

Martinez's spokesman Scott Darnell said yesterday  that since then, Allison has transferred ownership of the store to his son, who had been running the store for more than a year.

I'd asked the Attorney General's Office about the status of its investigation into Allison's store. Spokesman Phil Sisneros told me this morning. He said the office "is now focusing our efforts on the manufacturers of the cigarettes." They want the Seneca manufacturers to pay escrowmoney that was in question.

Udall Votes Against Tax Bill

Though earlier this week Sen. Tom Udall voted to move the controversial tax bill -- extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy -- to the floor, today he voted against the bill itself.

In a statement, Udall explained:

“While I understand the value of a compromise, the literal costs of this deal for future generations of Americans is too much to concede. With a depressed economy and high unemployment we should be finding ways to create jobs, pull America’s middle class from the edge and bolster our economy. Instead, this proposal will drive our national deficit upwards another $900 billion without any evidence that the deal struck would help our economy in the long-term. 

“In fact, economic experts point to the contrary.  In terms of stimulating the economy, tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires is not an effective strategy.  And a compromise that significantly increases our already unsustainable debt while failing to spark job growth and the economy isn’t much of a compromise at all, and certainly not one I can support.”

The Senate approved the bill 81-19, sending it to the House.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that our other U.S. senator, Jeff Bingaman, also voted against the tax deal. Bingaman expressed his opposition earlier this week when he voted against stopping debate on the bill.

Senate Passes Cigarette Tax

The Senate just voted 25-15 to pass a 75-cent tax increase on each pack of cigarettes.

Because the Finance Committee added an amendment -- to earmark part of revenue to early childhood programs -- it must go back to the House for concurrence.

It was almost a party-line vote with most Democrats voting yes and most Republicans voting no.

Democrats Phil Griego and Tim Eichenberg voted with Republicans against the bill, while Republican Sue Wilson Beffort voted with the Democrats for the bill.

Hurry Up and Wait

Nothing much is happening now at the Roundhouse. At least not in public. The House Dems have been in caucus since the morning without coming up for air. Last night a veteran representative was joking with me about waterboarding dissident Dems -- specifically the ones who voted against the cigarette tax. Maybe they're doing that.

The Senate had a short floor session. The Senate Finance Committee met for awhile, without doing anything earth-shattering.

Earlier today, Think New Mexico delivered to the Governor's Office printouts of 511 e-mail letters from people protesting raising the tax on food. (That's a picture Jason Espinoza of Think New Mexico handing over the letters.

The governor's still signing bills from the regular session, (which seems like years ago ...)

Yesterday afternoon he signed SB 18, which restructures the State Investment Council.

“I have moved aggressively to restore confidence in our investment practices, and this new law will help ensure that our investments are not tainted in any way,” Gov. Richardson said in his news release.

The bill adds members to the State Investment Council -- including four appointed by the Legislature -- and will require appointed members to have 10 years of financial or investment experience. The bill also prohibits appointed members from having any contracts with state investment entities for two years prior to their appointment and for two years after their term ends.

However, the bill was amended during the legislative process. The fiscal impact report notes that contrary to the recommendations of Ennis Knupp, the Chicago consultants hired to examine the SIC, the governor and his appointees still will be the largest group on the council, accounting for five of the members.

Also, the governor will remain chairman of the council, also against the consultants' recommendations.

"Therefore if the amended legislation were enacted, the SIC would still be operating outside of national best practices and contradict numerous findings in the Ennis Knupp (report)," the fiscal impact report concludes. "This has the potential to create the risk that further turmoil and suspicion, from both a performance and reputational perspective, will continue to accompany these agencies at the potential cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer and retiree dollars."

Oh well ....

Boy Did They Get the Wrong Number

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 16, 2010

As its done in previous years, a major tobacco company is running a phone bank to urge New Mexicans to tell legislators to vote against raising cigarette taxes.

A spokesman for Altria, parent company of Phillip Morris, said Monday that such calls are supposed to go only to smokers over the age of 21 who have requested such information. However, one person who received a call from the company did not fit that description. She is the teenage daughter of an American Cancer Society official.

