Tax threat spurs UNM West action

The threat of a funding cut to the University of New Mexico’s Rio Rancho campus has members of its advisory council taking action.

At issue is the voter-approved, quarter-cent higher education tax that Rio Rancho allocates to UNM West. City Councilor Chuck Wilkins wants to reduce the tax by half for the benefit of police and fire departments because he says those departments are underfunded and understaffed.

Two members of the campus’ advisory council have asked Rio Rancho Public Schools Superintendent Sue Cleveland to write a letter in support of the campus. Cleveland, a member of the advisory council, took the request to the school board Monday, saying she wanted board approval before proceeding.

The school board said it needed more information first

Willkins said he plans to propose a resolution to change the tax distribution. It is expected to be on the council’s May 8 meeting agenda. The change in the tax also would have to go before voters, and Wilkins hopes to have a special election on Aug. 20. Under his plan, the quarter cent tax would be cut to one-eighth, and a new one-eighth tax would be created for public safety.

The UNM West advisory council, composed of Rio Rancho government, community and business leaders, is reaching out to the greater community asking for support for keeping the tax as is.

Advisory council chairwoman Pauline Eisenstadt said polls show Rio Rancho voters are supportive of UNM, and that the reduction in the tax would contradict their wishes. In fact, nearly 63 percent of voters approved the tax in the 2008 election.

“The community of Rio Rancho wants the UNM campus to succeed and to do well, and they’re supportive,” Eisenstadt said.

“I think police are very important but I think that a city has to do both: they have to take care of their future and they have to take care of their present,” she said.

Eisenstadt said the university will hold a community meeting in late April that will include President Bob Frank.

The higher ed tax, which expires after 20 years, helped fund UNM West’s new building, which opened in 2010 and cost about $13.5 million.

According to Wilkins, the city was obligated to give UNM West $8.4 million over five years, much of which already has been transferred to the university.

The higher education tax fund will have $3.6 million by the end of the fiscal year, on June 30. That’s more than the city owes under the agreement, meaning the fund will have a surplus, Wilkins said in his proposal.

UNM West director Beth Miller has said the tax as is, is “crucial to the continued development of the campus.”

Journal staff writers Rosalie R. Rayburn and Elaine D. Briseño contributed to this report.

— This article appeared on page 30 of the Albuquerque Journal