Editorial

Hold Your Nose, Then Vote Yes For CNM

(For an opposing viewpoint, click here)

Voters are about to decide if Rio Rancho will be brought together once and for all in one taxation district for higher education, most notably Central New Mexico University (previously known as the Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute.)

That's right, it started as the Albuquerque TVI before the school dropped the city designation a while back. Only recently did it change the name completely. These name changes, as much as anything, serve as a foundation for trying to understand a complex issue that dates back many years.

This issue cuts deep. It the most divisive North-South issue since the Civil War, and its history is almost as complicated.

Before the Rio Rancho Public System was formed, students who lived in Rio Rancho were educated in one of three districts - Bernalillo, Albuquerque or Jemez Valley – depending where they lived. Parents paid taxes to those districts to educate their kids. Parents north of Northern Boulevard paid Bernalillo or Jemez; those in the south sent money to Albuquerque.

As an added bonus, all students in Rio Rancho, regardless of what school district they attended, qualified for the same programs (and tuition) at TVI, then an extra APS program that offered mostly technical training outside of high school for a fee. (Yours truly took a radio broadcasting course at TVI back in the day, earning high school credit – “Disco 89, KANW, the Mounds of Sound.”)

Later, though, the mission of TVI changed. Since it was moving toward a post-secondary role, it split off from the Albuquerque Public Schools and formed its own taxation district. But under the law TVI still used APS boundaries, which included southern Rio Rancho, as the borders of its own tax area.

There was no problem until the Rio Rancho Public Schools were born. At that point, tax dollars that had been going to APS went to support Rio Rancho’s school district. But the TVI tax area didn’t shrink like the APS area did, and the TVI tax for those living south of Northern remained – much to the chagrin of Rio Rancho residents.

Those living south of Northern have rightfully raised hell for years because all kids in Rio Rancho were eligible for TVI tuition rates, but only they were paying taxes. They were creative in their anger, even showing up at meetings wearing tea bags and waving signs about “taxation without representation.”

And all along TVI officials promised a permanent campus in Rio Rancho if and when the tax district became unified, which was supposedly the carrot at the end of the stick. Actually it was attempted extortion. Many Rio Rancho residents on both sides of Northern rightfully became distrustful of the TVI administration, especially when a new campus was built in West Albuquerque and not the City of Vision.

And just when you think it couldn’t get worse, things escalated. First, the state tax office and the county assessor discovered that the old school district boundaries (and thus the TVI tax line) wasn’t actually Northern, but a few blocks further north along even older Rio Rancho Estate one-mile section lines. That meant more than 800 properties and another $600,000 was added to the TVI tax zone, and the school made noises about suing for back taxes from those owners before backing off.

Then TVI, in an effort to blackmail northern Rio Rancho residents, decided to start charging out-of-district tuition rates for those not in its tax zone. Several groups responded with anger, and the city even appropriated money to set up a legal fund about four years ago in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Now the whole mess is back before the voters again. Short of state Legislative intervention or court ruling, the ballot will be the only way to fix this.

There are actually two separate votes, depending on where you live. Those Yankees in the North have to agree to be taxed, and us Johnny Rebs down here in the South have to agree to welcome our neighbors from the North into our district. But remember the last time them Yanks came down – you don’t need a Civil War chess set to know we end up calling them carpetbaggers and it set Reconstruction and civil rights back 100 years.

This time, though, our Northern neighbors would be welcome as they lessen the tax load we’ve been carrying for years. And as a resident in the tax zone, it only makes sense to vote yes and welcome my brother residents with open arms (and wallets), as sanctimonious and pretentious as that is.

Were my residence in the north, that’s another matter. The increased cost is about  $119 per $100,000 in property valuation. Come to think of it, if you can find me a $100,000 house in that area, a moving van will be ready to relocate me in a heart beat. Better figure close to double that per anum in costs for most residents.

This issue is unique in many ways, not the least of which the way it has affected local politics. Arch enemies Jim Owens and Mike Williams actually agreed to battle TVI to the death on this when Owens was mayor and Williams city councilor; now that Williams is mayor and Owens a careful observer from outside, both think it is time to move on.  Owens even figures the promise of a $20 million building from TVI would just about be equal to the amount of taxes TVI has, in his mind, illegally collected over the years.

A lot of people a whole lot smarter than me are backing CNM. All the shakers and movers seem to be aligned behind CNM this time around, but I still don’t like it. CNM has spent $300,000 to push its message through newspaper and radio ads, and everyone from economic development folks to the regional chamber to the Sandoval County Commission appear ready to jump overboard to kiss the ring of new CNM president Katharine Winograd. Everyone seems to think the change of administration at CNM signals a new beginning, and all feel assured by her promises of a permanent campus in the new downtown area.

Where have you heard that before?

And what really makes one leery are comments attributed to new University of New Mexico president David Schmidly, who says that a new UNM presence in downtown Rio Rancho depends on a positive vote for CNM. Again, it’s the carrot, the blackmail, the threat.

If all goes well, Schmidly said, he also plans to ask for up to a quarter-cent gross receipts tax in Rio Rancho to help build a new UNM campus here. Whoa! Is Schmidly asking for Albuquerque residents to cough up another quarter cent on everything they buy to remodel The Pit? Construction costs should be handled from the capital outlay sources the state has for bricks and mortar, not taxpayer pockets. Rio Rancho needs to keep its gross receipts tax rate low to try to attract more commercial activity and compete with Albuquerque, which in the long run will generate much more income than any added consumer taxes.

But my biggest issue is I don’t like having a gun held to my head, which is what Schmidly is doing. I have to give him credit for doing it in the open, ahead of the election, but the gun is still pointed just the same.

Still, I hate voting against education in any form for many reasons, not the least of which is that is the potential answer to so many of our violence-related issues (gangs, drugs, etc.)

The bottom line is that this issue really stinks. This is a lot like driving to Amarillo – when you get to the miles of open cattle pens near Wildorado and the smell of excrement is in the air, you hold your nose with one hand and the steering wheel with the other.

The same smell is in the air here. Faced with the choice as a Northern resident, I’d hold my nose with one hand and reluctantly vote “yes” with the other – this time. But I don’t blame voters who will say “no” a bit, and given the surprising Sports Complex North vote I wouldn’t be surprised if the Northern voters killed the deal, if for no other reason than to gain a little retribution against the rest of the city that helped shoot down their park.

One thing is for sure: When Mr. Schmidly comes calling in the future, I’d make him turn around and take another route. Rio Rancho is big enough now that UNM, CNM and other groups are going to come here anyway, simply because they see the untapped market and want our money. And now, for the first time, economic pressures and falling enrollment mean they’ll have to do it sooner rather than later. They shouldn’t be able to hold us at gunpoint. Our leaders need to start making sure that they get that message.