Española Mayor Joseph Maestas has frequently criticized Santa Fe County for ignoring its northern constituents in Española. But Maestas is now taking those complaints one step further and is advocating that the Santa Fe section of the city, where he lives, secede from the County altogether.
Maestas has suggested the city should annex itself to Rio Arriba County to eliminate what he said is the burden of being split between two counties. Much of the city currently lies within the borders of Rio Arriba except for some southeastern neighborhoods.
“We’re being taxed without services,” Maestas said. “It’s taxation without any benefits. We haven’t seen a dime of the 911 tax. We pay the jail (gross receipts tax) and we haven’t seen any disbursements. We get no help with animal control. I’ve directly and formally asked for the County to help us extend lines to unincorporated areas, but never got a response.”
In addition, Maestas said Santa Fe County has failed to support any of the city’s projects along the County’s northern border.
“Look at Sombrillo Elementary, it’s a classic example” Maestas said. “The city is trying to extend lines. We went to the Commission and asked for their help and got nothing.”
But Maestas cannot push through an annexation on his own. In fact, he will have to convince about 747 more residents that leaving Santa Fe County is the right move for the city.
To start the annexation process, 51 percent of all the registered voters in the Santa Fe County portion of Española would have to sign a petition requesting they be annexed, according to state law.
According to Santa Fe County Election Bureau Chief Denise Lamb, there are 1,467 registered voters in the Santa Fe County portion of Española. That means a petition to begin the annexation process would require about 748 signatures.
That petition would then have to be submitted to the Santa Fe County Commission, which would have to publish a notice of the petition in newspapers in each of the two affected counties. After a 30-day protest period in which an individual from either county involved in the transaction can challenge the petition, the Commission would then hold an election to decide on the annexation.
However, only registered voters within Santa Fe County would be eligible to vote in the election. If the measure passed, it would be implemented on the first day of the next odd-numbered year.
Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya, whose district covers the northern portion of Santa Fe County, contends the County has never ignored its northern constituents.
“We participate and cooperate with (Española/Rio Arriba County E911 Dispatch Center), and we house prisoners from all over Rio Arriba County, and those taxes help pay for that,” Montoya said.
Montoya also said Maestas has not asked him for direct help.
“No, not at all — nothing,” Montoya said.
The issue of changing the boundaries of two counties raises a host of issues, but one of the most frequently raised is how it would affect taxes. Moving several thousand people from one county to another, means taking away a significant tax base from one county and delivering it to another county.
In the first three months of 2008, the Santa Fe County portion of Española generated $779,981 in gross receipts tax revenue, according to statistics from the state Taxation and Revenue Department. During the last three months of 2007, the Santa Fe County portion of the city generated $870.981 in gross receipts tax revenue, according to Department statistics.
“When I was asking my colleagues about this, one of the first things they brought up is what it would do to the County’s budget,” state Department of Finance and Administration Spokeswoman and Senior Policy Analyst Nicole Gillespie said.
But the amount of revenue added to Rio Arriba County’s coffers would not quite be as high, as Rio Arriba County has a lower gross receipt tax rate. The Rio Arriba County portion of Española has a gross receipts tax rate of 7.5 percent, whereas the Santa Fe County section of the city has a rate of 7.625 percent.
Much of the impact will be felt not by residents, but by Santa Fe County, which would lose a portion of its tax base and some of its population and would have to foot the bill for an election if the annexation went through.
Montoya said any attempt by the city to leave Santa Fe County would not be easy.
“He’s definitely got an uphill battle in front of him in terms of getting this done,” Montoya said. “There’s only one situation like that in recent memory and there hasn’t been any in Santa Fe County since it was formed in 1912.”
The one case Montoya referred to was that of the Village of Corrales.
In 2004, former Corrales Mayor Gary Kanin started a similar push to annex about 500 residents of the village of Corrales out of Bernalillo County and into Sandoval County.
Kanin cited several reasons for initiating the annexation petition process, many of which are similar to those mentioned by Maestas.
“There was also confusion as to who should respond to calls for fire and police protection and the responsibility would get passed around,” Kanin said. “And a lot of the taxes for Bernalillo County did not relate to Corrales. Basically, those residents had to pay taxes and got nothing in return.”
In order to gather the required number of signatures Kanin said he organized groups of people to gather signatures from village residents.
The measure passed, and it was implemented in 2005, Kanin said.
In Española, Maestas will have to pull together a strong base of support to gather enough signatures for a petition, which could mean mending a sometimes tenuous relationship with the Council.
Several councilors and city administrators said there were several valid reasons to leave Santa Fe County, but that the issue would need to be further discussed before any action was taken.
“There are some compelling arguments to get out of Santa Fe County,” Councilor Alfred Herrera said. “But I don’t want to trump them when the city doesn’t have the best track record in providing its residents with services. We can’t cast stones when we live in a glass house. There are a lot of issues involved in that, which all need to be brought to the table.”
Councilor Danielle Duran raised the issue of whether the city was going to annex Sombrillo, which is part of Santa Fe County, as one factor the city needed to consider.
A group of Sombrillo residents petitioned the city to annex the community in December. But the annexation was put on hold to allow Santa Fe County to complete a groundwater study in Sombrillo. The County was supposed to complete the study, which would determine the best way to address the community’s contaminated groundwater, in April, but the project has been stalled by turnover in Santa Fe County’s Utility Department, Montoya said.
Interim City Manager Veronica Albin also raised concerns about how future annexation would be affected by the city moving out of Santa Fe County.
“The issue with annexing Sombrillo is that if we aren’t in Santa Fe County and end up annexing Sombrillo, it puts us back in the same boat we’re in now,” Albin said. “I think that should be considered now, which is no small feat. Do we try to include boundaries outside of the current city limits and include other people who don’t really want to be in the County, too?”
New Mexico Municipal League Executive Director Bill Fulginiti said that although such a move is rare, he could understand Maestas’ motivation to tackle such an endeavor.
“The Mayor is trying to manage relationships with two county commissions, different sets of legislators, two tax rates — it’s kind of counterproductive in a lot of ways,” Fulginiti said.
Rio Arriba County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya, whose county would be on the receiving end of the possible annexation, said the County would likely be able to accommodate the remainder of the city, should it be annexed.
“I don’t anticipate that there would be much impact on the County government,” Alfredo Montoya said. “Most of the services that aren’t municipal are already served. Even though there are boundaries, they are kind of fuzzy. There’s a portion of Chimayó in Santa Fe County, but for all practical purposes we provide trash and Santa Fe County takes care of fire protection.”
Alfredo Montoya said if Española completely left Santa Fe County for Rio Arriba County there would not be a drop in services for city residents, as might have been expected in the past.
“Fifteen years ago it wouldn’t be attractive to come into Rio Arriba County,” Alfredo Montoya said. “But we’ve made changes. We’re up to date and making big strides. I don’t think a lack of services is an issue anymore.