Bernalillo County grants incentive to truck stop
A large truck stop corporation at the heart of an economic development debate is getting support from Bernalillo County after all.
Some county commissioners had previously questioned why the government should subsidize the travel center/McDonald’s planned for the Interstate 25 and Broadway interchange, both because it would feature mostly minimumwage jobs and because Pilot Travel Centers LLC is a multi-billion-dollar corporation. (“Forbes” has ranked Pilot Flying J as the country’s 10th-largest private company, according to county documents.)
In May, the commission rejected Pilot’s request to waive about $58,000 in project impact fees. But last week, the same panel approved a $700,651 gross receipts tax reimbursement to cover the roadway improvements Pilot will have to make around the gas station. The company had initially requested $1.46 million but the deal was amended due to lower-thanexpected infrastructure costs.
The incentive passed on a 4-1 vote, with only Debbie O’Malley in opposition.
Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said he supported the project because it represented new and needed development beyond the “polluting” industries that normally pick this district and because it will create jobs — 78 direct positions, and 24 indirect jobs, according to a county analysis.
“We shouldn’t discriminate about … what and who receives tax incentives through Bernalillo County,” Quezada said. “I think we should figure out a way how we can do all of them.”
O’Malley disagreed, saying that if the county offered tax reimbursements to every business, it would have no tax base.
“That’s our job — (to) look at the rate of return and what’s the benefit to the community, jobs, all those things. We have to discriminate. We have to go through that process,” she said. “It’s not just, ‘Apply here and here you go.’ ”
But Commissioner Walt Benson said he saw the net benefits of the project, because Pilot’s development would be creating more gross receipts and property taxes for the county than the site is generating now, and that it was adding infrastructure and jobs that could serve the larger community.
“They may not be six-figure jobs, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile,” Benson said before helping pass the incentive.
Commissioners Charlene Pyskoty and Adriann Barboa — who had both helped kill Pilot’s impact fee request in May — voted in favor of Pilot’s gross receipts tax reimbursement.
RETURN OF CITY WORKERS: Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller says all city employees who have been telecommuting during the pandemic are expected to return to their normal work sites as part of the municipal government reopening he announced last week — unless, that is, they have an arrangement with the human resources department due to special circumstances. That may include concerns related to health or child care.
“We’re very open and flexible with that, but if you don’t work with HR on that, the expectation is that you will be at work at your desk as before,” the mayor told a news conference last week.
The city will not, however, require staffers to have COVID-19 vaccines before returning.
“We’re really using the honor system and the encouragement system,” Keller said. “We really want everyone to be vaccinated — it’s in everyone’s best interest, especially in some of our essential city positions — but you’ve got to do what’s right for our community, and we’re really not at this point feeling like mandating anything of that nature that has to do with personal health is appropriate for Albuquerque, New Mexico.”