Taxes vs. education
Voters asked to divvy up for UNM-Gallup improvements

Students pass through Gurley Hall on the UNMG campus Thurday, Jan. 29. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Former Gallup Mayor John Pena has been voting yes on bond issues here most of his life.

So on Tuesday, when he goes to the voting booth to decide whether to approve an $8 million bond issue being requested by the University of New Mexico-Gallup, history would indicate that he will do so again.

But, for the first time in his life, he is not sure he will vote yes, and that may spell trouble for UNM-Gallup officials who are hoping to get approval for new capital improvement projects during the worst economic times for many people in this area since the Great Depression.

“I’m not sure this time (how I will vote),” he said, adding that he needs to get more facts about why the college needs the money.

As the recession gets worse, he’s not the only one who is questioning whether this is a good time for the college to be seeking support for major improvements.

Deborah Turner is telling her friends that they should vote no as well to send a message to the college about being more fiscally responsible and not depending so much on the county’s property taxpayers to come up with the funds to further the college’s goals.

“All registered voters currently have the right to vote on this proposal while only less than one-third of the registered voters will bear the burden of the financial responsibility,” she said.

This feeling of being singled-out for meeting the financial needs of the college and other local governmental entities is the reason why local bond issues usually see heavier opposition within the city limits, where most of the property owners are located, than in the county, where reservation residents don’t pay property taxes.

College officials, in their ads on the radio, point out that approval of the bond issue won’t increase property taxes.

The bonds will replace those that have been paid off during the past couple of years. What has not been pointed out, however, is that rejection of the bond issue will mean that property taxes will go down a little in the future.

Just how much is still up in the air, but Phil Gutierrez, the chief appraiser in the county’s assessor’s office, Thursday gave a brief rundown on how much county property owners pay for college programs.

The college currently has three different mil levies that are assessed each year, which add up to five mils out of the total of 32 .31 mils that property owners currently pay.

Someone with a $150,000 home currently pays $1,615 a year in property taxes. Out of this, the college receives a total of $250 for the three levies. The mill levy from which the bonds derive costs taxpayers $100. But that mill levy also has other outstanding bonds on it so the taxpayers won’t get the full benefit of that reduction until all of the bonds are paid off, which will take several more years.

This means, said Gutierrez, that rejection of the bond would probably save a taxpayer with a $150,000 home about $30 or $40 a year.

By agreeing to pay what amounts to about 75 cents a week then, this taxpayer would see some $8 million to make several improvements to the campus facilities, including the renovation of Gurley Hall, the tearing down of Lions’ Hall and the building of new child care and maintenance facilities.

Theresa Dowling, head of the school’s advisory board, hopes that when voters go into that booth they remember all that UNM-Gallup has done and is doing for this area.

“This college puts $20 million into the local economy every year,” she said, adding that the average dollars circulates on the average four times so in actuality, this amounts to $80 million. “That’s a lot of money,” she said.

The college also provides teachers and nurses to the community and attracts students from all over this area, who come to live and spent money o rent rooms and buy food.

Try to imagine, she said, what Gallup would be like if the college wasn’t here. “This would be a sad place,” she said.

She pointed out that the money that comes from the state is only enough to meet operating expenses and no funds are made available to renovate the buildings on the campus. That’s what part of the bond money will do.

“And jobs will be created,” she said, “in construction and fixing up the buildings.”

For Dowling and other college officials, it may be too late to change the mind of people like Turner, but if they want to see this bond approved, it may depend on convincing Pena and others who are undecided that even in a recession, money is needed to make the college a better place for those who want to go there.