Cynthia Serna, the regional grassroots development director of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said her 15-year-old daughter received the automated “robo call” from Phillip Morris on Monday morning on her cell phone.

According to her daughter, Serna said, the caller gave a brief introduction about “a bill introduced by the New Mexico Legislature to increase the cigarette tax.” The girl’s cell phone was “cutting out,” Serna said, so she didn’t recall more specifics. But she said that the called asked her if she supported or opposed the proposed tax increase.

“When she said she supported it, the caller thanked her and hung up,” Serna said.

Altria spokesman Bill Phelps said of the call to the teenager, “If there was a mistake made, we’ll move to fix it.”

Cell phones of minors frequently are listed under their parents’ names.

Altria hasn’t yet disclosed its expense report for the phone campaign. The report is not due until after the session. Last year the company spent a reported $15,113 on phone banks to generate opposition to cigarette tax hikes.

The Senate on Saturday approved a measure that would increase the tax on cigarettes by $1 a package. This would provide an estimated $33 million to help balance the state’s ailing budget. Proponents said the cigarette tax would alleviate the need to lower state employee salaries.

Proponents also argue that making cigarettes more expensive lowers the number of teenage smokers and eventually saves the state money in Medicaid costs by reducing cancer and other medical conditions associated with smoking.

New Mexico currently imposes a 91-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes. With the proposed increase, only 15 states would levy a higher cigarette tax.

The proposal is in the House of Representatives, where the Business and Industry Committee voted earlier in the session to effectively kill an earlier proposal to raise the tax on cigarettes.

Phelps said the company opposes the tax increase because it would hurt convenience stores and other small business that depend on cigarette sales. The added tax would drive customers to tax-free stores on Indian land, he said.

Phelps also noted that the federal government last year increased its excise on cigarettes by $6 a carton.

Taxing Tortillas

Religious leaders and others who are against the current proposal to tax some food (the current version of Senate Bill 10) just held a rally in the Rotunda to draw attention to the bill and to give away thousands of white flour tortillas -- which would be subject to gross receipts tax under the bill.

The New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, St. Joseph Community Health and the New Mexico Conference of Churches put together the rally.

The proposal, which is still being considered by the Senate Finance Committee, would reinstate gross receipts taxes on the sale of foods not allowed under the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) supplemental nutrition program.

The Rev. Holly Beaumont, legislative advocate for the Conference of Churches, told me that the WIC program provides nutrition classes and free child care for those on the program. "Is the state going to pay for that?" she asked rhetorically.

Among the food that would be taxed under the bill is white bread, spaghetti, canned soup, butter, honey, yogurt and nuts.

Allen Sanchez, director of the bishops’ organization, said yesterday he was bringing 12,000 tortillas for the event.

Many expect the food tax provision to be lifted from the bill before it gets out of the Senate Finance Committee. Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque said there's no way the House would pass a food tax. She's probably right.

What Local Governments Fear

My story in today's New Mexican is about a revenue bill that represents a move city and county officials have feared for many months.

Senate Bill 247, introduced earlier in the week by Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, would phase out provisions of a law that kept city and county governments from taking major hits in their revenue when the state exempted food and medicine from gross-receipts taxes in 2004.

The buzz phrase is "hold harmless." Local governments are "held harmless" from losing revenue from their share of the taxes they got on food and medicine.

Last year the state paid local governments about $121 million in revenue they would have received had the taxes on food and medicine not been lifted. That $121 million would be a big chunk of he $600 million budget shortfall. (Jennings' bill would reduce the "hold harmless" distributions by 20 percent a year for five years.)

As Carter Bundy of AFSCME told me, "The only way they got (the food tax repeal) through was by agreeing to hold cities and counties harmless."

The city of Santa Fe receives about $10 million a year from the "hold harmless" distributions. Municipal League director Bill Fulginiti told me that some local governments would be even more hard hit. The town of Hatch, for instance gets nearly 30 percent of its budget from the "hold harmless" distributions.

