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New Mexico has got cigar bars covered

A Jan. 22 Tribune article "Albuquerque restaurants, bars create cigar bars so customers can light up" regarding Billy's Longbar seemed to incorrectly suggest a loophole in the Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act that might allow any bar to re-market itself as a "cigar bar" and, in doing so, allow smoking on its premises.

The Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act took effect June 15, 2007, and requires smoke-free protections for workers and patrons in restaurants, bars and many other indoor places of employment. It empowers local municipalities to enact stronger — but not weaker — no-smoking provisions and directs local police, fire and sheriffs to enforce the law.

To avoid any ambiguity on the issue of cigar bars, the act does two things: it initially defines what it means to be a cigar bar; and then additionally requires any cigar-bar business to have met a certain specific threshold verifying its historically significant cigar-sales activity.

The intent of the act is simply to reduce workplace exposure to toxins in secondhand smoke, while recognizing the essential difference between a bar and a tobacco vendor.

Quoting the act, "A cigar bar that fails to generate at least 10 percent of its total annual sales from the sale of cigars in the calendar year after Dec. 31, 2006, shall not be defined as a cigar bar and shall not thereafter be known as such, regardless of sales figures."

The Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act was a carefully drafted piece of legislation that went through five public hearings and expert legal review.

The State of Colorado has successfully defended its nearly identical smoke-free law passed in 2006, including against a complaint regarding the similarly retroactive nature of Colorado's cigar-bar definition.

We will continue to work with state and local agencies who share in our mission of upholding the law, while avoiding revisionist history regarding who should have legal access to smoke-free air.

Nathan Bush

N.M. government relations director

American Cancer Society

Great West Division, Inc.

Albuquerque

• • •

Term limits: good enough for Rome

Re: "Albuquerque mayor asks court if election limits are constitutional," Tribune, Jan. 4.

Term limits have a long history. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, two early civilizations which had elected offices, both imposed limits on some positions.

In the ancient Athenian democracy, no citizen could serve on the Council of 500, or Boule, for two consecutive annual terms, or for more than two terms in his lifetime, or be head of the Boule more than once.

In the Roman republic, a law was passed imposing a limit of a single term on the office of censor. The annual magistrates — the tribune of the plebs, the aedile, the quaestor, the praetor and the consul — were forbidden reelection until a number of years had passed.

Now, why are all the political people running for office wanting more and more to be reelected time and time again?

This is a problem — a big one today — and all this should be revised so only one term can be served. This keeps the corruption down and a much better government for us all.

J. McLuckie

Albuquerque

• • •

About those taxes for the county jail

The Albuquerque Tribune recently ran a story ("Bernalillo County proposes property tax, sales tax increases to pay for jail," Tribune, Dec. 28) regarding Bernalillo County's request to legislators to amend state laws allowing Bernalillo County to increase gross receipts and/or property taxes to provide additional funding for the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Currently the operating cost for the Metropolitan Detention Center is $64 million per year. The cost of operating MDC has historically increased at the rate of 10 percent per year and, if this trend continues, the cost would reach $100 million in five years.

Bernalillo County is solely responsible for providing the funding to operate the jail. The majority of the Board of County Commissioners supports the legislative request to have the ability to increase the county's ability to collect taxes to fund MDC from two levels: gross receipts tax and property tax.

Bernalillo County is requesting that an already existing stream of "county correctional facility gross receipts tax" revenues be increased over a period of years, implementing that only as needed and creating a minimal increase in the amount of gross receipts tax charged on purchases.

For example, the initial increase would cost the taxpayer slightly over 6 cents for every $100 spent and would generate $10 million annually. Eventually, if the full taxing authority were put into effect, it would cost the taxpayer 50 cents for every $100 spent and would generate $80 million annually.

The Legislature would give voters the opportunity to allow Bernalillo County to increase property taxes by increasing the county's mill authority. Each additional mill imposed would generate $11 million annually.

An increase in taxes is just one of many solutions. The issue of overcrowding involves law enforcement, the state of New Mexico, judges, the district attorney, probation and parole and the city of Albuquerque.

