Democracy for New Mexico

Times Square Ball Drop: Corporate Logoland

Is is just me, or is New York City's ball drop at midnight one of the most boring, ugly public celebrations of the New Year in the world? Every December 31st we are forced to endure prolonged, televised views of the huge, tawdry corporate advertising screens that now define Times Square, the crowds penned in place like beasts by hundreds of police barriers, the strobing, garish lights and that dumb ball traveling down the pole with a corporate logo at the bottom. Then there's the anti-climactic finish consisting of a paltry fireworks display that compares unfavorably with those in our smallest towns on the 4th of July.

That's bad enough, but it's made even worse by the vapid, clownish acts of the media talking heads, the often horrible musical performances, the new car models spinning on turntables like objects of worship and those awful hats worn by crowd members that advertise Pontiacs or whichever "official product" is being hawked in any given year. Don't forget the screeching multitudes who've been denied alcohol, bathrooms and nourishment -- and have been standing in the cold for up to 14 hours to assure their places close to the cameras so they can grab their 15 seconds of fame. Perhaps the most irritating thing is that they seem to believe it's worth it. They even seem thrilled to see Michael Bloomberg or Rudy Giuliani or A-Rod bragging how NYC is the center of the universe with the most impressive New Year's Eve celebration on the planet.

"Green" Ball Fall
This year we're told that the infamous ball is now "green," and uses LED bulbs for illumination, thus cutting electric usage to less than that of ten toasters, providing more than twice the brightness of last year's version and having the ability to generate 16 million colors. Yowsa. One small, unmentioned complication in this energy efficiency demonstration project? Those dozens of outrageously lit advertising signs and brightly shining buildings that line the square, pulsating 24/7 and sucking up electricity like monstrous energy sinks.

In Comparison
My favorite TV coverage of New Year's Eve occurred during the change of centuries, at The Millenium. At least that year we got to see diverse and often fascinating broadcasts of celebrations around the world, from Australia's Aborigines to the major cities of Europe to the Pacific Rim. I thought almost every single one of them was more compelling, beautiful and dramatic than the ones we get a glimpse of each year in Time Square. Beautiful civic or natural backdrops, better fireworks displays, exotic effects and music, diverse symbolism and traditions. And -- unlike the penned, cop-heavy, vigorously searched and "managed" crowds in New York -- celebrants in other nations are still permitted their champagne toasts in the streets and party hats without corporate logos. Lavish ad boards are rare or nonexistent in the vicinity of the celebrations.

Then again, too many Americans might feel lost if they were too far away from a corporate logo or a "Homeland Security" agent, even on holidays (holy-days). I guess it's only fitting, after all, that a corporatist, "growth" obsessed, consumer culture like ours focuses on an ad display like the one in Times Square to convey the feelings of the nation as a New Year dawns. At least for now. But as we all know, big changes are on the way .... one way or another.

Sydney and Seattle (above). London and Paris (below)

Angel Fire skiers with torches and a beach in India:

Johannesburg and Hong Kong:

Click on photos for larger versions.

Fight Against FISA Telecom Immunity: What Next?

Dodd's message to netroots on (temporary) victory

Must Read: Glenn Greenwald's post on the Anatomy and significance of Monday's FISA victory. Excerpt:

By itself, derailing a bill that Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller, hand-in-hand with GOP followers of the White House, were working so hard to ensure would pass smoothly is a major victory. That is particularly true given that the entire cast of standard establishment defenders and propagandists -- all fed by the Jamie Gorelicks and the rest of the bipartisan slew of slimy telecom lobbyists working in the dark and suddenly feeding the coffers of key pro-immunity lawmakers with new infusions of cash -- all lined up behind giving the extraordinary gift of immunity to telecoms.