No committee hearing has been scheduled yet for SB247. Its first stop would be the Senate Corporations Committee.

Tax Bills in B and I

The House Business & Industry Committee is scheduled today to hear a whole mess of tax bills.

Among those are:

* Rep. Brian Egolf's tax on cigarettes (HB35);

* Rep. Eleanor Chavez's bill to tax internet sales (HB50);

* House Speaker Ben Lujan's bill that would temporarily increase gross receipts taxes (HB119);

* Rep. Ray Begay's bill to close the loophole on out of state corporations doing business in the state (HB 62, which is similar to Sen. Peter Wirth's SB 90)

The meeting starts, supposedly, 30 minutes after the House floor session ends. (They're still in session at this writing)

UPDATE: 1:19 pm. The House just recessed.

Task Force Will Attempt to Webcast Again

The Balanced Budget Task Force will once again attempt to webcast its meeting today between 1 p.m and 5 p.m.


The webcast of last week's meeting in Farmington worked fine.


Except the video.


And at least one person reported the audio was pretty hard to hear.


I did a story about the task force HERE


This is the final meeting of the 40-plus member group, which is discussing possible tax increases.. It's being held at Santa Fe Community College. If the webcast works this time, it'll be HERE.

Webcasting the Tax Committee?

I was off Thursday so I didn't watch the webcast of the Balanced Budget Task Force meeting in Farmington.

Apparently nobody else did either.

One lobbyist I know told me, " ... you could sort of hear the meeting by phone but I don't think that they ever got the video up and going."

Tax and Revenue Department spokesman confirmed that the video never worked during the meeting. "But people could hear the meeting and see the presentations." He was referring to various reports on the task force's Web site.

Mahesh said the task force will attempt to webcast the final meeting, which starts 1 p.m. Thursday at Santa Fe Community College.

Balanced Budget Task Force to be Webcast

A state task force looking at ways to balance the ailing state budget will Webcast its remaining meetings, the head of the panel announced today.

Rick Homans, secretary of the state Taxation & Revenue Department said in a news release the web camera will be in place for the next meeting Dec. 10 — which is being held in Farmington, as well as the final meeting, Dec. 17, which is taking place at Santa Fe Community College. Both meetings are scheduled for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“We want to open this discussion on possible revenue options to as many New Mexicans as possible and this technology provides access far beyond the rooms where we are meeting,"

Homans said. “I also encourage people to go to our Web site and to use it to provide comments, opinions and suggestions so that we can include all of this information in our final report to the governor.”

The live stream will be available on the task’s force’s Web site, www.nmrevenueoptions.com.

The task force has been considering a number of possible tax increases to offset diminished revenues. Among taxes that could be affected are personal income tax and, excise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. The group also has been debating whether the state should again start imposing gross receipts taxes on food. That tax was lifted in 2004.

The panel, which was appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson last month, is scheduled to submit its final report to Richardson on Dec. 21. The Legislature convenes about a month later.

Native American Veterans Tax Refund

I have a story in today's New Mexican about the fact that Native Americans from New Mexico who served in the military between 1977 and 2007 may be owed state income tax refunds. This applies only to those who lived on Indian land when they enlisted.

My story is HERE.

Those who think this might apply to them can file for the refund HERE.

It's not really chump change we;re talking about either. In the class action lawsuit that prompted the state to start its refund program the payments to the defendants who qualified ranged between $856 and $7,500.

The state performed a study that showed about 7,000 Native military members in the state had their state taxes improperly withheld during that 30 year period. That study is below.

Native Vet PIT Report

Food Fight!

I spent the afternoon Monday at the first meeting of the recently appointed Balanced Budget Task Force at Santa Fe Community College. When I saw how full the parking lot was at the college, I realized that a high percentage of the 42-member board had showed up.

All sorts of tax increases and restructures are on the table. But, as I point out in my story in Tuesday's paper, the one topic that raised a some debate Monday was the possibility of reinstating the gross receipts tax on groceries. My story on that is HERE.

