That Very "Special" Guv/Legislative Rebate II: With Friends Like This...

Now we all know why the Governor/New Mexico Legislature really wants to magnanimously give us New Mexicans some money. I guess I'd have more friends too, if only I would tell everyone I was giving them fifty bucks. I get that. But...

I'd definitely have me some dumb new friends if I recruited these friends via the following strategy:

"Hey, why don't you all put a bunch of money in this hat, and then I'll go through the hat a few months from now, figure out a small percentage of your money that I don't need, and then give that small percentage back to you in a slow, overly complicated process designed to make me look like a really great new friend?"

Now since this "be my friend, here's fifty bucks" strategy is supposedly based on a heartfelt need to help working families and the poor better afford higher priced gasoline and food, might it not be better sense to just lower the taxes on these things before everybody puts a bunch of money in the State's hat?

I did literally seconds of intense research this morning, and discovered this web page breaking down gasoline taxes by State. From that I see New Mexico tacks on an additional 18 cents or so a gallon on top of the federal 18 cents a gallon.

Now many of us remember the oft-discussed stupid idea to have a federal "gas tax holiday" during the early days of Gas Price Horror '08. But, stupid as that idea may be, it's nowhere near as stupid as:

"Hey, why don't you all put a bunch of money in this hat, and then I'll go through the hat a few months from now, figure out a small percentage of your money that I don't need, and then give that small percentage back to you in a slow, overly complicated process designed to make me look like a really great new friend?"

Thanks friend. Thanks.

P.S.: Now I know that the pain of higher gas/food prices is most felt by the poor and that these "be my friends" initiatives are most important to them. But how about this idea: since it's gonna cost $750,000 (supposedly) just to disburse the rebate money, let's instead divide that $750,000 figure amongst all New Mexico EBT (food stamps) recipients, plug that money into their EBT accounts (a process that would take about two seconds...well, at least I would think it would take about two seconds) and be done with it. I see that the state has94,593 food stamp recipient families. $750k would only be about $8 per family.

Now granted that's too small, but that's just the cost of distributing this stupid rebate money. And it would free up all the Tax and Rev folks up in Santa Fe to think of a combination of tax decreases to really help these families, instead of spending all their time writing and sending out multiple, multiple, multiple mailers telling us how friendly our Guv/Legislature is.