Even now, in the wake of his defeat yesterday, Harry Reid is doing everything possible to undermine efforts to defeat the telecom immunity bill that he claims he opposes. This is from today's Washington Post article detailing the defeat of telecom immunity ("in the face of more than a dozen amendments to the bill and guerrilla tactics from its opponents, Reid surprised his colleagues when he announced there would not be enough time to finish the job")

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the decision had nothing to do with the efforts of Dodd and his allies.

There are Harry Reid's true colors: going out of his way to deny that the pernicious group known as "Dodd and his allies" had any effect whatsoever on the Senate's efforts to bow to every one of Bush's demands. We can't have any notion that the Establishment's will was disrupted in any way by dirty outside forces.

... The most important value of victories of this sort is that they ought to serve as a potent tonic against defeatism, regardless of the ultimate outcome. And successes like this can and should provide a template for how to continue to strengthen these efforts. Yesterday's victory, temporary as it is, shouldn't be over-stated, but it also shouldn't be minimized. All of it stemmed from the spontaneous passion and anger of hundreds of thousands of individuals demanding that telecoms be subject to the rule of law like everyone else. And this effort could have been -- and, with this additional time, still can be -- much bigger and stronger still.

Call to say thanks:

Chris Dodd: (202) 224-2823

Barbara Boxer: (202) 224-3553

Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315

Russ Feingold: (202) 224-5323

Ted Kennedy: (202) 224-4543

Bill Nelson: (202) 224-5274

Ron Wyden: (202) 224-5244

Chris Dodd for President

Keep contacting Sen. Jeff Bingaman from now until the Senate reconvenes in January after the holiday break: https://bingaman.senate.gov/contact/. Tell him any FISA bill that contains retroactive immunity for the telecoms is unacceptable.

See my previous posts on yesterday's actions in the Senate re FISA legislation here and here.

Harry Reid Forced to Table FISA-Telecom Immunity Bill

Coverage on today's action on the FISA bill on Countdown

I'm amazed. And relieved, at least for now. The pressure from voters on the Dem Senators, as well as the pressure applied by certain Dem Senators on Harry Reid, seems to have made a dent in the process. Following up on my previous post. As reported on the Dodd blog. Excerpt:

Majority Leader Harry Reid has just pulled the FISA bill from consideration in this session. It will be brought up at some point next month. Without Senator Dodd's leadership today, it is safe to assume that retroactive immunity would have passed.

This is a great victory for the American people. His outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity and the Intelligence Committee's FISA bill made it impossible to move forward now. From a process standpoint, that took the persistent shadow of a Dodd filibuster on this legislative process, a "hold" against any legislation that included retroactive immunity, and today, a refusal to grant unanimous consent to rules of debate that would have made it harder to strip retroactive immunity from the Intel Committee's bill through the Dodd-Feingold Amendment. He brought along some of the Senate's most passionate voices -- Senator's Feingold, Kennedy, Boxer, Wyden, Brown and Bill Nelson joined him to stand up to the President today.

You can watch a video of Dodd speaking at Crooks and Liars. They also have video and a transcript of Ted Kennedy's speech. The lion roars once more. Sen. Feingold also gave a superb speech and you can read the text or view the video (wmv) at his website. As usual, Glenn Greenwald has the nitty gritty.

Bottom Line: Reid obviously wanted the process of passing what Bush wanted to be an easy and quiet one. If Dodd and the others hadn't stood their ground, that's what would have happened today. Chalk one up for the people.

Of course the fight has just begun. Both sides will be strategizing and gathering more info between now and January. We have to stay engaged. Reid himself has reportedly admitted that the massive number of contacts from the public on this were a major factor in his tabling the bill. Literally thousands and thousands of people contacted various Senators, including Reid. Many blogs, as well as Democracy for America and other progressive group,s urged people to express their views in no uncertain terms to our Senators. For once, it worked. For now.

