New Mexico Tax-Free Weekend is this week but school has already started in Southern New Mexico - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
While some New Mexico families prepare for back-to-school shopping this weekend, Las Crucens and many other Southern New Mexicans seemingly missed the opportunity to take advantage of the state’s annual tax break.
Classes started July 22 for public school students in Las Cruces and Deming. All grades started July 29 in Hatch and Lordsburg. And today, students attending Gadsden Independent Schools wore their first day of school outfits to begin a nine-week sprint to Fall break.
The longer school year means some people cannot plan their back-to-school shopping around the tax break. Some may find uses for larger purchases like laptops or everyday items that anyone, whether they are attending class or not, can find tax-free in New Mexico this weekend.
Gina Hathorn has an 8-year-old son who attends school in Las Cruces. She got his supplies before school started two weeks ago. Hathorn added that she might take advantage of this weekend’s tax break on larger purchases, such as for computers and accessories, but otherwise does not plan around the holiday.
This year is the first time New Mexico requires all public schools to have 180-day school calendars. This is in response to education reform mandates and a statewide push to improve student outcomes in schools across the state. Some of the 89 local school districts are exempt from the rule. Kids in 54 school districts in the state will be set for 180 days of school.
Kathy Beasley, a fourth grade teacher at Desert Hills Elementary School in Las Cruces, said she typically buys new school clothes and shoes for her own children on the tax-free weekend, which she still may do. But she prefers her classroom be set with supplies before the semester begins.
“I like to buy my supplies before school starts to help me feel prepared,” she said. “I have never used the tax-free weekend to buy more expensive electronic items, but that is a good idea.”
Since 2005, the state tax and revenue department has held the tax holiday beginning the first Friday of August. The weekend is often referred to as the Back-to-School Tax-Free Holiday as the date was chosen to be near the beginning of the public school semester. This year, the holiday will occur between Aug. 2 and Aug. 4.
The tax break applies to school and office supplies, certain clothing items valued under $100, computers valued under $1,000 and computer accessories valued under $500, according to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.
“The intent reduces the cost of school necessities, but citizens who do not attend school may also benefit from the tax-free weekend,” the state’s 2023 tax expenditure report reads.
Shoppers can expect to find athletic wear, baby clothes, diapers for babies and adults, undergarments, coats, sleepwear and other clothing items available for purchase without tax.
“This is a great opportunity for New Mexicans to save some money on clothes and other things they need for their families as children are heading back to school,” New Mexico Taxation and Revenue secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said in a news release.
Desktop and laptop computers are included on the tax-free list, along with accessories such as computer monitors, modems, speakers and printers.
While the tax holiday comes around each year, some Las Crucens were unaware and several, like Hathorn, were not interested in taking advantage of the tax break.
“I just don’t really pay attention to it,” Hathorn said. “I’ll go if we’re already out shopping, but it’s not something I, like, plan for.”
Ken Ruble and Julia Escarsega don’t currently have school-aged children, but were still not tracking that the tax holiday was coming up.
Escarsega said her husband recently made a large electronic purchase, but might have waited to do so this coming weekend if they had known about the tax break.
Ruble said he lives in Chaparral, near El Paso, and doesn’t often shop in Las Cruces. He also doesn’t keep track of when Texas has its annual sales tax holiday, which is Aug. 9-11 this year.
The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department provides a comprehensive list of items that are nontaxable online at https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FYI-203.pdf.
Legislation will provide $100M in emergency aid to victims of wildfires and flooding in New Mexico — Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed legislation that will provide $100 million in emergency aid to victims of recent wildfires and flooding in Lincoln County.
The spending bill includes $70 million for local governments to use as zero-interest reimbursable loans, $10 million for the Mescalero Apache Tribe losses, $10 million for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to use for fire, flooding and debris-flow damage, and $10 million for Federal Emergency Management Agency application assistance.
House Bill 1 was the only piece of legislation passed during the recently completed special session.