The food tax was repealed in 2004. I re-read some of the coverage of that bill in the Legislature, which reminded me of the fact that the final vote happened around 5 a.m. the last day of the session.

I even stumbled upon an old Roundhouse Roundup column I'd written a couple of days before that final vote, documenting some of the tactics and late-night, back-room arm-twisting at a time when it looked like the food-tax bill was dead. You can read that column HERE.

Richardson Names Revenue Task Force

As promised, Gov. Bill Richardson named his task force to study possible tax increases before the next legislative session.

And, like most task forces appointed by the administration, it's a monster. More than 40 members. Maybe they can meet in the Senate Chambers.

The group includes representatives of banking, environmentalism, business, labor, ranching, the alcohol and tobacco lobbys, the Catholic Church, government, educators, liberal advocacy groups ...

Let's hope they have better luck than the 2003 Blue Ribbon tax task force.

Here's the list of members.
Chair
* Rick Homans, Secretary, Taxation and Revenue Department

Task Force Members
* Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish or Designee
* Mark Thompson, Lieutenant Governor, Acoma Pueblo
* Jim Berry, Executive Director, Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce
* Terri L. Cole, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce
* Raymond Mondragon, Chair, New Mexico Economic Development Partnership
* Alex Romero, President and Chief Executive Officer, Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce
* Chuck Wellborn, Wellborn Strategies, LLC
* Sharon Lombardi, Executive Director, Dairy Producers of New Mexico
* David S. Smoak, President, RSF Land and Cattle Co.
* Don Chalmers, Principal Dealer, Don Chalmers Auto
* Jerry Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Independent Community Bankers Association of New Mexico
* Jim Horton, Director, Public Policy and Government, Associated General Contractors
* Odes Armijo-Caster, President, Renewable Energy Industries Association
* Leland Gould, Chair, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association
* Jim Hinton, President, Presbyterian Health Services
* Michelle Welby, Director, Medical Operations, Molina Healthcare of New Mexico
* Jami Grindatto, Corporate Affairs Director, Intel
* Tony Trujillo, Government Relations Director, Phelps Dodge
* Kathi Bearden, Editor, Hobbs Sun News
* Steve Anaya, Executive Vice President, Realtors Association of New Mexico
* Carol Wight, Chief Executive Officer, New Mexico Restaurant Association
* Bob Barberousse, Cigar Association of America
* Fred O'Cheskey, New Mexico Beverage Wholesalers and Southern Wine & Spirits
* Thom Turbett, President and Chief Executive Officer, Independent Insurance Agents of New Mexico
* Bob Murphy, Executive Director, Economic Forum of Albuquerque
* Rick Clemente, Production Central ABQ
* Leanne Leith, Political and Programs Director, Conservation Voters New Mexico
* Ruth Hoffman, Director, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-New Mexico
* Allen Sanchez, Director, New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops President, St. Joseph Community Health
* Gayla Brumfield, Mayor, City of Clovis
* Bill Fulginiti, Executive Director, New Mexico Municipal League
* Paul Gutierrez, Executive Director, New Mexico Association of Counties
* Charles Bowyer, Executive Director, National Education Association-New Mexico
* Carolyn Abeita, Esq., Member, University of New Mexico Board of Regents
* Carter Bundy, Legislative Director, AFSME
* Pat D'Arco, Chairman, Rio Rancho Planning & Zoning Board
* Jackson Gibson, Member, District 6, Transportation Commission
* Bill Jordan, Policy Director, New Mexico Voices for Children
* Leo Garza, Legislative Committee Chair, AARP New Mexico
* Richard Anklam, President and Executive Director, New Mexico Tax Research Institute
* Fred Nathan, Executive Director, Think New Mexico

First Shots in the Booze Battle

In today's paper I previewed what's bound to be a big battle in next year's Legislature -- a move to increase the state excise tax on alcoholic beverages.

According to lobbyist Ed Mahr, to whom I spoke yesterday, the state hasn't raised this tax since 1994. But between the increases that year and the year before, the tax went up by 100 percent he said. As the story points out, New Mexico is in the top 10 states for taxes on beer and wine and in the top 20 for distilled spirits. (There's also a tax on "fortified" wine, which is higher, but hardly anyone ever talks about this, I supposed because winos don't vote.)

