All three Albuquerque Public School (APS) ballot questions received a loud NO vote on Election Day. What this means is that property taxes won’t increase and because the existing bond issue was defeated, property taxes should decrease slightly for property owners in the APS school district.
By now, if you live in the APS area (including Bernalillo County and parts of Sandoval County) you should definitely have received one of these ballots in your mailbox. These must be returned by February 5th. We encourage you to vote, but before you do, consider whether APS needs more of your tax dollars or to better manage the money they get now. What does NMBC think?
NMBC received some great information on the APS tax election from one of our followers. The below information was written by Amy Horowitz, a retired businesswoman who is a homeowner/taxpayer in Albuquerque:
Albuquerque property taxes are out of control!
If you haven’t bought or sold a home lately you may not grasp the magnitude of Albuquerque’s property tax burden. Nobody wants to talk about it and the numbers aren’t easy to find. But here are five things you really should know before you vote – either personally or as a legislator -- on any tax increase.
Does APS think money grows on trees? It doesn't and their harvest of our tax dollars needs to be carefully scrutinized. APS wants to deny the truth, but when publicly questioned, they find it hard to evade the facts:
Mainstream media hasn't been covering it much, but it could come down to this locally if we aren't careful. New Mexico political officials who plan to raise fees, taxes and increase…
We're sure many of you have voted by now, but we also know that things come up and many have not. You can find early voting locations HERE. Tomorrow will be the last day for in-person voting and locations will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Here's some new information that just came out from OpenTheBooks.com. This scorecard has ratings for Congressional transparency. Above, you will see the scores for Representatives Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Lujan who both received an "F", and Representative Steve Pearce who received a "B".
NMBC was pleased to see that the scorecard from OpenTheBooks is non-partisan and uses objective standards to determine scores, much like we do. Here is a link to the full scorecard. For those skeptics out there, it is noteworthy that Representative Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, received the worst grade of any Congressman with an "F" with 22%.
How about the Constitutional Amendment questions on the ballot? Given the unquestionable problems with ethics, corruption and abuse of public office that exists in New Mexico, the need for increased investigation and accountability is unarguable. As one of only a handful of states without an Ethics Commission, we should follow the best practices of other states and avoid the pitfalls too. But here’s the thing voters should ask, “Is this something that should be in the state constitution?” NMBC’s position on this issue is that our state legislators should pass appropriate laws to adjudicate and fund an Ethics Commission, which does not require a constitutional amendment.