Legislator sets great example with land donation

Here’s an example of a state lawmaker going out of his way to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and doing something pretty darn generous in the process.

House Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, has donated 1.5 acres of land to San Juan County to create a methamphetamine treatment center, the Farmington Daily Times is reporting.

Taylor and his sisters have owned five acres of land next to the county’s DWI Treatment Center for years. They decided against selling the land for $240,000 some 15 years ago, hoping to someday do something with it.

The day has arrived. County officials were planning to turn an old detention facility in nearby Aztec into a meth treatment facility with the help of a $2.9 million grant from the state, but the jail was deemed unfit. As officials searched for a new location, they decided the best option would be adding on to the DWI center, the newspaper reported.

That meant they’d need land owned by Taylor. The lawmaker told the newspaper he didn’t want anyone to think he and the county were doing anything underhanded, so he didn’t want to sell the land to the county.

So he convinced his sisters to agree to donate it.

I don’t think it would have been inappropriate for Taylor to sell the land to the county. I’m not one who believes, for example, that lawmakers shouldn’t be allowed to develop land they own, as state Rep. Joseph Cervantes is doing right now near New Mexico State University.

But they should have to follow the same rules and regulations as others. As far as I can tell, Cervantes has done that.

The line is crossed when a public official creates an appearance that he or she is seeking or receiving special treatment because of his or her official position. That’s what Sen. Mary Jane Garcia did recently when, a few weeks after her bar was cited for serving an intoxicated person, she called officials from Santa Fe to a meeting in Las Cruces so she and other industry representatives and lawmakers from around the state could berate them, accuse them of unfair treatment and complain about overly strict regulations.

Especially since her case was still pending, she created the appearance that she was threatening, at a meeting she called in her official capacity, those who were responsible for disciplining her bar.

As long as Taylor followed all the rules, which would have included being paid a price based on a publicly disclosed appraisal, I wouldn’t have seen a problem with him selling the land. But he certainly gets kudos for going way above what’s required to avoid even the remotest appearance of impropriety, and the kudos are only multiplied by the generosity of his gift.

Some other lawmakers could learn a few things from the House minority leader.