Mariposa Tax Hike on Agenda

Sandoval Board Eyes Property Rates

Property tax rates Sandoval County commissioners will consider tonight contain the 37 percent increase negotiated for the Mariposa community to stave off a bond-payment crisis.

At the new rate certified by the Department of Finance Administration, the roughly 100 Mariposa residents will pay $433 per $100,000 of the value of their home toward paying off bond debt incurred by developer High Desert Investment Corp. to provide a water treatment facility and other improvements in the far north Rio Rancho community.

That compares with $316 in 2011 — and that is in addition to property taxes for things like Rio Rancho public schools that will increase from $1,252 in 2011 to $1,330 this year.

High Desert was one of several developers in the state that used the Public Improvement District (PID) process, which allows a developer to sell bonds backed by payments from property owners to pay for infrastructure.

Lack of sales in recent years meant that payments from owners didn’t match the bond payments. This summer, High Desert reneged on an agreement to make up the $1 million difference and pulled out of the development leaving residents with a potential tenfold payment increase to cover the bonds.

A deal reached in August among the PID management board, High Desert and bondholders averted the full increase for one year. Under the deal, High Desert is turning over Mariposa land it still owns to a bondholder-controlled entity in hopes of selling it to pay off the bonds.

Mariposa is the only PID that structured the payments in the same way as property taxes based on the value of the home. Other PIDs such as Cabezon have a special levy that has a capped maximum.

Cabezon resident state Rep. Tim Lewis, R-Rio Rancho, has been working with HBA, formerly the Central New Mexico Home Builders Association, and two interim legislative committees to draft changes to the 2001 PID enabling legislation to prevent another Mariposa-type situation.

“The single biggest concern we should have, regarding any changes to the existing PID legislation, is the reasonable and uncompromising protection of the consumer,” Lewis said.

The Economic and Rural Development Committee will discuss Mariposa at a meeting Oct. 1 and the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee will discuss it on Oct. 10, Lewis said.