"The Legislature's failure to prioritize public safety for New Mexicans during the special session is deeply disappointing," Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "However, I am relieved that we managed to secure aid for critical recovery efforts in communities damaged by fire and flooding."
The southern New Mexico village of Ruidoso was ravaged by wildfires in June and then battered off and on by flooding across burn scars.
Authorities said two people died and over 1,400 structures in Ruidoso were burned in one of the wildfires that was caused by lightning.
Public’s last chance to give input on how to spend Opioid settlement funds this weekend — Daniel Montaño, KUNM News
The public will get its last chance this weekend to give its input on how the city and county should spend millions of dollars fighting the opioid epidemic.
Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque are hosting on Saturday the final town-hall style public meeting soliciting input on how they should spend their share of opioid settlement funds.
The City and County decided to pool their funds to maximize their effects since they are essentially serving the same population, and decided to freeze spending of any more funds until a strategic plan could be developed.
The one-time funds will come in annual payments until 2039, and combined the county and city will be receiving more than $135 million total. Since the funds eventually will dry up, officials say they must be spent carefully on programs and projects that will continue to pay dividends years down the line.
At previous meetings seeking input, attendees suggested everything from expanding harm reduction and peer support workers, to help with housing, transportation and even sites to safely use narcotics. Community members also urged lawmakers to defer to experts and local providers when crafting the plan.
The meeting will take place from 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the International District Library on Saturday Aug 3.
Former city councilor on the still-closed visitor center: ‘It’s a boondoggle and a money pit’ — Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
There’s still no opening date for the decades-in-the-making West Central Route 66 Visitors Center, though construction was completed years ago. Even so, one former city councilor thinks the long delay might be the least of the city’s worries at the shiny 21,000-square-foot facility with pristine views of the Sandia Mountains.
Albuquerque city councilors are scheduled to talk about it Monday when they meet for the first time since a summer break. On the agenda for a vote is legislation filed by Councilor Klarissa Peña that would create a visitors center commission.
The interior of the two-story facility features a Route 66-themed museum, banquet/event hall, gift shop and a taproom/brewery with a high-end commercial kitchen. The exterior has a large amphitheater and a neon sign park.
But the prospect of a visitors center that serves alcohol in a remote area of the city — it’s located at 12300 Central Ave. NW about 10 miles west of Downtown — has raised concerns. Securing a liquor license has also proved difficult.
“As a member of the City Council and someone in love with the city, it seemed to me to be a bit dangerous and stupid to serve alcohol in a way out place,” former City Councilor Trudy Jones said. “First of all, it’s a visitor center — one designed to attract people going by on I-40. How would you like it if we over-served a tourist who went out on the interstate in the wrong direction and got killed and killed a whole family?”
Jones is newly retired from the City Council and was one of its longest-serving members at 16 years. She’s been critical of the visitors center from the start.
“The maintenance is horrific. I mean, there’s nobody there, nobody takes care of it,” she said. “They have to pay someone to clean it. They have to pay for the utilities. There’s nothing positive.”
Peña, who’s been a main force behind the project, describes such criticism as finger pointing by naysayers.
“Most people embrace it or are waiting for it or longing for it — but sometimes people from outside like to point fingers and say lots of different things,” she said. “The visitors center is nothing but a beautiful, beautiful story that someday, I hope, gets told about the community banding together to create change.”
The city became the sole manager of the visitors center earlier this year when Bernalillo County officials voted to transfer ownership and responsibility of the $13.7 million facility. It had previously been under a city-county intergovernmental agreement.
The county’s transfer to the city was, at least in part, due to complications obtaining a proper liquor license.
“The county doesn’t do government liquor licenses, which is required as part of the facility. [It’s] incorporated into it to have an event center and a taproom,” Peña said.
However, Jones thinks county officials saw the writing on the wall.
“[The county] didn’t want to take all that money out of their coffers to keep that monstrosity open,” she said. “It’s a boondoggle and a money pit. Everything about it was a special interest project. Now the city’s budget is being thrown at this building just to keep it alive and keep it from falling down.”
