Wilkins still seeks tax cut
UNM West fails to impress him
A meeting publicized as an opportunity for Rio Rancho residents to learn about the University of New Mexico’s plans for UNM West failed to dissuade a city councilor from his intention to ask voters to reduce the tax that benefits the City Center campus.
Councilor Chuck Wilkins said a presentation by UNM President Bob Frank on Monday didn’t contain a plan for how they intended to use the tax revenue to benefit the campus.
“I thought we’d hear an explanation why they need the quarter cent. I didn’t hear that and I haven’t changed my mind,” Wilkins said after the meeting.
In an interview this week, Wilkins said he will ask city staff to include an item on the May 22 council agenda setting a special election asking voters to approve reducing the quarter-cent tax by half.
Voters approved the tax in 2008 and it currently brings in about $2 million annually. Under an agreement with UNM, the city used $868,000 of the tax revenue to provide infrastructure for the UNM West campus and pledged a fur ther $1.5 million annually through fiscal year 2015 toward the construction cost of the $13.2 million building.
The 42,477-square-foot building is the only one on the campus and Frank told the Journal in an interview after his presentation that there are no plans at present to add additional buildings.
During Monday’s community meeting, Frank and Carol Parker, associate dean of the UNM School of Law, talked about making the campus a unique environment, increasing enrollment — which is now about 600 — and taking an innovative approach to meeting projected job openings in health care and technology fields. The vision includes increasing the number of degrees a student can get there and changing the agreement between UNM and Central New Mexico Community College, through which CNM’s R io Rancho campus offers core curriculum courses and UNM West offers strictly upper division ones, Frank has told the Journal. Frank has talked about UNM West also offering some core classes.
UNM West director Beth Miller, like Frank, has said the tax is “crucial to the continued development of the campus.”
In the interview, Wilkins said that the tax can only be used for “brick and mortar” or infrastructure.
If voters approve the reduction, Wilkins says he’ll propose the council establish a separate one-eighth cent tax to bring in money to fund new police and firefighter positions and other public safety needs.
On Tuesday, during a townhall style meeting with about a dozen people at his Farmers Insurance office on Northern, Wilkins said he plans to oppose the 1 percent acrossthe-board pay raise for all city employees that Mayor Tom Swisstack has recommended for the city’s annual budget for the fiscal year that begins in July.
Wilkins said the city manager’s budget recommendations already include $600,000 to address issues highlighted in a study that showed 23 percent of the city’s employees earn less than the minimum rate in the New Mexico market.
Wilkins also wants to reduce the water rate increase scheduled to take effect in July from 8.8 percent to 7.8 percent because of the $1 million in capital outlay money the city received from the Legislature for water system improvements.
He plans to ask to reduce the monthly water rights acquisition fee from $6 to $5. The city raised the monthly fee by $1 early this year to bring in money for a large water rights purchase, but the deal fell through in March. At the time, acting city manager Jim Babin said the extra $1 could still be used to build up funds for future water rights purchases.