Remember, Bush tried to set up domestic spying within two weeks of taking office. Read this for details, as reported in the New York Times. Quote:

Nearly 1,300 words into Sunday's New York Times article revealing new details of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleges that "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

So I guess Bush's claims that the warrantless wiretapping was an emergency response to 9-11 are just more smoke from his blowhole. Clearly, powerful forces were behind the data mining and domestic spy programs. The only way we'll ever learn the full extent of this lawbreaking is to keep the pressure on Washington from the hinterlands. This means you (us).

I think we should all also contact our presidential candidates from the Senate, who didn't think it was important enough to be at their jobs today, to express our disgust: Senators Clinton, Obama and Biden, where were you?

Tonight at ABQ City Council: Red Light Cameras & TIF

You may recall that the last Albuquerque City Council meeting was bereft of the erudite presence of Councilors Sally Mayer, Trudy Jones, Ken Sanchez and Don Harris, who had run away to Capo's restaurant because they were mad at Brad Winter for voting for himself for City Council President. In their absence, the remainder voted to approve Michael Cadigan's TIF amendment that would ban such funding for developments in "greenfields" on the edges of the city. They also passed Brad Winter's bill to suspend the red light camera ticket fines until Mayor Chavez's hand-picked task force reports on their study of the cameras' effectiveness in decreasing accidents at intersections. Mayor Marty has vetoed both bills.

Tonight the Council will take up attempts to override the Chavez vetoes on both bills. Any guesses on their success? Among other things, they're also scheduled to decide whether the City can charge those holding loud parties for the services of APD officers sent to break them up -- a bill proposed by Ken Sanchez. Of course the most compelling mystery about tonight's meeting is whether or not Sally Mayer can get time off from her new, beloved, $7 an hour part-time job at Kmart to make the meeting. Baited breath.

(Updated) Sen. Harry Reid Caves to Telecom Lobbyists & BushFEAR

UPDATE 8:20 PM: We won this round! Reid was forced to table the bill until January. See my later post.

UPDATE 9:28 AM: Go to Thank You Dodd and participate in the effort to support the fight against the horrendous FISA bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. To contact Sen. Bingaman:

Bingaman, Jeff- (D - NM)
703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5521
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

************
Oh, he's personally against extending amnesty to the criminal telecoms he says, but it would be so damned unfair if he didn't allow the Senate Intelligence Committee's version of the FISA bill to have the upper hand. After all, members of that committee, like Chairman Jay Rockefeller, might be implicated for their acquiescence to illegal operations because they sat on their hands when they found out some of the sleazy details of the law breaking in closed sessions way back when. We wouldn't want them to face any consequences for their actions. They're Senators! Very Important People! Lawbreaking is OK when they do it.

Reid got thousands of phone calls from citizens irate over his plan to help smother the Senate Judiciary's version of the FISA bill, which doesn't provide the immunity and does provide a semblance of court oversight on domestic data mining. This prompted Reid to ... cover his ass. He agreed to bring both versions of the bill to the floor today. The only problem is he'll treat the Intelligence version as the primary bill and force consideration of the Justice version as an amendment. We all know how that will turn out.

Well, our donor-ruled "leader" in the Senate DOES get lots of money from telecoms, as do many others who want to protect their lawbreaking. That's what counts most these days. Oh, and they wouldn't want to appear to be "weak on national security" and allow the Bushmongers to accuse them of being "for the terrorists" if they were to dare to stand up for the law and the U.S.Constitution!

Sen. Chris Dodd has asked for a "hold" on the FISA bills -- a request that is almost always honored in the Senate's odd tradition. This time, however, Reid feels the need to go forward NOW, despite the fact that the current abominable FISA law doesn't sunset until next February. Dodd is planning to filibuster the immunity for telecoms bill today. Last I heard, Senators Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy will participate in the filibuster. The other Dem Senators who are candidates for president claim they are against passing telecom immunity, but what exactly that means is yet to be revealed.

Here's what Sen. Feingold has to say as the debate gets underway.

Firedoglake has a terrific post on this issue entitled, Who Will Stand with Chris Dodd for the Constitution?