‘TOP DOLLAR FACILITY’
Randy and Denise Baker, the owners of Rio Bravo Brewing Co., previously showed interest in operating the taproom/brewery — to give it a local flavor — but those plans never panned out. Still, the longtime South Valley residents think the idea has merit.
“The facility is amazing and is top dollar in all aspects,” Denise Baker said. “If they ever actually open, it will provide an excellent option for events and concerts. Hopefully, it will open one day.”
“The South Valley and the Westside are limited on venues — unless you go to Route 66 Casino [Hotel],” Randy Baker said. “So we like the idea, but they just couldn’t figure out how they were going to run it. There’s a lot of things that they could do to make that a very intriguing and receptive place.”
Peña hopes her proposed commission will help connect the missing pieces and expedite an opening date.
“The idea is to form a commission to help so that [the visitors center] operates like an Explora, like the Albuquerque Museum — where you have people who are invested,” she said.
Peña said she’s been invested for 30 years and is likely the project’s biggest supporter. Her involvement, and that of her husband Johnny Peña, started before she was first elected to City Council in 2013. Johnny Peña is a longtime board member of the West Central Community Development Group (WCCDG), the nonprofit that once held a contract to manage the visitors center.
“He started this journey with me many years ago. We were young parents trying to raise our kids and trying to make a difference in our community and create change,” Peña said. “He has been serving as a volunteer for as long as I have, and he actually deserves the most credit of all the volunteers who have been serving their community all these years.”
The WCCDG was previously awarded a $500,000 contract, but Peña said her husband never personally profited from it. She expects the WCCDG to remain involved, however.
Her proposed commission would consist of seven voting members and two non-voting advisory members to be confirmed by the City Council. It would include Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, two city councilors, four representatives designated by the WCCDG, and advisory members from Visit Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce.
EXPENSES MOUNT
Officials say there’s still a long list of tasks to be completed before the visitors center can open. Now under the purview of the city’s Arts & Culture Department, the facility needs audio/visual equipment, short-term exhibit upgrades, phone and networking systems, parking lot lighting, elevator repairs and outdoor signage.
Contracts need to be secured for landscaping, cleaning and security. A two-year plan needs to be developed for exhibits, and staff positions need to be created and filled.
“Most fire safety requirements have now been met,” Arts & Culture spokesperson Tanya Lenti said. “This week, department leadership will be meeting with a landscape architect to gain valuable insights on the planned [neon] sign park.”
In the meantime, the visitors center has hosted neighborhood association meetings and an occasional tour and special event. Lenti said the Route 66 Centennial Coordination Group and its stakeholders took a tour in June, and collaboration is underway with the coordinators of the Route 66 WestFest for a September event.
“With the appropriate level of resources and financial support, we expect to be fully operational by 2025,” she said. “We are committed to ensuring that the facility is well operated, sufficiently staffed, and an engaging cultural asset for our communities.”
ECONOMIC BENEFITS TOO?
Hopes have been high in Peña’s District 3 since the idea of a visitors center first germinated among community members in the neighborhoods of West Central in the early 1990s. It was touted as a project that would bring new development to the area and be an economic boon to the city at large.
But years after its construction, there’s no sign of those hopes coming to fruition. There are also concerns that so many years later, the draw of a visitors center has diminished as tourists book hotels, find out about events, and get restaurant recommendations online.
Peña isn’t worried.
“It’s something community members see as an avenue to bring visitors from across the city, from across the nation and from across the world — to take in the entire stretch of the historic Route 66,” she said. “We see it as an economic engine to spur economic development as a gateway into our wonderful city.”
Peña expects that the visitors center will highlight city attractions like the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. It would recommend places to stay, visit and learn about the city.
“We also wanted, especially, to create a place for us,” Peña said. “If you look at District 3, there are no museums. There’s no real large cultural asset. We don’t have the Balloon Fiesta, we don’t have [New Mexico] United [soccer], we don’t have [Albuquerque] Isotopes [baseball].”
The facility would also host weddings and other private events.
