Procedural mutiny: ABQ City Councilors overrule Council President to block tax ballot measure – Jesse Jones, The Paper
Taxpayers in the Duke City will not see a proposed gross receipts tax increase on their November ballots after city councilors used a procedural move to stop the measure before it reached a vote.
During the Aug. 3 City Council meeting, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn used a parliamentary challenge to block Council President Klarissa Peña’s Resolution R-26-58 from advancing through the President’s Letter of Introduction. Citing Robert’s Rules of Order, Fiebelkorn argued the proposal was substantially the same as three gross receipts tax measures the council rejected earlier this year. “Strategic editing doesn’t create a new question,” Fiebelkorn said, arguing that changing the percentage allocations did not make the proposal different.
The council voted 7-2 to uphold the objection and remove the measure from the agenda, with Peña and Councilor Brook Bassan voting to allow the proposal’s introduction.
Peña pushed back against the procedural move during the meeting and in a post-meeting statement. “I am deeply disappointed by the procedural maneuver taken tonight to defeat R-26-58 before the public ever had the chance to weigh in,” Peña said in an official press release following the meeting.
She added during the council meeting that the vote “took the ability away from you, the voters, to make the decision.”
With the measure off the table, city leaders must address staff vacancies and employee pay issues within the existing budget.
What stayed the same:
- Same tax rate: Both the earlier proposals and the new measure would impose a 0.4875% municipal gross receipts tax increase.
- Same funding goals: The proposals would use the new revenue for city operations, maintenance, capital projects and community improvements.
- Same workforce concern: Each measure points to the city’s employee pay gaps identified in the Classification and Compensation Study, also known as the Evergreen Study, as a reason for additional funding.
What changed in the new proposal:
- Shift in funding priorities: Earlier proposals split revenue evenly, with 50% going to general operations and 50% going to capital improvement projects. The new measure shifts the split to 53% for operations and 47% for capital projects to prioritize ongoing city services.
- Employee pay requirements: The proposal requires at least 6% of operational revenue to go toward employee base wage increases, to reach half of the salary levels recommended in the Evergreen Study. Those funds cannot be used for benefits, payroll taxes or administrative costs.
- Capital funding would expire: The 47% portion dedicated to capital and community improvement projects would automatically end after 21 years under a new sunset clause.
- District-by-district funding: Capital improvement revenue would be divided equally among the city’s nine council districts, with one additional share dedicated to citywide projects.
- Spending protections: The measure adds “supplement, not supplant” language requiring the new revenue to add to existing city funding rather than replace it.
New Mexico state veterinarian says more screwworm cases ‘headed this way’ — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
While no new cases of New World screwworm have been detected in New Mexico for more than a month, the parasitic fly “definitely is headed this way,” and a widespread infection would quickly exhaust the state’s resources, the state’s top veterinarian told state lawmakers Tuesday.
Samantha Holeck, state veterinarian with the New Mexico Livestock Board, told legislators that the state is urgently finalizing a program that would increase the number of certified livestock inspectors to help private veterinarians, along with state and federal officials, contain a screwworm outbreak.
The pest, which has advanced rapidly through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades, is named for the maggot’s behavior of feeding on live tissue.
The fly made its first new incursion to the United States in early June, when it was detected in a south Texas calf, and then officials identified a separate infection in a Lea County dog in New Mexico a few days later.
Since then, the number of cases has increased in Texas and in Mexican states along the U.S.-Mexico border. As of Monday, Texas tallied 43 total infections, including eight new cases. Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico, has 57 cases, a case count Holeck said has “risen rather quickly.”
As a result of those spikes in cases, Hoseck said more infections in New Mexico are inevitable.
“We’ll have much more than just a single isolated case,” she said.
The infestation of maggots causes severe wounds that can result in injury and deaths of pets, wildlife, livestock and — in rare cases — people. The risks to livestock, especially in the eastern part of the state where cattle operations are most concentrated, have state officials most worried, Holeck told lawmakers on the interim Federal Funding Stabilization and Affordability Subcommittee.
The lack of federal support adds to her concern, she said. The United States Agriculture Department currently employs three federal field veterinarians for the whole state, she said, following widespread cuts to the department last year.
While the USDA is rapidly trying to hire new staff in New Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hoseck said that process could take up to four more months. The state, which also has only three field veterinarians, will likely have to recruit private veterinarians if the screwworm outbreak worsens.
“If it becomes much more prevalent here, similar to what’s going on in Texas, even our accredited veterinarians will be tapped out fairly quickly,” she said. “Imagine if this gets into the east side of the state, into our very concentrated dairy population. It’s going to be a challenge, significantly.”
The state is finalizing curriculum to certify additional inspectors, she said, through a one-day course in which students will conduct “nose-to-tail” inspections of cattle and also learn about the biology of the fly. Texas launched a similar program in early June. The free, online course grants recipients the authority to certify that animals are safe to be transported, among other duties.
Hesock said launching a similar program in New Mexico is “critical.”
“If the outbreak expands here, then we can activate additional individuals to help maintain the continuity of business for the livestock industry in New Mexico,” she said.
