LARGE SCALE PROPERTY TAX ERRORS IN PLACITAS
by Floyd Cotton
When Placitas residents began receiving their property tax bills on November 2, 2011, it soon became obvious that many bills contained erroneous tax rates for items related to the Eastern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority (ESCAFCA). There were widespread over and under billings.
Acting for the greater community, this writer (with help from others) wrote a letter to County officials, which brought the errors to their attention. (see text of letter below)
This writer met with key officials from the Office of the Treasurer and the Office of the Assessor. After discussing the matter with me and after looking at the letter, they agreed that some property owners were over-billed and that some were under-billed. They said they would mail corrected tax bills to affected property owners in the near future.
One particular item of discussion with the County officials had to do with payment of bills under protest and the possibility of having to file a civil suite as prescribed on the FAQ Card (frequently asked questions) that were mailed with the original tax bills. They informed me that civil suits could only come into play if and when the County and the property were unable to resolve a disputed issue prior to the specified deadline (January 10, 2012).
I made a follow up telephone call to the Assessor’s Office on November 21 and was told that the tax rate re-calculations for Placitas had been completed and were being sent to the Treasurer’s Office.
TEXT OF LETTER TO COUNTY OFFICIALS FOLLOWS:
November 9, 2011
Mr. Daryl Madalena
Chairman, Sandoval County Commission
P.0. Box 40
Bernalillo, NM 87004
RE: NM DFA Order dated 9/1/2011, Setting Property Tax Rates – 2011 Tax Year
Dear Chairman Madalena,
This is to respectfully request your assistance in resolving a matter of obviously improper or wrongful implementation of the above-referenced Order directed to you by Secretary Thomas E. Clifford, PhD, New Mexico Department of Finance & Administration.
Specifically, Property Tax bills sent to myself and, to my direct knowledge, to scores of other residential and nonresidential property owners within the unincorporated area known as Placitas, New Mexico, Zip Code 87043, contain tax rates that are not in compliance with the above referenced Order from Secretary Clifford.
Attached to the Secretary’s Order was a Certificate that contains the appropriate 2011 tax rates for Sandoval County. http://nmdfa.state.nm.us/Certificate_of_Property_Tax.aspx
According to the DFA certificate, all Placitas owners of residential and nonresidential properties should have been billed 0.500 mills for operations of the Eastern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority (ESCAFCA). Further, the limit of 0.500 mills for the 2011 tax year is set forth explicitly in the New Mexico statute, signed into law on April 6, 2011, that excluded the entire Placitas area from ESCAFCA (HB 306, Section 7(A)(2)). (For convenient reference, the ESCAFCA operations rate for Placitas is posted at the bottom of the DFA Certificate, on line 52, spanning columns B through F)
1. I and many other Placitas residential property owners have received tax bills in which the rate for ESCAFCA operations is stated as being 0.66 mills;
2. Many owners of nonresidential properties in Placitas have received tax bills in which the rate for ESCAFCA operations is stated as being .585 mills; and
3. Many other Placitas property owners were not billed at all for the ESCAFCA Debt Service at the specified rate of 2.401 mills.
Some billing rates for ESCAFCA operations exceed what both the DFA order and the aforesaid statute allow. Others were not billed for debt service. To clarify further, HB 306 excluded all of Placitas (consisting of voting Precincts 5, 28, 55, and 56) plus the portion of Algodones (Precinct 6) east of I-25 from ESCAFCA; but Section 7 of that same Act allowed ESCAFCA to impose an operating levy on the excluded area for tax year 2011 only, provided that the levy rate not exceed 0.500 mills. ESCAFCA did, indeed, set its 2011 operating rate for the excluded area (Placitas Precincts 5, 28, 55 and 56) at 0.500 mills, and it is that rate, and nothing higher, that the DFA order allows the County to impose for ESCAFCA operations. Properties in the excluded area are still obligated to pay for currently authorized debt until that debt is paid.
An extremely important matter attendant to the above-described tax rate irregularities is that County rules (as set forth in the Frequently Asked Questions accompanying each tax bill) seem to require each property owner whom the County has billed incorrectly to seek redress via a civil suit petition to the District Court, and to do so within a very limited time period. It would be inequitable to burden scores of property owners with the time and expense that such action entails to correct generalized mistakes made by the County itself. Therefore, I request on behalf of myself and other Placitas area property owners that you and the Commission issue orders and/or instructions to appropriate County Officials and Staff to review all the property tax bills for Placitas and to bring the rates for ESCAFCA operations into conformity with the DFA order and the aforementioned New Mexico statute.
An encouraging recent development is that while gathering documentation for this correspondence, I contacted and was re-contacted by senior officials in the office of the Sandoval County Treasurer and the Office of the Assessor. After researching the issues raised herein, officials in those offices advised me that they now understand the fact that an as yet to be determined number of Placitas property owners were billed at incorrect tax rates for ESCAFCA operations. They have also given assurances that they are working to promptly identify all of the incorrect billings and will issue corrected property tax bills.
However, due to the deadlines for action imposed by the County for citizens to seek redress, I and many other Placitas property owners are eager to receive your prompt reply to the issues raised in this correspondence.
Sincerely,
Floyd E. Cotton
32 Desert Mountain Road
Placitas, New Mexico 87043
(505) 771-9463
cc:
Thomas E. Clifford, Secretary NM DFA
Orlando Lucero, Sandoval County Commission Lorraine Dominguez, Treasurer
Don Leonard, Sandoval County Commission Phillip Rios, County Manager
Don Chapman, Sandoval County Commission Tom Garcia, Assessor
Glenn Walters, Sandoval County Commission