“There is nothing out there to revitalize,” Jones said. “It’s sitting in the middle of a freaking desert with an arroyo running through it. There’s no business. There are very few homes.”
Peña argues that the critical focus on the facility’s delayed opening is overblown.
“It’s really interesting, because people forget that we had a pandemic,” she said. “When we finally got the money to actually break ground, we had a pandemic and as a result we had escalating costs, we had delays, we had complete stoppage of building it.”
She said that scheduling a ribbon-cutting event, which took place in September 2022, still made sense even though the facility wasn’t ready to open.
“Because we knew how excited the community was about the building,” Peña said. “We wanted to show people the progress we’d made. We still have a few things that need to be addressed before we can fully open.”
Meanwhile, Jones thinks the best-case scenario for the city is to give the facility to a nonprofit.
“It’s just expensive. It was designed for this idea that people are just going to kind of wander off I-40 and run into it,” she said. “There’s nothing there. They don’t even have a sign on the interstate. It is one of the most blatant and expensive examples of politics.”
Bernalillo County closes pools for fecal parasite Cryptosporidium — Daniel Montaño, KUNM News
Bernalillo county is closing all of its pools to fight the spread of a waterborne parasite that can cause extreme gastrointestinal distress.
Cryptosporidium is a parasite that lives in fecal matter and causes a disease that comes with intense diarrhea, and it has been detected in swimmers in two cases at City of Albuquerque pools.
The county said it is cleaning and disinfecting, as well as super-chlorinating all its pools during the closure, and they will reopen when it’s deemed safe to do so.
An official says there haven’t been any confirmed cases at county pools, and they are following the steps, quote, “out of an abundance of safety.”
The county will conduct water tests every hour and follow CDC guidelines during the super-chlorination, and they’re following similar steps that the city has taken after detecting its two cases.
Residents can check on the closures at BernCo’s Aquatic Page.
The county will still be holding the final day of its Summer Lunch Program tomorrow at all pool sites as scheduled.
NM Gov’s latest stop on public safety tour is Española, where tensions rise about a homeless camp - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday made Española her third stop on an impromptu public safety tour, hearing from more than a dozen people who spoke up to say they are very concerned about crime, drug addiction and homelessness.
TJ Lopez, a resident of northern Rio Arriba County, said he thanked the governor, on behalf of his daughter, for expansion of early childhood education, but he was worried about the rest of her life. He asked for more sheriff’s deputies in his area.
“What is there for her to look forward to if she can’t be safe?” he asked.
The governor responded that the Legislature has spent heavily on police recruitment and retention in recent years.
The town hall in the city of around 11,000 people, also a rural hub in northern New Mexico, started as some people are up in arms about a homeless encampment along the Rio Grande. Previous visits were to Las Cruces and Albuquerque, the two biggest cities in the state. Lujan Grisham suggested at the town hall that her tour was not over.
The governor started the town hall tour after lawmakers refused to take up a slate of public safety measures during a special legislative session she called on July 18. At Northern New Mexico College on Tuesday, attendees passed by a table stacked with petitions from the governor’s office that asked the Legislature to “prioritize the well-being of New Mexicans.”
“We are right on the precipice,” Lujan Grishamsaid around 9 p.m. at the Nick Salazar Center for the Arts Theatre, which filled with more than 200 people and slowly emptied throughout the night. “We have to fix it.”
The governor’s special session agenda would have made it easier for police to involuntarily commit people with psychiatric diagnoses or for courts to hold them in jail. It would also ban loitering on certain medians across the state and raise penalties for having a gun if someone has a prior felony conviction.
Lujan Grisham took more than a dozen questions in Española for nearly five hours on a wide variety of topics related to mental illness, crime, homelessness and drug abuse. Several who spoke began their comments with mentioning how many loved ones they’d lost to drug overdoses, including one woman raising a young relative born with disabilities due to drug exposure in the womb.
“My cousin literally was dropped off at my home four years ago, and since then I’ve had to advocate on my own. I’ve got no guidance or no help. I’m tired. I’m tired of crying,” said the woman, who didn’t give her name.
