Open Space Not On Ballot

FOR THE RECORD: This story incorrectly listed the tax rate for a proposed Bernalillo County Open Space property tax. The rate should have been listed as 0.10 mill, not 1 mill. The proposed tax won’t be on the Nov. 6 ballot because of a technical error by county staff.

A property tax to support Bernalillo County’s open space program will not be on this November’s ballot, after all, the result of a technical error by staff.

It is the second time in recent years that the county has missed out on a chance to ask voters for the designated tax.

The Bernalillo County Commission recently gave the green light to asking voters to approve a 1-mil property tax that would bring in approximately $1.3 million annually for Bernalillo County Open Space, which would have freed up money in the general fund for other things.

The money would pay for employee salaries, land purchases and maintenance of the county’s 12 open-space properties. Deputy County Manager Vincent Murphy said the county will instead pay for the open space program with operational dollars.

If voters had approved the tax, someone with a home having an assessed property value of $150,000 would have noticed a $5 increase on the tax bill. Since there is currently no open space property tax in place, homeowners will not see a decrease.

The county currently pays for the program out of its operational budget, but that hasn’t always been the case. The program was funded with a property tax from 1998 to 2006, said Clay Campbell, the county’s Parks and Recreation Department planning manager.

Murphy said voters had been asked to continue the tax every two years, but the question was accidentally left off the ballot in 2006.

Murphy didn’t know the details of the 2006 error but said this time around, the problem was that the staff did not present to the County Commission the exact legal language that would be on the ballot.

“We were rushed to put this thing on the ballot,” he said. “I’m not sure we paid enough attention to the details.”

County Commission Chair Art De La Cruz, who was elected in 2009, was director of parks and recreation when the question was accidentally left off the ballot. He said he’s not sure why the county did not try to place the question on the ballot in 2008.

“In 2010, the county had just tanked,” he said. “I did not think voters would be inclined to support it at that time.”

The county will ask voters to approve the measure in two years, Murphy said.

“It gives us two years to do a better job of making the public aware of this jewel of over 1,000 acres in open space,” he said. “We are working on exciting things.”

Most recently, the county opened the Clinton P. Anderson Park in the South Valley. The property was a dirt lot before the county purchased it and transformed it into a park with trees, benches, a walking path and play equipment.

The county also opened the 27-acre Bachechi Open Space last year adjacent to the Alameda Open Space near Alameda and Rio Grande. Visitors can observe wildlife, take a walk in the pecan orchard and connect to the paved bosque trail.

“We are lucky,” Murphy said. “We have an urban experience and a rural experience within 10 miles of Downtown.”

The county will still ask voters to approve $20 million in bond projects, including $10 million for road projects that would include funds for the Paseo del Norte interchange at Interstate 25 project. It will also ask voters to approve $3.5 million for public safety projects, $1.3 million for library materials, $1.8 million for parks projects, $1 million in “facilities” improvements at the county’s detoxification and rehab center and $2.5 million to make drainage improvements near Blake and Isleta.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal