Fabi Romero called me Saturday very upset because at the County Commission work/study session Friday two people from the tax&revenue dept. reported that the amendment to the zoning law passed Nov. 7 would trigger the revocation of the 3% cap on property tax increases. I called Gerald Nichols who told me that the State Assessor had contradicted this information, saying that it would not trigger the loss of the cap. So, in case you have heard about this from someone else, that is more recent news. Gerald promised to let me know of any changes. He also told me that the cap is on buildings only, not vacant land. The County is in the process of reevaluating vacant land now. Gerald also told me that the loss of the cap would mean that the entire county would have to be reassessed to full market value, a task he said the County Assessor’s office is ill-equiped to undertake. He can’t imagine how it could be accomplished, but he acknowledged that the 3% cap is a temporary fix that cannot be maintained without giving up all hope of any zoning changes anywhere in the county at any time, not a likely or desirable outcome.

I asked him what he thought would be the effect to individual property owners of a countywide reassessment to full market value. He said that he thought it would cause an increase of not more than 5% at worst. As the total amount on which the property tax is based goes up, the tax rate goes down (the budget being unchanged) so that in theory there should be no increase. However some properties may be underevaluated, and some over.

What has this to do with DesMontes having a neighborhood zoning ordinance? Gerald told us that if and when we write a zoning ordinance and it is accepted by the County Des Montes would be reappraised with no 3% cap This, if it happened would not be good for Des Montes because we would be appraised higher than the rest of the County. This is one reason why we would favor a county wide appraisal. Also, it will take, I expect, a couple of years for us to create our zoning ordinance and the 3% cap law may change in the meantime, or we may all be reappraised at full market value. It is obvious that the tax and revenue dept. wants to do this. I don’t think we should let this problem prevent us from going ahead with our project.

Upper Las Colonias has already done their zoning ordinance and Stagecoach will go before the Commission in January. I have also heard that Seco-Valdez is enthusiastic about doing an ordinance for their neighborhood. We will have others in the same boat, and maybe some solutions by then.

I have written at some length because I am hoping not to spend a lot of time at the meeting trying to explain this. If you have questions, email me first if possible.

Thanks, Linda