Alongside Lujan Grisham were the mayor and police chief of Española, the governor of the Santa Clara Pueblo and several high-ranking staff members. Attendees applauded loudly when she called for stricter penalties on fentanyl dealing and on clearing out the homeless camp in town.
The governor did not directly address why she made Española the third of three announced stops for the tour. She did note that she would like to replicate the city’s panhandling ordinance that went into effect in November 2022.
“We want it statewide, and we want the enforcement tools to do it statewide,” she said.
The Española ordinance bans people from loitering on unpaved medians and medians that are less than 36 inches wide. The governor wants to ban loitering on medians that are less than 36 inches wide in areas where traffic speeds are 30 mph or higher.
Lujan Grisham said New Mexico was becoming known as a state that is less strict about public camping, encampments and other aspects of homelessness, which she said is drawing people from other states to come and live on the streets here.
“When you have this environment, it’s permissive. So other states are saying, ‘You should go to New Mexico. Nothing will happen. You won’t get arrested, and if you do, you’re out in 12 hours.’”
The day of the governor’s town hall, the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released its point-in-time count, an estimate of homelessness trends in the state. It found homelessness is continuing to rise throughout the state, both in Albuquerque and towns like Española, to its highest points since at least 2008.
The survey included responses from about 1,000 people living unsheltered in New Mexico outside of Albuquerque. Of them, about 280 told surveyors they were from out of state, including 56 people from Texas, 24 people from Colorado and 39 people from Arizona. The survey did not specify how many people in Española were surveyed.
Four questions from residents related to the homeless encampment that has caused tension in the area. On Monday, city staff arrived at the encampment but did not clean it, as they’d threatened to do, according to Española City Councilor Sam Ledoux . The lack of action frustrated Ryan Martinez, an Española and employee for the state Health Care Authority.
Martinez listed off all of his frustrations with the encampment and the crime he said was associated with it. He called on the city to clear people out.
“We have this encampment here in town next to the river, like I say, in the middle of our community, and it seems like our city is enabling these people,” he said.
Española Mayor John Vigil apologized to Martinez for what he said was his mistake in trusting “city staff” recommendations on how to handle the encampment. He promised that the city would take action soon to clear people out and said the City Council would be taking the lead on next steps.
Lujan Grisham said the state’s approach to encampments should be to reach out to those who are living there and connect them with services.
“But also you make it clear there’s accountability, that services doesn’t mean that you can steal and you can be a felon and you can do open drug use, which is a crime,” she said. “So I really want New Mexico cleaned up.”
The governor’s team wrapped up the town hall around 10:15 p.m., nearly five hours after it started.
“Be safe as you get home,” she said to the roughly dozen people who’d sat through the entire meeting.
Vasquez introduces legislation aimed to help with patient debt - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
No one expects to need to go to the emergency room or get a life-changing diagnosis, both of which usually come with bills of varying amounts depending on the patient’s insurance situation.
U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez introduced the Patient Relief Act to help those who may not be able to pay those medical bills.
The Democrat, who represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, introduced the bill Tuesday. The bill seeks to provide relief and protections to Americans with medical debt by setting up a grant program that allows non-profit organizations to buy debt from hospitals while codifying patient protections from debt collectors.
“Suffering from a medical emergency should not mean putting your home or family’s future at risk – but too often, New Mexicans are faced with significant medical debt that threatens their financial stability. My bill will protect patients and ensure that debt collectors cannot foreclosure on homes simply because of medical debt,” Vasquez said in a press release Tuesday. The Patient Debt Relief Act will provide relief to those suffering from medical debt while ensuring long-term protection for patients all over the country.”
Medical debt affects more than 20 million Americans which affects Black and Hispanic populations disproportionately, the press release said.
“The Patient Debt Relief Act prevents creditors from foreclosing on a home or seizing wages due to unpaid medical bills. By cracking down on predatory debt collection practices and allowing non-profits to provide debt relief, Vasquez is ensuring that people are able to focus on their recovery, instead of their debt,” the press release states.
