Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Time is now for low-cost spay, neuter program
As a resident of Quay County and a business owner, I hope that Senate Bill 51, a bipartisan effort to fund a state low-cost spay/neuter program, be brought to a hearing by the Senate Finance Committee.
The bill places New Mexico at a crossroads: We can embrace the opportunity to develop affordable spay/neuter resources across our state through a modest $100 per year fee on pet food companies’ registration of dog/cat food and treat product lines. Or we can resume the grisly mill of euthanizing healthy, adoptable dogs and cats to make space for the endless stream of homeless animals entering our shelters — an approach that is inhumane, costly, and ultimately ineffective.
Senate Bill 51 is a level-headed, cost-effective approach to reducing animal overpopulation, a problem whose costs are borne by those least able to afford those costs: our counties and municipalities, most of whom lack adequate low-cost spay/neuter resources.
By charging pet food manufacturers $100 per product line of dog/cat food and treats, New Mexico brings itself on par with other states — that is, rather than our current fee of $2 on the registration of dog/cat food and treat product lines is modest and within reason in exchange for the Industry accessing New Mexico’s estimated $190 million market.
Senate Bill 51, sponsored by Senator Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, passed the Senate Public Affairs Committee by a bipartisan vote of 6-1 last week and is awaiting a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
With only a few weeks left of the session, the clock is ticking. I ask that SB51 be brought to hearing as an idea whose time has come.
Kathi McClelland
Tucumcari
Authoritarians like Trump bane to democracy
The dictionary describes authoritarianism as favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority.
Two professors of government at Harvard, Daniel Ziblat and Steven Levitsky, have spent years studying the rise and fall of governments in Europe and Latin America. They compare our political situation to those in a book “How Democracies Die.”
Numerous governments have fallen through the election or appointments of authoritarians: Italy, Germany, Venezuela with Chavez. After being appointed or elected to the surprise of the enablers they could not be controlled as planned.
The authors condensed the basic traits of an authoritarian to four main points:
1. Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game.
2. Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents.
3. Toleration or encouragement of violence.
4. Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media.
Primarily it is up to the parties to keep these individuals from ever being considered, even if they can produce votes. The price — undermining democratic government.
Populists outsiders are often authoritarians, anti establishment, claiming to represent the voice of the people, tend to deny the legitimacy of established parties, claiming they are corrupt, promise to get rid of the elite and return power to the people.
When elected they do the opposite and often attack democratic institutions, media, justice department, electoral results etc.
A candidate who fails even one of the four points should trigger alarms. Donald Trump is guilty of all four.
Senators and representatives who do not stand up to Trump are in effect birds of a feather.
A two-party system is critical to our government and compromise is the grease that makes government work to the benefit of the whole country. The old Republican Party is not what we see today. Their return is vital to our country.
Leon Logan
Tucumcari