If you want to make yourself even sicker, read this article on Raw Story that digs out info from a long New York Times article that reports Bush started his push for domestic spying using the telecoms within two weeks of taking office. I'm not kidding.

Can it get much worse than this? We have prominent Dem Senators leading a filibuster against their own Senate leadership. We have Reid and his allies sticking up for lawbreaking by the President, the telecoms and the NSA. Is this the "New Direction" they're always touting as their response to gaining seats in the 2006 election?

Marty Chavez: If It Quacks Like a Duck ....

You know you have to check it out. (Be sure to listen to their smashing mp3.)

Quote of the Day: Conservatism, Immigration and PR

As Phil Agre wrote in this much discussed article about the definition of conservatism, "Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy ... [it] is incompatible with democracy, prosperity and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world."

Modern conservatism's most successful strategy was to merge public relations and politics into a seamless operation in which it could use modern marketing methods to convince people to vote against their own interests. In that sense, right-wing populism is just another marketing campaign for the aristocrats. And it's working.

... It is no accident that illegal immigration has emerged as a theme at a time of epic corruption among the conservative aristocrats in business and government. Someone must be blamed for the fallout, and it isn't going to be them. This may seem counterintuitive, considering that business also likes cheap labor, but that's just commerce, and commerce is only a tool of the true conservative mission -- preserving the aristocracy.

Aristocracy is, by definition, un-American. The question is how many Americans will be "messaged" into believing they are doing the patriotic thing by behaving like subjects and hunting down the foreign invader on behalf of their betters.

Read more of How Conservatives Manipulate People Into Voting Against Their Best Interests by the always excellent Digby.

Chavez Allies on ABQ City Council Desert Their Posts

Councilor Sally Mayer cheering on Mayor Marty's victory in '05

Apparently the City Council allies of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez would rather pout and throw tantrums than represent their districts and take up matters important to the community. Last night, Repub Councilors Sally Mayer, Don Harris and Trudy Jones, along with Dem Ken Sanchez, refused to attend the scheduled Council meeting. They said they were angry because Brad Winter allegedly changed his decision on who he supported for Council president. Ultimately, Winter ended up as the winner by a unanimous vote of the Councilors left at the meeting -- Debbie O'Malley, Ike Benton, Rey Garduno, Michael Cadigan and Winter himself.

The Mayor's clan headed off in a huff to Capo's restaurant in lieu of attending the meeting, and whined to the media that Winter is dishonest and lacking integrity because he didn't follow through on his alleged promises to vote for Mayer, and later Sanchez, for the Council presidency. Wah. I guess the political wheeling and dealing common to such battles for leadership was somehow shocking to their refined sensibilities. Or maybe they're sore losers just like their mentor Marty, who's running for the U.S. Senate and conducting a campaign so negative in tone it rivals those of the Bush people.

One factor figuring into the brouhaha is that the Council President would become the next Mayor of Albuquerque if hell freezes over and Marty Chavez wins his Senate bid. Marty and his minions, of course, would want one of their own to move up into the city's top spot. Clearly, Dem Councilors Debbie O'Malley, Ike Benton, Rey Garduno and Michael Cadigan find that outcome less than appealing as it would give the pro-sprawl forces the upper hand. As for Repub Brad Winter, he's been locked into a heated, often personal, battle with Chavez for years.

Red-Light Camera Fines Suspended
Despite the runaways, City Council business did proceed with only five councilors present. Winter's red light camera bill was passed by a margin of 3-2. The measure suspends the collection of fines generated by the unpopular intersection cameras until a study is completed in mid-January by a task force abruptly appointed by Chavez when he entered the Senate race. Cadigan, Winter and Garduno voted to suspend the fines, while O'Malley and Benton voted no.

TIF Banned for New Sprawl
A controversial Cadigan-sponsored measure, to preclude the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to fund so-called "green field" development at the city's fringes, passed by a margin of 4-1. Voting for the measure were Cadigan, Benton, O'Malley and Garduno, with Winter voting nay. About 30 people showed up to testify about the proposed TIF changes, almost all of them supportive of the limitations.