"In a recession, it's a bad idea to raise any tax. Things are tough out there for businesses. The excise taxes here are too big already," Mahr said.

But Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, argues that his "dime-a-drink" proposal won't have that big of an effect. "If you are going out with your friends to have three or four beers — with a designated driver, of course — you're not going to stay home just because it's going to cost you an extra 40 cents," he said.

Whoever's right, it should be an interesting showdown. The real winners might be the broadcast industry. The last time the state gave serious consideration to raising alcohol taxes (2003) a national liquor industry group waged a radio campaign against the idea.

Roundhouse Roundup:Blue Ribbon Deja Vu

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October22, 2009

When Gov. Richardson announced this week that he wants to start a “working group” to look at tax changes before the next regular legislative session, it brought back some blue-ribbon memories to some longtime Capitol observers, myself included.

I’m talking about the 2003 Blue Ribbon Tax Commission, a 23-member panel appointed by Richardson, set up to propose sweeping reforms of the state tax system. The Blue Ribbon gang, headed by former state Rep. Jerry Sandel, labored for months to make a lengthy set of recommendations.

People in government often talk about reaching consensus. That definitely was reached in this case. Practically everyone agreed they didn’t like the commission’s final product.

The ink on the commission’s report, which was finalized only days before a planned special “tax-reform” session of the Legislature, had barely dried before it was promptly disowned by the governor.

Richardson said the panel had come up short of his goals of simplifying the tax code and providing some tax relief for working families. But he wasn’t the only one unhappy with the recommendations. Liberals didn’t like it because it didn’t include elimination of the gross-receipts tax on food (an idea eventually approved the following year) or an increase in liquor taxes. Conservatives were upset because the recommendations included a gas-tax increase, motor vehicle excise tax and registration increases, and a higher gross-receipts tax.

Richardson proposed his own tax-reform bill in the late October special session. Oh, but it was no longer a “tax-reform” bill. It was an “economic-growth package” — all 188 pages of it. Whatever its handle, that bill died a lonesome death with virtually no support from any quarter.

In his announcement this week, Richardson said between now and January, “I will convene a working group consisting of legislators, executive staff, members of the business and education communities, and other interested parties to analyze such a package.

“Already in this session there have been some intriguing proposals introduced. However, I believe these must not be injected piecemeal without serious analysis into the present budget calculation but rather should be part of a well-crafted and mapped out package in January.”

The recession-ravaged, busted-budget situation our state government is in now, of course, is far more serious than the situation back in 2003, when the economy was in better shape.
But you have to wonder — will the “working group” fare any better than the blue-ribbon commission?

Best tirade of special session: In the absence of Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, who was defeated for re-election last year, the intensity and number of good, fun, fiery floor speeches in the Legislature has dwindled to nearly nothing. But on Wednesday, Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, engaged in a tirade that would even give Robinson a run for his money.

During a debate about a measure that would create a mechanism to allow legislators to return 10 percent of their per diem payments from the state, Martinez became passionate.

“Before we nickel and dime everyone for $15 a day, we should look at the abuse of per diems,” Martinez said.

Referring to interim committee meetings, for which lawmakers are paid per diem (currently $159 a day) to attend, Martinez said, “There are some who come in right before lunch, sign the voucher, get their free lunch,” then leave.

This goes on among both Democrats and Republicans, Martinez said. And even freshman legislators “have gotten real good at it,” he said.

Martinez even made a not-so-veiled threat: “I’ve been here nine years,” he said. “I’ve collected a list (of legislators who have abused per diems). It would be very embarrassing if I released this list to the media.”

Martinez declined my request for a copy of that list.

Richardson Wants to Study Revenue Proposals

The special session isnt over yet, but Gov. Bill Richardson is looking ahead to the regular session in January. He's calling for a "working group" of legislators, staffers and others to study possible revenue bills for next year's 30-day session.

