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She Works Hard For (less) Money (VIDEO)
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Category Archives: economy
If TED won’t talk, Sarah’s gonna sing about it! (MUSIC VIDEO)
Got those income inequality blues, dude.
You have no doubt watched, or at least heard of, the TED Talk videos. TED is a nonprofit, “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading” and the TED.com website has compiled more than 900 short lectures — stimulating, provocative stuff from some creative, often quite brilliant, people.
Recently, however, the TEDnics in charge sparked considerable controversy, and some complaints of censorship, by refusing to post a talk by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer.
So what got Hanuer’s talk banned? Why it seems this very wealthy and hugely successful venture capitalist questioned what in 1 Per Cent circles is the holiest of holies — the proposition that, “If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down.” Hanuer doesn’t buy it. And he’s got charts and data to back his apostasy up.
You can read more about the brouhaha here and here and here and here, but first listen to the Sarah Kennedy’s original musical composition about the topic — her very first ukulele music video:
New Mexico’s Juggalo Job Growth
What do Tila Tequila and the Insane Clown Posse have to do with New Mexico’s lagging job growth? Sarah Kennedy will explain. As usual.
Talkin’ Taxes and the Buffett Rule (VIDEO)
Happy May Day!
So we’re a tad late in getting this vid posted. But it’s soooo good and worth the wait!
Sarah takes a look at the Buffett Rule.
Continuing the SB9 Dialogue with Senator Phil Griego (VIDEO)
The battle to close the tax loophole for out-of-state corporations has been raging for a long time. But in the 2012 legislative session, something quite extraordinary happened.
After all of the years of organizing at the grassroots — and obstruction and disappointment in the corridors and committee rooms of the Roundhouse — a scaled-down version of this overdue tax reform (technically called “combined reporting”) actually passed both houses of the legislature.
Sadly, the legislative victory of the “Corporate Fair Tax Act” (SB9) was short-lived for it subsequently fell victim to Governor Susana Martinez’s veto pen.
Thus, the battle is sure to be resumed at the next legislative session.
In anticipation of this upcoming next round, the Center for Civic Policy (CCP) and the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) collaborated in sending out post-session mailers designed to educate those members of the public who reside in legislative districts represented by lawmakers who had opposed SB9. The mailers were a follow-up to pre-session mailers addressing the same issue.
One of those legislators was Senator Phil Griego, a long-time opponent of combined reporting by out-of-state corporations — and Chairman of the critical Corporations and Transportation Committee.
Now, according to a recent story in the Albuquerque Journal, Senator Griego has reservations about this educational program.
But if civic engagement is anything, it is about dialogue. And that’s what Clearly New Mexico’s Sarah Kennedy set out to do in this video. She called Senator Griego. Here’s what happened:
Sarah will be keeping us posted as this dialogue develops.
A postscript to this story:
It bears repeating. An essential component of the missions of the two organizations, CCP and SWOP, has been to educate and engage the public — and still further, to encourage this informed citizenry to engage in an accountability dialogue with their elected officials on those issues that impact their communities.
To learn more about the civic engagement by nonprofit organizations, here’s a useful commentary on Haussamen’s blog that you’ll surely want to read.
Also we recommend this excellent NMTelegram.com post on the Governor’s veto and the reaction of New Mexico’s small business community to it.
And to revisit the ClearlyNewMexico.com’s reporting on the long, difficult journey of combined reporting and tax justice going back to 2011, here are some handy links: here here here an here.
Governor Martinez’s Vetoes Killed Jobs (VIDEO)
It’s true. Despite all of the “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” rhetoric spinning out of the Governor’s office, the fact is her vetoes are costing jobs in New Mexico’s small towns and rural communities.
We know. You won’t read about it in the Albuquerque Journal.
But facts (and stats) are stubborn things, and Sarah Kennedy’s got a slew of ‘em. Watch.
Stuff Susana Says
Governor Susana Martinez that is.
Talking about jobs, jobs, jobs. And where’s there’s talk, there’s… what exactly? More corporate tax breaks?
Sarah Kennedy wants to know.
A Look at the Record: Will Supreme Court ruling against Martinez veto increase business costs?
By Matthew Reichbach
The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Gov. Susana Martinez’s line-item veto of a bill to shore up the unemployment fund was illegal. The court ruled that by stripping out a $128 million tax increase but leaving in nearly $80 million in cuts in the state unemployment fund, the part of the law that “was an unworkable piece of legislation,” according to Justice Edward Chavez.
The Supreme Court sided with six Democratic members of the state legislature including Speaker of the House Ben Lujan (D-Nambe) and Rep. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) in ordering the law “be reinstated as passed by the Legislature.” Stewart was the sponsor of the bill.
“Because the effect of the partial veto was to exempt most employers from making what would otherwise be mandatory contributions to the unemployment compensation fund for calendar year 2012, we hold that the partial veto was invalid,” Chavez wrote.
The Supreme Court had previously decided not to rule on the legislation and instead said the legislature and governor should work together to find a compromise on the bill. The legislators and Martinez could not come to an agreement and the special session ended without any unemployment bill passing.
Significantly, the court did not agree with one of the two legal arguments made by the plaintiffs, which was that the bill is not an appropriation bill, therefore it is not subject to the governor’s line-item veto power. Chavez wrote that “for the purposes of this Opinion, we assume, without deciding, that House Bill 59 is a bill appropriating funds.”
Rather, Chavez said the court looked to the question of whether or not the veto made the bill unworkable or changed the intent of the bill first. And it was on those grounds that the veto was invalidated.
What it all adds up to is that the bill will go into effect with the language passed by the state legislature.
Dispute over increased business costs
Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell told the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell, “Gov. Martinez used her line-item authority in the same way Governor Richardson did in 2010 and disagrees with the Court’s decision today. Unfortunately, Democrats will get their wish to raise taxes on small businesses to fund unemployment benefits, even though the unemployment rate in New Mexico has fallen from 8.7 percent in January to 6.6 percent today.
However, at the time the bill was on the Governor’s desk awaiting her signature, representatives of both the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Commerce of Industry (ACI) supported the measure and voiced opposition to a threatened veto.
The Albuquerque Journal reported ACI President Beverlee McClure as saying, ““By vetoing this legislation, she (the Governor) in effect forces a … (huge) increase on our employers. ”
The increase about which McClure was concerned is detailed in the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 legislative agenda document, “Priority Issues for Economic Stimulus“:
The Chamber supports these efforts to prevent Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund insolvency because a move to Schedule 6 would put a significant financial burden on business. While an increase to Schedule 2, or 3 in an emergency, is not ideal, it is necessary to prevent a mandatory move to Schedule 6, which would be even more of a burden on business.
The 2010 veto by Richardson to which Darnell referred was never challenged and ruled upon by the Supreme Court.
What qualities do you look for in a good business? (VIDEO)
Sarah Kennedy asks the question. Here are some viewers; responses:
What do you consider to be good businesses?
HEY! Play fair! (VIDEO)
Sarah Kennedy is back with a new video and this time she’s responding a comment about last week’s edition. So here you go. Welcome to Candy Land — a place of not-so-equal opportunity for those of us in the 99%.