TIF was originally proposed as a way to help encourage infill development, but is increasingly being sought to fund massive new developments on the city's fringes like those proposed by Sun Cal on the West Side -- exactly what the original legislation was designed to discourage. Cadigan's measure will limit the use of TIF for developed areas or areas where the financing tool has already been approved.

Many community activists, including members of 1000 Friends of New Mexico, New Mexico Voices for Children, the SouthWest Organizing Project and AFSCME, mounted a strong campaign in support of Cadigan's amendments to the current TIF requirements. And posts on many local blogs, including this one, encouraged readers to contact their Councilors to urge passage of the Cadigan amendements. See our previous post. Although we were successful, the fight is hardly over.

What Happens Next
Messages were quickly dispatched from the deserters' camp that they may well call up one or both measures for appeal at some future date, if and when they decide to return to their posts. Mayor Marty might veto both bills anyway, depending on how the political winds are blowing at the time. Stay tuned.

ACTION ALERT: Stop Tax Increment Financing for Sprawl

The Albuquerque City Council Meeting where the bill that limits TIFF financing will be discussed is set for today at 5:00 PM in City Council Chambers in the basement of the City/County Building at One Civic Plaza. Please contact your City Councilor about this matter and attend the meeting if you can.

From :
We are asking all 1000 Friends Albuquerque members and community allies to Take Action by contacting your City Councilor to urge him/her to stop allowing Tax Increment Financing on Albuquerque's edges.

This coming Monday, December 3, our Albuquerque City Council will consider a bill that limits Tax Increment Financing for use only to support urban redevelopment efforts in the city's core. 1000 Friends of New Mexico and a number of other community-based groups support this measure.

Why? Tax Increment Financing currently allows huge developments in outlying fringe areas to be subsidized to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This subsidy robs economic activity, jobs, homeowners and vitality out of core neighborhoods. Learn more about Tax Increment Financing in ABQ.

Help 1000 Friends and other groups put a stop to another tax give-away to developers. Take Action now! Tell your City Councilor:

• Keep Albuquerque neighborhoods', not billion-dollar developers', best interest in mind. Vote YES to prohibit Tax Increment Financing for vacant land at the edge.
• Remember Albuquerque's $1.7 billion backlog in infrastructure needs in the already-built community. Fix-it-First!
• Remember that home values, small businesses and economic activity in their districts are negatively impacted by subsidized growth at the edge.

For more - keep an eye out in the Albuquerque Journal for this Op-Ed, submitted recently by 1000 Friends and the SouthWest Organizing Project.

Please contact 1000 Friends of New Mexico at 848-8232 if you have any questions.  We appreciate your time and your dedication to making Albuquerque a better place.

Sincerely,
Gabriel Nims, Executive Director

Also see our earlier guest blog by Gabriel Nims.

Guest Blog: ABQ City Council to Reconsider Public Subsidies for Large Developers at December 3 Meeting

This is a guest blog by Gabriel Nims, the Executive Director of 1000 Friends of New Mexico. He does a great job of explaining public financing tools for development called TIFs and TIDDs -- and how they are being used in ways that can be damaging to our communities, water supplies and economic future. He asks us to join 1000 Friends of New Mexico, the SouthWest Organizing Project, AFSCME , New Mexico Voices for Children and others in pushing for a reconsideration of the TIDD concept, as well as a proposed ban on their use in what are called 'green fields'.

The issue is on the agenda at the Albuquerque City Council meeting on December 3, 2007 in the form of amendments sponsored by Councilor Michael Cadigan. Please contact your City Councilor, State Legislator and Governor Richardson to weigh in on this issue.

The debate over growth and development in the Albuquerque region has taken a turn to the absurd over the past year with the emergence of a new set of crazy acronyms: TIF and TIDD.

