A former
Woodie Jenkins has convinced State Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, to get involved, and asked the New Mexico Municipal League for help.
At issue is the passage by the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners of two gross receipts tax increases of one-sixteenth percent each that went into effect July 1. The increased revenue is being used to raise salaries and increase other funding for the county’s jail and sheriff’s and fire departments.
In addition to unincorporated areas, the tax applies in the four municipalities in the county – Hatch,
“It’s a subsidy to the county without any benefit whatsoever,” said Jenkins, who served on the city council from 1980-1985 and has served on other city committees.
Jenkins is one of a handful of
At issue is a word in state law – “county” – which means the tax increases currently apply to the entire land area within the county’s boundaries, Jenkins said. If it were changed to “county area,” it would refer only to those areas that aren’t incorporated.
The move, if successful, would cripple the county’s efforts to improve its severely underfunded public safety departments, because the vast majority of businesses are located within municipalities. The sheriff’s department had as many as 30 vacancies before salaries went up.
Jenkins’ proposal would also affect tax increases enacted this year in Bernalillo, Chaves, DeBaca, Harding and
The sheriff’s department investigates felony crimes for the tiny Hatch and Mesilla police departments. The fire and sheriff’s departments have mutual aid agreements with all other agencies in the county, and the sheriff’s department puts officers and funds into the area’s metro narcotics agency, just like other area law enforcement agencies.
Regardless, Jenkins doesn’t see the benefit, and convinced Garcia to ask the attorney general for a formal opinion on whether the current law should apply to counties or county areas.
Williams said the law is clear.
“We passed the tax increase consistent with what the law says, not what somebody wishes it says,” he said.
McCamley said he was once pulled over in the city limits by a sheriff’s deputy and given a warning for a traffic infraction, pointing out that the sheriff can legally enforce laws within municipalities.
In addition, McCamley said, residents of unincorporated areas of the county pump lots of money into municipalities through gross receipts taxes by shopping there.
Regardless, Jenkins is pushing forward. He had hoped the Las Cruces City Council would take on his cause but, since it did not, “I am protecting myself (and everyone else),” he wrote in an e-mail.