Will this be different from the "Blue Ribbon Tax Committee" that crashed and burned in the fall of 2003? Hopefully. The economic situation is a lot more dire.

He mentions some "intriguing proposals" from the special session, but doesn't say which ones.

Here's his statement the governor's office e-mailed a few minutes ago:

“Given the fiscal realities facing the state I am prepared to consider a comprehensive, well-reasoned revenue package for the regular legislative session in January 2010. Between now and then I will convene a working group consisting of legislators, executive staff, members of the business and education communities, and other interested parties to analyze such a package.

“Already in this session there have been some intriguing proposals introduced. However, I believe these must not be injected piecemeal without serious analysis into the present budget calculation but rather should be part of a well-crafted and mapped out package in January. Accordingly, I agree with action taken by committees in both the House and Senate that supports this view.

“In the meantime I urge the legislature to quickly address the immediate budget needs at hand in a way that preserves jobs, does not harm the economy, and protects students and teachers.”

Roundhouse Roundup: Will the Church Win on Tax-Cut Repeal?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 1, 2009

The Catholic Church — or more specifically, the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops — has a great record recently in getting what it wants out of the state Legislature.

Early this year, the bishops opposed bills establishing domestic partnerships and funding embryonic stem-cell research. The Legislature voted both down. The bishops favored repealing the death penalty. The Legislature, after years of debate, passed a repeal bill and the governor signed it.

And don't forget cockfighting. A couple of years ago, the bishops opposed it. And now it's illegal.

The three bishops are Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces and Bishop James Wall of Gallup.

But will the bishops enjoy the same success with a proposal that the executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops says is now their top priority?

I'm talking about repealing the personal income tax cut that the state granted for top income brackets, which Gov. Bill Richardson pushed through as an economic-development measure during his first year in office.

In a recent letter to newspapers, NMCCB executive director and lobbyist Allen Sanchez explained the bishops' position:

"In 2003 the Legislature cut state income taxes. Since then, revenues are down even more and there will be a special session to cut spending even further. Now is not the time for deeper cuts to education, health care, and services vital to struggling families. The moral response in times such as these is to strengthen our support of families, not weaken it. Lawmakers should seriously consider ways to raise revenue rather than make even deeper cuts to the budget. The Legislature could now repeal the income tax cuts of 2003, enact corporate income tax reform, and close some of the tax loopholes that benefit only a few. If New Mexico could afford to cut taxes by $1 billion in the past few years, surely we can find a way to restore some of those funds now when we so desperately need it."

"We urge lawmakers and the governor not to balance our state budget at the expense of the many New Mexicans working even harder to support their families, but to increase state revenues as a just and necessary tool to meet the very real needs of all of our state's people."

There is some support among Democratic lawmakers for repealing the tax cuts. But I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty tough rooster to fight.

Richardson is not in favor of repealing the tax cut, which lowered the top personal income tax rate from 8.2 percent to 4.9 percent over five years. The governor and other supporters argued at the time it would help attract businesses to the state and create jobs.

It also served as a great national attention-getter for a governor with big national ambitions.

Countless television commentators and national news articles labeled Richardson as a different kind of Democrat, "a tax-cutting Democrat." The governor frequently bragged about cutting taxes while running for re-election as well as during his run for president.

And even though he's not publicly campaigning for any office at the moment, I can't see Richardson signing such a bill — cutting taxes during his first year then repealing the cuts during the last.

And despite the horrible state revenue outlook and the bishops' support for boosting the tax rate, I think a tax-cut repeal is going to have a hard time getting through the Legislature. Though you wouldn't know it from the recent Democratic lieutenant governor forum — in which incumbent Sens. Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Linda Lopez came out strong for repealing the tax cut — the Senate still is a pretty conservative body.

A tax-cut repeal might have a better chance in the House. But Speaker Ben Luján still is very loyal to the governor, so if Richardson doesn't want it, chances are Luján won't be that enthusiastic about it.

But don't count out those bishops quite yet. A lot of people never thought the Legislature would repeal the death penalty.