Former Las Cruces councilor wants state law changed to keep county tax increase out of cities

A former Las Cruces city councilor wants to change a state law that allows Doña Ana County to tax him.

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, Las Cruces, Mesilla and Sunland Park. Jenkins says it should not apply there, because those county services don’t benefit the residents of the municipalities.

“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 Las Cruces residents voicing concerns about the tax.

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 Los Alamos counties.

Doña Ana County spokesman Jess Williams pointed out several benefits the jail and sheriff’s and fire departments provide to the cities. The county jail houses almost all who are arrested in the county, including those taken into custody by the city police departments. It is utilized as much by them as it is by the sheriff’s department.

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.

County Commissioner Bill McCamley, whose district is located almost entirely within the Las Cruces city limits, agreed. He said what Jenkins is seeking would essentially establish cities as independent islands within counties.

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.