New Mexico Votes

Introduced in the House on January 20, 2009

The vote was 66 in favor, 0 opposed and 4 not voting

(House Roll Call 1478 at House Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

 As a Veteran and a fair tax advocate, I am against this bill. I would rather see legislation to remove all group exemptions. There is no reason that the individual residential property owner should have to pick up all the cost of bonds and levies. It's easier for groups to raise the money to pay the property tax on their facilities then it is for seniors on fixed income, and there are a lot of senior citizens these days called baby boomers. 

I would rather see all exemptions for individuals and it should be base on their ability to pay the taxes. For example, low income, disable, fixed income, etc.

 

The more I think about this resolution the more I think about the 'cost' to each community to provide services to these group institutions. If there is a break-in, who do they call? If the water main in front of their facility breaks, who do they call? If the street develops pot holes, who you they call. If the large tree limb falls from a wind storm, who do they call? They have all the same services that the individual residential home owners have BUT without paying any property taxes to cover those cost. For me, these group exemptions are unfair and unjust. There are 123 churches in Roswell New Mexico and all of them are exempt. Some of those churches have large compounds with many buildings that require a lot of services from the City. For me, property tax is part of the facilities operating cost just like mortgages, utilities and maintenance. Time to remove these group exemptions and provide individual exemptions only where there is a serious financial NEED. With the government growing leaps and bounds, I would even include them in the scenario. If the government wants us to share the wealth, then they should share the tax burdon. Maybe that would slow them down with all those requirements for more tax dollars. We need to start somewhere and non-passage of this resolution could be a good start.