Recently, Bernalillo County hosted a summit on crowding to begin finding practical solutions to the problem. The county also made the decision not to allow state parole violators to occupy the MDC, but rather have state corrections house these individuals at state-owned facilities.

Our goal is to keep our community safe. The Board of County Commissioners will carefully consider all possible solutions to crowding and funding at the MDC, including an increase in taxing authority, before they are implemented.

Thaddeus Lucero

County manager

Albuquerque

• • •

Give solar credit where it's due

In regard to your recent story ("German solar technology firm to build factory in Albuquerque," Tribune, Jan. 14) on the new Schott solar factory planned for Albuquerque, kudos for highlighting how political leadership on renewable energy is resulting in jobs in the state.

However, please give credit where credit is due. While Gov. Bill Richardson was instrumental in increasing the standards for renewable energy in the state, it was the N.M. Public Regulation Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Jason Marks of Albuquerque, that established the rules requiring utilities to deploy large amounts of solar in the state by 2011.

Vote Solar participated in that rule-making, and we can honestly say that if it wasn't for commissioners Marks and Ben Lujan, the outlook for solar in New Mexico would not be as sunny.

Adam Browning

Executive director, Vote Solar Initiative

San Francisco, Calif.

• • •

Obesity culprit: video games

Large media conglomerates own media news outlets. They also sell video games for enormous profits.

We have a youth-obesity rate that has caused experts to predict that this will be the first generation to have a lower life expectancy than its parents. The media blames junk food being sold in schools.

In the movie "Zoolander," one of the characters cries, "Am I the only one not taking the crazy pill?"

Does no one else see this connection? I feel as though I'm a fish swimming upstream.

When I was in high school, I ate a baked potato covered in chili con carne every day for three years, because it was the single most healthful item offered. We were surrounded by junk food.

I work in the schools, and the soda machines have all been replaced by water bottle dispensers, and the lunch ladies serve salads every day. I think it's terrific, but there is still an obesity problem.

What has changed? Today kids spend so much of their free time playing video games, unfortunately to the exclusion of other more active endeavors. More time sitting on the couch equals less time riding a bike and exploring the neighborhood or nearby parks, etc.

I believe the media doesn't draw the connection because sales of Xboxes and Play Stations might go down ever so slightly. Besides it's just easier to blame the nation's new favorite surrogate parents — the schools.

I know it's hard to put limits on our kids; I've got kids, too. Sometimes I'm the bad guy because I set limits — for example, I actually suggest my son stop playing video games after an hour and go read or draw or ride his bike. I realize this must seem shockingly authoritarian in today's indulgent society, but I believe it's best for my child's physical, emotional and intellectual development.

But sometimes I feel like I'm the only one not taking the crazy pill.

Robyn Wellman

Albuquerque

• • •

Dennis Kucinich has right stuff

It was with hearty admiration that I read Bob Herbert's column ("Good jobs at good wages are essential for economy," Insight & Opinion, Jan. 22).

What could be more valid than our need for "a political atmosphere that respects and rewards work"? What could be truer than that workers require a living wage in order to sustain our economy?

The present atmosphere that glorifies the acquisition of wealth, regardless of ethics or the welfare of this or any other nation, has brought us down to our present dire circumstances.

We desperately need a new paradigm, and the only presidential candidate who espoused such change was Dennis Kucinich (who dropped out of the race this week). He has opposed North American Free Trade Agreement, Central American Free Trade Agreement, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund policies that have resulted in the flight of good jobs to other countries, with no benefit to those countries, either. He has been a tireless advocate of workers and their rights to an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

Before Herbert noticed that we needed to be shoring up our infrastructure, Kucinich, in his Oct. 9 appearance at Central New Mexico Community College, called for just such a program to improve our country and provide much needed work for our citizens.

He also recognized that the rat-hole expenditure of $270 million a day for war is impoverishing our nation.

Sally-Alice Thompson

Albuquerque

Herbert's column only appears in the print edition of The Tribune.