New Mexican Salutes Rep. Egolf

So new taxes, deemed unmentionable by Gov. Bill Richardson during the New Mexico legislature's special session on budget repair, suddenly have his blessing when our senators and representatives convene in January. That, as three-time governor Bruce King might put it, opens a box of Pandoras ...

Repealing tax breaks enjoyed by chain stores, big industry and assorted fat cats could make up much of our state's budget shortfall — so New Mexicans can expect all kinds of pre-emptive whining from folks claiming to be such a big part of our state's economy that they deserve exemptions from taxes other businesses pay.

But like Ulysses set to sail through the straits of the sirens, Gov. Richardson and his tax experts will need to plug their ears to the anticipated wails. And when it comes to another prime revenue source — alcohol — they should jam their hearing with wine corks.

Santa Fe Rep. Brian Egolf already is talking up a "dime-a-drink" boost in the booze tax. For good measure, he wants smokers to pay more tax, and he figures it's time to raise car-registration fees, too.

But the alcohol-tax increase is where he can expect strongest resistance. Last time state leaders tried to make drinking more expensive, in 2003, the liquor lobby defeated the effort. That year's tactics included advertisements warning of jobs likely to be lost in the hospitality industry — as if having to pay a tad extra for a cocktail, a beer or a bottle of wine would deter tourists, or discourage locals from going out for a drink.

The booze boys were most effective, however, when it came to calling in favors: They keep their pet legislators lubricated as well as well-fed, and their campaigns well-financed. Their lobbyists are fondly remembered when they come around wearing earnest expressions and citing this or that statistic about how New Mexico is so regressive and oppressive to the drinking public.

This year, the liquor pitch likely will lean on the nation's sagging economy — and how our state's hoteliers and restaurateurs already are hurting; now's no time to impose a "hospitality tax," we can hear them saying. All it'll do is cost a lot of poor folks their jobs ...

As it is, 1,300 hospitality workers already lost their jobs between September 2008 and September 2009, regardless of the price of a drink. But Egolf isn't buying drink taxes as the cause of a depression. He's just fresh enough to the Roundhouse to resist liquor-industry blandishments — and, to him, the harm-to-the-hospitality-industry argument is "crazy." Who's going to stay home over 30 or 40 cents more for three or four beers, he asks rhetorically.

But Egolf is only one of 70 representatives. Between Republicans reflexively opposed to taxes, and fellow Democrats who never turn down a free drink, he's likely to find that — sin-tax-approving public-opinion polls aside — his dime-a-drink proposal is a hard sell.

If he can enlist Gov. Richardson, who supported the 2003 tax increase, and keep New Mexicans' attention on those legislators likely to resist the 2010 version, maybe the Santa Fean has a chance. And if there's an effort to lock a liquor-tax boost to a bigger revenue-reform package, perhaps including tobacco and sugared soda pop, the odds might improve.

We salute Rep. Egolf for his early steps into the sin-tax arena, and wish him well in his efforts to get his legislative colleagues used to the idea long before they convene.