Taos tax hike to take effect July 1
34 apartments to be built on town’s south side
A nearly half-percent increase in the town’s gross receipts tax rate will go into effect July 1.
The Town of Taos Council approved an ordinance imposing the 0.44875 percent tax hike at its regular meeting last Tuesday (March 28).
The increased GRT will bring in roughly $1.9 million per year, according to Finance Director Lupe Martinez, who noted that the town brought in an estimated $7.3 million in municipal GRT revenue last year.
Including a 0.125 percent municipal GRT increment previously approved by voters, and a 1.225 percent municipal infrastructure increment, the increase to 3.4 percent local GRT brings Taos to the limits of its total local taxing authority without going to voters for an additional rate hike.
“We would see windfall roughly about in September,” said Town Manager Andrew Gonzales. “This would go largely to increasing the wages of staff; [and] from a levelization standpoint, allow the town to get to a point where they are at a starting rate of $17 per hour. It also leaves flexibility to allow staff to receive the education certifications and be compensated by which they receive those educations and certifications.
“The excess we would use for bonding capacity to make upgrades to our wastewater treatment facility that is in desperate need of upgrades and also the ask to build a gymnasium at the Youth and Family Center to offer indoor sports activities,” Gonzales said.
Martinez broke down how the town intends to spend the increased tax revenue.
“One million dollars has been set aside for the [employee] compensation plan, [and] $900,000 would then be set aside for [annual] debt service payment” to finance the $4 million gymnasium and $4.5 million in wastewater treatment plant upgrades,” Martinez said. The gym and sewage treatment plant upgrades would likely be financed through a 15-year loan with a total of $840,551 in payments each year at currently available loan interest rates.
In other town news, councilors approved a zoning change that will allow for a six-building, 34-apartment development to move forward at 1526 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, just south of DeVargas Funeral Home.
The developer, Max Edelman, said a lot of thought had been put into the proposal.
“We’re all aware of the housing issue in Taos,” said Edleman, who grew up in Taos. “We’re not interested in doing Section 8 housing, we’re trying to provide, primarily, what I like to call workforce housing in Taos and give people a starter home. I think this community is in dire need of a project like this.”
Dr. Arturo Cisneros, who lives in a multigenerational family compound on the west side of the proposed development, was the sole member of the public to speak about the project during a public hearing. He explained that, until his aunt sold her land in the 1990s, his family had owned the several acres he and his father and other members of his family live on, west of the proposed development, as well as the land on which the apartments will be built.
The only access to the family’s remaining property is a small road that connects with Paseo del Pueblo Sur directly adjacent to the proposed apartments. The road has a right of way through one corner of the apartment property.
“We’re not opposed to them building the complex,” Cisneros said. “The concerns we have is the model we saw is considered an open concept model,” meaning there appeared to be no fence.
“This opens up lots of legal issues for our family,” he said. “All we’re asking is they build a fence,” particularly to avoid occupants of the apartments from parking on the dirt road behind the south side of the development.
Architect Douglas Patterson assured Cisneros that “we’ve always intended to make boundary fence around the property. We haven’t decided what that boundary fence would be, in terms of its height; the intent of that boundary fence would be to contain animals, pets, kids, trash.”
Councilors approved the development, “with a six-foot fence that goes along the easement on the southern boundary, up to the western boundary and along the western side of the Cisneros property,” as Councilor Nathaniel Evans phrased it in his motion.