Many will remember the political uproar over the Planned Growth Strategy, better known as PGS. The ire of development interests in the city was raised to the point where they felt compelled to create a political action group called CGA, or Citizens for a Greater Albuquerque, with the sole purpose of denying “no-growth” and “anti-Paseo” candidates seats on the City Council during the 2003 municipal elections. And lest we forget the infamous and now seldom-mentioned ABQPAC scandal.

But Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, and its little spawn, the Tax Increment Development District, TIDD, opens a new chapter in the book of urban growth-related acronyms. What these new acronyms mean and do is a very complicated story, which is why you may just be hearing about this for the first time. But allow me to explain as best I can. For deeper understanding of how TIF works check out publications from Good Jobs First Good Jobs First and the studies by FRESC in Denver.

What Is TIF?
TIF is an economic development tool available to developers in 48 states. TIF was originally conceived as a way to induce reinvestment in older, blighted areas deemed too risky or costly for private investors to improve.

It works like this:

1. an area (the District) is defined for (re)development;
2. a baseline of property and, as in New Mexico, gross receipts tax is established within the district;
3. a deal is cut between the developer and the taxing agencies that allows the developer to receive up to 75% of the increase (the Increment) in tax revenue resulting from the improvements and new economic activity within the District;
4. the developer is granted the Increment for up to 25 years to offset the costs of infrastructure (sewers, sidewalks, roads, etc) within the District.

Phew!-- Any questions?

New Mexico TIF law puts a new twist on this mechanism. Where other states try to limit the tool’s use to redevelopment by applying strict criteria for demonstrating blight, New Mexico, with some nudging from developer lobbyists, requires a developer to simply demonstrate increased economic development, regardless of where a district is created, blight or otherwise.

Therein lies the rub.

TIDDs in Greenfields
In New Mexico, greenfields are only green for a few weeks after intermittent monsoons, but it’s a commonly used term referring to the undeveloped expanses that surround our cities and towns. In Albuquerque, our greenfields of notoriety are Mesa Del Sol -- about 13,000 acres between the Sunport and Isleta Pueblo -- and Westland -- the whopping 55,000 acre former Atrisco Land Grant on the West Side. The developers, Forest City Covington and SunCal, respectively, are salivating over the chance to turn these greenfields into billions of greenbacks -- and they expect to use TIDDs to get as many greenbacks as they can.

The problem? Refer to step 2 above. In a greenfield, the baseline tax revenue is next to nil because nothing is out there. That means the Increment (step 3) is virtually the entire increase in revenue that will come from the District. For Mesa Del Sol, that translates to $500 million greenbacks from the state’s cut of taxes that will be generated in just the first phase of the development. Mesa Del Sol will also get percentages of the City and County’s gross receipts and property tax revenue. All of this cash to a developer for the next 25 years!

For perspective -- this represents the largest TIF arrangement ever allowed, in terms of land area and money, anywhere in the country. Wow. A new chapter in the urban development book, indeed! And a very dangerous one, too!

Dangerous Problems
Why?  First and foremost -- it’s the precedent this sets for how TIF is applied in New Mexico. You think Mesa Del Sol’s deal is big? One only needs to look across the river to SunCal’s 55,000 acres to anticipate TIDDs of even greater magnitude. And, not surprisingly, TIDDs are now popping up in other parts of the state.

So there will be a rush on creating TIDDs! From a state finance perspective, this is a very dangerous precedent. The state general fund, recently bolstered by oil and gas revenue, may soon find itself in a precarious position after millions in revenue from businesses and properties in these districts is captured by TIDDs, first in Mesa Del Sol, and likely by new developments all over. Even with the extra support from oil and gas revenue, the state can’t find enough revenue to meet its current obligations. Transportation funding dried up this year, health care costs continue to rise and we can’t find the money to build schools fast enough or pay enough to retain/recruit high-quality educational professionals. 

