Gov. Martinez vetoes gross receipts tax bill
http://www.lamonitor.com/content/breaking-gov-martinez-vetoes-gross-receipts-tax-bill
http://www.lamonitor.com/content/breaking-gov-martinez-vetoes-gross-receipts-tax-bill
Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
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This could a disaster, there are many communities in Northern New Mexico that desperately need this money, they have supported LANL and provided LANL with a workforce for generations. The people in LANL are very wealthy it and it looks horrible for them to horde even more money which has gone so far in the area. I would add that it has been expected that that the GRT was something that could be depended on, to have to pulled away so fast will cause great harm to Northern New Mexico and will cause animosity between the lab and the community. They have been good neighbors since 2006. This could devastate New Mexico.
Let us hope the a for profit bidder wins, and hopefully New Mexico is working behind the scenes to make this happen.
This can't be true?
"The people in LANL are very wealthy and it looks horrible for them to horde..." And then the "...GRT was something that could be depended on.." are lines spoken like a true socialist.
It's fun to spend other people's money, in this case the taxes of the citizens of entire United States. The states of California and New Mexico somehow survived decades of not having cash cows paying local taxes. But once they were forced to pay it has become like heroin addiction to those local governments. Disregard the fact that that tax base cut into the budgets of LANL and LLNL which forced sizable layoffs (and their income tax and local spending disappeared from the impacted areas), look at the long view.
Think of other non-profit organizations that would be impacted. The explanation of the veto says it all - it's a bad tax bill.
How about taxing military bases, VA hospitals or IRS offices (if you're going to dream, dream big!).
The post sounds like the lament of the college student graduating and then being forced to wean from the parents wallet.
The bill language was even suspect - "...receipts of a prime contractor that are derived from operating a facility in New Mexico designated as a national laboratory by an act of congress."
I'm not aware of any specific act of congress "designating" facilities as national labs. FFRDC yes, but there's noting in the FR, CFRs or FARs or Congressional Records about Congress doing this... I even looked at all versions (1946 and 1954) of the Atomic Energy Act. I'm sure a sharp LLC lawyer would have jumped on this in a hot minute.
Correct, but you needlessly confused them with "LASL."
March 9, 2018 at 3:00 PM
Some of us old timers know this well and it was nowhere near 100 million. Why try and change history? Many complained about the subsidies back than.
March 9, 2018 at 3:00 PM
So in 2004 the government gave more than 100 million in subsidies? This is total bs and you know it. Stop pretending that you are someone important, just because you happened to get riffed in 1993 does not give you some unique insight into the lab that you and you alone can elucidate younger people with. Some of us have been around for awhile and can see right through your bitterness and agenda.
Where the hell did the $100 million number come from?? It is not in the OP's link, nor in any post on this thread. Who made this up? $100 million might be close from 1948 - 2006, but not all in one year.
Sometimes the actions of the Los Alamos town government makes me feel ashamed to be part of this community. I am not some crazy right wing person, I would be close to the center on most things including heath care, welfare, affordable housing ect, and everyone paying their equal share. Los Alamos should have never made a for profit entity, the town enjoyed a windfall for free money for some time, much of it was wasted, they have been told for some time that this may not last yet they never considered this possibility. What is so insulting is that many of these people are very well aware of how LANL has suffered under the for profit model along with exodus of the best and brightest yet these same people will push to keep the lab for profit just to keep the money going. One thing everyone notes is that the town government has gotten much more puffed up and powerful since LANL turned into a for profit entity, which has been another horrible side effect. LANL does not exist to serve the town government, LANL does not exist to serve Northern New Mexico, LANL exists to serve the United States. Compromising the lab mission in order to add more unearned money to the local government just to be wasted is beyond shameful and even dangerous. I am no fan of Governor Martinez but she is the only one doing what is morally correct in this case.
March 13, 2018 at 6:02 PM
The GRT taxes are close to 100 million a year. One of the posters was implying that in the old days the government gave subsidies to the town before the GRT taxes so it is all the same. This is not true because these subsidies had been nowhere near the amount of the GRT tax. They also did not come out of the lab budget, nor was the money wasted an insane projects like the Taj-Mahal or massive new justice center.