|
 E-mail Story Print Friendly
Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
Front Page 
opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Amendment Will Help Ground Tax Lightning
It's not the last word New Mexicans will hear on tax lightning, but it's an important one that goes a long way toward solving the problem of equitable property taxes.
Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, is sponsoring a constitutional amendment that would extend the 3 percent cap on valuations to homes that are resold. Under a 2001 law, home valuations are capped at 3 percent unless the home changes hands. In those cases, the property is brought up to near market value.
And so homebuyers who decide to downsize, upsize or relocate are hit with property taxes sometimes two or three times higher than those paid by the old owners — and their new neighbors who have stayed put.
Unlike two other bills in the Legislature that seek to address the problem statutorily, Park's legislation would put the change before voters. The original cap also was made possible by a constitutional amendment — approved overwhelmingly by voters in 1998. Lawmakers could simply extend the cap under that amendment, and that would be a fine fix.
But getting approval once again from voters adds the strength of clear public support and makes legal challenges less likely.
Park's amendment doesn't address the inequity of having current market valuations on newly built homes, or the problem of delayed valuations and underassessed properties, or the tax-lightning windfalls municipalities have come to depend on, or what to do with homeowners who have already been hit with tax lightning.
But it's an important step toward equity that includes voters in the equation. And that's a tax formula New Mexicans can live with.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
