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State Official Urges APS Tax Hike; School Board Decided Against Including Raise in February Election

Posted on: Monday, 12 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By ANDREA SCHOELLKOPF Journal Staff Writer

Albuquerque Public Schools needs to increase its taxes in order to begin addressing school needs, according to a top state official who heads the agency that ranks school construction needs.

But the district's school board has decided against including a tax increase in its February general obligation bond election, which would renew the current bond obligation and generate $125 million over a four-year period.

Robert Gorrell, executive director of the Public School Finance Authority, compared the district's situation to "being in the middle of a forest fire with a small hose."

Gov. Bill Richardson announced this week that he will seek $290 million in state funds to assist fast-growing districts with needed schools, including $115 million for Albuquerque to complete construction of two West Side high schools.

However, Richardson told APS that, to receive the money, the district would have to commit to two elementaries and two middle schools for the West Side, which would cost an estimated $90 million.

Only partial costs for land acquisition and design for some of those schools are included in the upcoming APS bond election.

"Even with this, their capital needs -- as I have reviewed their master plan -- will probably need another mill in taxes to take care of all the schools in their community," Gorrell said in an interview Tuesday. "Albuquerque doesn't have enough money."

APS earlier announced a $1.3 billion deficit in construction needs.

The district has an overall tax rate of 8.278 mills per $1,000 of net taxable value. That equals about $413.90 a year for the owner of a $150,000 home, based on Bernalillo County tax information.

An increase of half a mill would raise the overall tax by $25 annually, according to the county rate.

The school board, reluctant to ask for a tax increase, instead has decided to first exhaust all possible resources -- such as selling or leasing vacant land and trying to find ways to economize on construction projects.

But a future tax increase is not completely out of the question.

"We have to do right for our community," board member Paula Maes said Friday. "We need to look at that fat. If we cannot do it there, then we can look at (increasing) a tax rate."

On Thursday, more than 60 parents, principals and district administrators met in the Del Norte High cafeteria to discuss options for funding school facilities.

Among them, West Side parents were convinced of the need for a tax increase, while those from other parts of town were looking at other ways to increase efficiency from their tax dollars.

"Raise our taxes and we'll have more money to build schools," said Anne Fortin, an Osuna Elementary parent who sat in with the West Side group.

One group, made up primarily of Northeast Heights residents, wanted the city to look at planned communities that include schools like some in Florida and for the city and schools to work together. They also favor looking at corporate sponsorship in building schools and partnering with day-care organizations.

"This is not a school problem," the group wrote on its list of ideas. "This is a city issue."

Matheson Park Elementary principal Pat Littlebird said APS should look at how other districts have solved their construction needs.

"They have to start fresh," Littlebird said.

Among the other suggestions:

Stop building schools with flat roofs, saying maintenance costs are too high.

Instead of building big schools, create smaller schools in vacated buildings -- such as those built for Eckerd's Drug Stores that never opened.

A sub-group of mainly charter school parents said they wanted the charter schools to have freedom to lobby the Legislature for their own schools' construction needs -- although state law requires the money to be docked from APS state construction awards.

Board member Mary Lee Martin said the district will ask the City Council to waive impact fees for school construction projects, which can potentially tack on millions to the cost of a $100 million high school.

APS lobbyist Alan Armijo said schools are also being limited this year on what they can ask for from the Legislature because the money will be docked from any construction awards the district gets from the state as part of an equalization process.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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