According to Vasquez’s office, the Patient Relief Act seeks to require hospitals to establish minimum standards for federal financial eligibility programs and require patients to appeal eligibility decision concerning those programs, prohibit medical bill interest charges for people who are living at or below 250 percent of the poverty level and prohibit hospitals from sending those people’s debt to collection agencies and authorize a grant program through the Department of Health and Human Services for outside organizations to identify eligible individuals with medical debt and work with hospitals to forgive the debt. Only one group may be appointed to do this each year.
“We know that thousands of patients across New Mexico, and more across the country, are being sued for unpaid medical bills — having their wages garnished, liens placed on their homes and their credit ruined — all while hospitals benefit from public funds,” Healthcare Attorney at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty Arika E. Sánchez said in the press release. “We commend and support Rep. Vasquez’s effort to prohibit hospitals from sending low-income patients to collections, placing liens or foreclosing on their homes to recover unpaid medical bills and garnishing much-needed wages.”
Co-sponsors of the legislation include Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán, D-California, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, D-Nevada, and Representatives Raul Ruiz, M.D., D-California, Kim Schrier, M.D., D-Washington, Shri Thanedar, D-Michigan, Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Florida.
US arrests at Mexico border are expected to drop 30% in July to a new low for Biden's presidency - By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the border to the United States from Mexico plummeted about 30% in July to a new low for Joe Biden's presidency, U.S. authorities said, raising prospects that a temporary ban on asylum may be lifted soon.
The U.S. Border Patrol continued making arrests Wednesday, the last day of July. But the monthly tally was expected be around 57,000 when all are tallied, down from 83,536 arrests in June, the previous low mark of Biden's presidency, according to two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because figures had not been released publicly. It would be the lowest monthly tally since 40,507 arrests in September 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic slowed movement across borders in many countries, including to the United States.
Even before Biden's Democratic administration invoked powers to suspend asylum on June 5, border arrests had fallen by about half from a record-high of 250,000 in December amid increased Mexican enforcement. Since June 5, arrests have fallen by half again, helping the White House fend off attacks by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans that Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have allowed the border to spiral out of control.
A volley of ads launched Tuesday underscores the prominence of immigration as a campaign issue in November's election.
The Trump campaign launched its first television ad of the general election cycle, dubbing Harris the "border czar" for an early assignment as vice president to address root causes of immigration in Central America and blaming her for a surge in illegal crossings under Biden's watch. After displaying headlines about crime and drugs, the video brands Harris as "Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal."
A Harris ad, posted online, highlights Trump's opposition to a failed border bill earlier this year that would have, among many other provisions, increased funding for Border Patrol agents and fentanyl detection. "There's two choices in this election: the one who will fix our broken immigration system and the one who is trying to stop her," the narrator says.
Neither ad mentions the drop in border arrests this year, but the latest declines may play in Harris' favor as many Republicans attack the Biden administration's new asylum restrictions as too little, too late.
The asylum halt would end if daily arrests drop below 1,500 over a seven-day average, a scenario that Customs and Border Protection officials are preparing for with arrests now hovering around 1,600 to 1,700 day. The halt would be reinstated if arrests reach a seven-day daily average of 2,500, a threshold of "emergency border circumstances" that was immediately met when the restrictions took effect in June. Immigrant advocacy groups are challenging the asylum measures in court.
Under the halt, U.S. authorities deny a chance at asylum to anyone who crosses the border illegally. Unaccompanied children are exempt, and others may seek asylum-like forms of protection that allow them to stay in the United States with a higher bar and fewer benefits, like the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Asked to comment on July numbers, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday referred to a statement last week that arrests had dropped 55% since asylum restrictions took effect.
San Diego was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in July, followed by Tucson, Arizona, an official said.
The biggest declines have been nationalities that are easiest to deport, including Mexicans, but people from other countries are also showing up less as other travel restrictions take hold, officials said. Chinese migration appears to have been slowed by Ecuador's new visa requirements and more U.S. deportations to China.