Fast forward five years to this likely scenario: The state is strapped for cash -- the economy has slowed and oil and gas revenue declines. Oops! Millions of dollars of revenue needed by the state to cover the public’s shared needs is tied up for the next 20 years in TIDD deals for developers laughing all the way to the bank. Faced with such a predicament, the state must choose to cut back on services, raise taxes or both.

It gets worse. TIDDs in greenfields can really hurt existing neighborhoods, small businesses and any hope of managing growth in sustainable ways. Because TIDDs can be created just on the basis of economic development, there is no limit on their magnitude. Mesa Del Sol will be an economic giant, subsidized with public dollars, competing directly with Albuquerque. As will SunCal’s Westland, only a few notches bigger.

Imagine these areas as huge vacuums sucking jobs, economic activity, homebuyers and vitality out of the existing community. Recall one of the basic principles of the Planned Growth Strategy: to reinvest and revitalize the existing community as a priority over building brand new at the fringe. The PGS pointed to a $1.7 billion backlog in basic infrastructure needs within the city as justification for this approach.

Tell me how diverting the city’s tax revenue to private mega-developers on the fringe will help us address this backlog, when what we currently receive is already not enough? When the city can’t reach a 1000 officer police force because money is tight, how will we find the public safety professionals for these new fringe developments that, combined, are projected to grow the city from 550,000 population to 700,000 or more over the ensuing decades? Never mind all the other services the public expects to maintain a reasonable quality of life.

Oh yeah -- and where is the water?

The Response
By and large, developer requests for TIDDs have sailed through elected bodies at the state and in Albuquerque and the same will likely occur at Bernalillo County. Mesa Del Sol was the first out of the gate securing approval from the City and State for the creation of five TIDDs earlier this year.

With SunCal in the batter's box, West Side City Councilor, Michael Cadigan, was the first to decry “buyer’s remorse” on the Mesa Del Sol deal and he quickly introduced a bill prohibiting the creation of TIDDs in greenfields last Spring. A series of deferrals and compromise drafts have led to final action on his measure at the upcoming  City Council hearing on Monday, December 3rd, 2007.

Many groups including 1000 Friends of New Mexico, SouthWest Organizing Project, New Mexico Voices for Children, and AFSCME strongly favor prohibiting TIDDs in greenfields. 

The development community stands by their arguments that TIDDs are a necessary ‘incentive’ to creating jobs and high-quality “new urbanist” communities. The developers have carefully constructed smoke and mirrors to demonstrate how wonderful and safe TIDDs for their developments will be. They’ve spared no expense hiring the best consultants, lobbyists and PR machines in the business, while placing sizable political contributions in the coffers of key office holders as extra insurance.

The reality is simply that state lawmakers have opened a Pandora’s Box, with little idea of the long-term consequences of allowing TIDDs in greenfields.

What You Can Do
If you are outraged, confused and concerned all at the same time, then you know more than the majority of our lawmakers about the pitfalls of these seemingly harmless acronyms: TIF and TIDD.

Actually, I urge you to express your feelings to your elected officials, starting first with your City Councilor , followed by your Legislators and even the FAIR BlogGovernor.

If you have any questions contact me at 1000 Friends of New Mexico.

Again, please take action by contacting your officials. Urge them to consider the consequences and keep the community’s, not the developers’, best interests in mind.

Gabriel Nims, Executive Director
gabe@1000friends-nm.org
505.848.8232

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Gabriel Nims, Executive Director of 1000 Friends of New Mexico. To learn more about this issue, watch KNME TV's show, New Mexico In Focus, this Friday night, November 30, at 7:00 PM, which will include a segment with Gerry Bradley from New Mexico Voices for Children discussing the issue of TIDDs and Councilor Cadiagan's proposed amendment.

Also see these informative posts on SWOPblogger that discuss the local TIDD situation:

• Forest City Covington and SunCal Early Favorites for Corporate Welfare IRBIE Awards
• TIDD's, TIF's, Taxes...We're all in bed with developers now

Guest blogging provides readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or may not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.