{"id":191292,"date":"2016-09-29T23:42:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T05:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=191292"},"modified":"2016-09-29T23:42:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T05:42:44","slug":"gop-accuses-senate-majority-leader-of-violating-state-tax-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/09\/gop-accuses-senate-majority-leader-of-violating-state-tax-law\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP accuses Senate majority leader of violating state tax law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_61521\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-61521\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unnamed-11-771x540.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Sanchez\" width=\"771\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unnamed-11-771x540.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unnamed-11-336x235.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unnamed-11-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unnamed-11.jpg 1088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One day before what already was bound to be a contentious special session of the New Mexico Legislature, the state Republican Party attacked Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, accusing the high-ranking Democrat of violating a state tax law.<\/p>\n<p>State GOP Chairman Debbie Maestas charged <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_191453125\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> that Sanchez illegally claimed a \u201cHead-of-Family\u201d property-tax exemption on two different houses he owns \u2014 his residence in Belen and a rental house in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez is a frequent target of both the state Republican Party \u2014 which usually refers to him as \u201cSenate Boss\u201d \u2014 and Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s political operatives. Both are expected to make a strong effort to unseat him in the November general election.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 special legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The GOP hit came a day after an Albuquerque-based liberal activist group, Progress Now New Mexico, made a similar accusation against Sanchez\u2019s Republican opponent in the Senate election, Greg Baca of Belen.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez said he believes the Republican complaint against him is retaliation for the Progress Now attack on Baca.<\/p>\n<p>Maestas pulled no punches in a news release. \u201cSanchez is a corrupt Democrat falsely touting himself as a Senator working for New Mexicans, all the while cheating the system to benefit himself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only has Sen. Sanchez violated tax law by fraudulently double-dipping on an exemption, his actions call into question whether he even lives in the district he claims to represent,\u201d Maestas asserted.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez denied any intentional wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite what the Republican party has alleged, I have never requested or intentionally claimed the \u2018Head-of-Family\u2019 exemption for the Bernalillo County property,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cAt the time of purchase, I was unaware the exemption was carried over from a previous owner. It was a mistake and will be corrected immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez added, \u201cI think my case can be instructive for people who own two properties in New Mexico because individual county assessors may not always be aware whether a taxpayer is eligible or not for the exemption. Once it is claimed by the original property owner, the exemption is automatically applied to the property every year even after a change in ownership.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Sanchez told <em>The New Mexican<\/em> that he purchased the Albuquerque house in 2010 from his son, Joshua Sanchez. He said he was not aware that he was getting the exemption on the Albuquerque house. \u201cMy wife checked and we can\u2019t find any documents in which either of us requested the exemption for that property,\u201d he said. \u201cThis looks like a flaw in our system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said his wife plans to go to the Bernalillo County Assessor\u2019s Office <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_191453126\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Friday<\/span><\/span> to see how much money might be owed. \u201cIf there\u2019s any taxes or penalties, I\u2019ll pay it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said anyone who knows him in Valencia County knows he lives there and not in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<p>The exemption knocks $2,000 off a property\u2019s taxable value. The complaint shows that the Albuquerque house had a taxable value of $35,304 this year. The exemption took that figure down to a net taxable value of $33,304.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican news release said the party filed complaints against Sanchez concerning his property tax with the 2nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, the 13th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, the state Attorney General\u2019s Office and the Secretary of State\u2019s Office. However, party spokesman Tucker Keene said <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_191453127\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> that he had arrived in Santa Fe too late to file with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office but would mail in the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>The Progress Now website this week showed Republican candidate Baca\u2019s Albuquerque home had a taxable value of $58,127. The \u201cHead-of-Family\u201d exemption plus Baca\u2019s exemption for being a military veteran took that value down to $52,127.<\/p>\n<p>Baca couldn\u2019t be reached for comment <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_191453128\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolitics is a contact sport,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThere are going to be a lot more attacks on me in the weeks to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Contact Steve Terrell at 505-986-3037 or <a href=\"mailto:sterrell@sfnewmexican.com\" target=\"_blank\">sterrell@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Read his political blog at <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475300001859000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrlBhOv1lK5sBUaVLUrWhL-AXILw\">tinyurl.com\/roundhouseroundup<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Sanchez denied any intentional wrongdoing. \u201cIf there\u2019s any taxes or penalties, I\u2019ll pay it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3305,107],"class_list":["post-191292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-2016-special-session","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}