Wednesday

September 1, 2010

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Written and/or edited by Harold Oakes. Click here to email

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By Harold "The Boss" Oakes

What would it cost?  (posted August 28, 2010)  (Amended. Had to move the decimal)

By Harold Oakes

What would the Business Retention Gross Receipts Tax actually cost us?

The answer is about $3.50 per adult each month.

How did I get that number?

To get a fair number I got the amount of tax received for the Indigent Health Care Tax from the Lincoln County Treasurers office. This tax is a 1/8^th of one percent gross receipts tax collected throughout the county. They get a check each month, two months after the tax is collected. Every taxable purchase in the County includes this tax.

Dividing this number by .125 gives you the amount of taxable spending in Lincoln County. From May 2009 through April 2010 this was $458,553,072.

Based on this, the 3/16^th percent Business Gross Receipts Tax would have generated $859,787.01.

$750,000 of this would have gone to the State to offset taxes on the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack Casino. The remaining $109,787 would have gone to the County for Economic Development or higher education.

How much would the locals pay of this?

To figure that out, or at least get a ballpark figure, I took the smallest amount spend in a month. In this case it was November. Figuring that in November there were few tourists in town to supplement local spending. Traditionally, November and April are very slow tourist months and November 2009 was the smallest amount of Indigent Health Care Tax collected.

Dividing $38,331.77, April’s 1/8^th percent tax and multiplying that by 12 results in the locals having spent about $367,984,992 in 2009 in taxable purchases.

According to the Census Bureau, in 2009 there were 8,202 Households in Lincoln County, New Mexico (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/35/35027.html). Which means that each Household would have paid $84.12 of this tax in 2009, or $7.01 per month.

With two adults per household, that is $3.50 per month for each adult. Plus that half cent, of course.

Over the last four years, spending has been decreasing. In same period for 2006-2007, net taxable spending was $526,874,176.

Using the spending figures for that year, the Gross Receipts Business Retention Tax would have cost each household in Lincoln County $99.36 for the year, or $8.28 per month, and would have generated $987,889.08.

$750,000 of this would have gone to the State to offset taxes on the Casino and the remaining $237,889.08 would have been used for economic development or higher education.

I included this 2006 figure just in case the economy rebounds and spending increases in the next five years. Hey, it could happen.

Now, I have to admit that this is a ballpark figure. We all know there were some tourists in Lincoln County in November of 2009 and November 2006 and they spent money. We also know that local spending varies from month to month.

Even with those factors included, this is at least a fact based calculation. You can get the same figures I got from the Treasurer and Census Bureau and do you own calculations. I hope you do.

Whether you do that or not, at least when someone starts telling you how much you are going to have to pay on the County Business Retention Gross Receipts Tax, ask them how they got that figure.

If they don’t know or won’t tell you, chances are good it is something they pulled out of their ass to support voting for or against the tax. Tell them to put it back where they got it.

And, if you have a more accurate way to determine what this tax will cost, email me at editor@RuidosoToday.com.

Some things to consider before you vote (posted August 24, 2010)

By Harold Oakes

This whole “County Business Retention Gross Receipts Tax” issue really irritates me.

Why isn’t anybody saying what this is really about?

This is not going to “Save Our Racetrack.” Not by itself anyway.

This is not about paying taxes for multi-millionaire R.D. Hubbard.

This is about buying time.

Buying time for New Mexico State Senator John Arthur Smith (D) to either leave office or realize he should allow the elected representatives of the people of the State of New Mexico to vote on the Tax Parity issue.

Smith has stopped this legislation from being voted on by the Senate every time it has been presented. Even after the House of Representative passed it unanimously.

The racetrack tax parity bill is not the only legislation Smith has pigeonholed to prevent a vote. His own party’s Speaker of the House, Ben Lujan called his actions “un-democratic and un-American…” in March 2009 when Smith held up legislation to prevent Santa Fe College from closing.

This interim measure to buy time did not come from Hubbard or Ruidoso Downs Racing. It came from the community leaders who realized that the Tax Parity legislation had no chance of getting past Smith’s Senate Finance Committee in the 2010 legislative session.

With the realization that Tax Parity legislation would not pass also came the fact that Hubbard could move the Racetrack to another community before the legislation had another chance to be considered in 2011.

And for all those who say they are conservatives but are against this measure, you must be confused.

I know it is a difficult concept to wrap your mind around, but consider that this temporary measure is designed to result in lower taxes. Isn’t that a basic tenant of the TEA Party. Taxed Enough Already. Or does that not apply to other people? I think Ronald Reagan would understand it.

The tax parity bill that Ruidoso Downs Racing wants the representatives of the people of the State of New Mexico to consider is a graduated tax, like your income tax is, that allows for a lower tax when there is lower revenues from the casino.

This would allow for more money to go into the racing purses at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack, not into R.D. Hubbard’s pocket.

The casino generates money to support the horse racing. That is why it exists.

Race horses and their jockeys are our local professional athletes. We don’t have a profession football team, baseball team, basketball team or hockey team. We have professional horse racing and our professional sports stadium is Ruidoso Downs Racetrack.

Every dollar that goes to the State in taxes is a dollar less that goes into racing.

Now you can yell all you want to about the fact that the people of Lincoln County should not have to pay this tax, but fact of the matter is, this is the only option New Mexico State Senator John Arthur Smith left us with…for now.

Jakob's death (posted July 6, 2010)

I learned this morning that Jakob Yaeger died yesterday.

What a special child.

Jakob had Kabuki Syndrome, a disease that caused his kidney's to fail, cost him his eyesight and kept him very small. At 12-years old, Jakob was about the size of a six year old.

But failing eye-sight, constant trips to the hospital and facing death didn't stop Jakob from smiling.

As we morn his passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his family, we remember Jakob and honor him, with a smile.

Have you read the Arizona immigration law?

Fox News posted this link to the Arizona law that is causing all the controversy. Click here to read the law.