Tax proposal gets business opposition

QCS Managing Editor

Representatives of small businesses Thursday protested the 0.125 percent gross receipts tax increase to fund the area’s emergency communications system that county voters will decide upon in Tuesday’s special election.

The small business representatives registered their objections before the Tucumcari City Commission during public comments at the commission’s regular meeting.

The tax would fund the formation of an independent agency for the area’s emergency communications system now housed at the Tucumcari Police Department under day-to-day management by the city’s assistant fire chief, Scot Jaynes, but paid for in funds distributed by the Tucumcari-Quay County Emergency Communication Board.

At Thursday’s Tucumcari city commission meeting, Kelly McFarland, a Tucumcari accountant, was joined by Yvette Peacock and Yvonne Braziel, who own the Del’s, Kix on 66 and Rockin Y’s restaurants in Tucumcari, to protest the proposed tax increase.

McFarland said the tax would raise Tucumcari’s gross receipts tax burden to 8.375 percent, the sixth highest in the state. The tax, he said, forces price increases that make Tucumcari businesses uncompetitive, compared to other New Mexico communities, such as Clovis, whose gross receipts tax rate is 7.825 percent, or Albuquerque, whose gross receipts tax rate is only 7 percent.

The effect on prices, he said, is enough to send Tucumcari residents elsewhere to make purchases at lower costs, eroding the city’s tax base.

Further, he said, the tax will raise prices in Tucumcari restaurants and motels, which will detract from tourism, one of the city’s mainstay industries. Including lodger’s taxes, he said, the tax rate on motels will rise to 13.375 percent. Motel guests, he said, are asking why Tucumcari’s room taxes are so high.

McFarland also said the tax would be imposed for an invalid reason. Procedural issues involving the dispatch center, he said, would be better resolved through meetings between the agencies than through a tax increase.

In addition, he said, the emergency dispatch center handles on average one 911 emergency call per hour, which he said does not warrant creation of a new agency and a tax increase.

Tucumcari Police Chief Jason Braziel, however, said that each 911 call generates multiple radio dispatches from emergency responders, and the dispatch center must coordinate communications and manage the dispatching of police, fire and emergency medical vehicles and personnel for each 911 call.

Peacock said the new gross receipts tax will “add a tax we don’t need,” and will not address more urgent concerns such as vandalism and illegal drug trafficking in the city.

“We’ve had several windows shot out,” she said, “and replacing each of them costs $1,000.”

Jaynes said he understood business concerns and said the emergency communications group’s decision to seek the tax increase was a “tough call.”

“The simple fact is it’s getting tougher to meet the expenses of running dispatch,” he said. ‘We’ve got to meet those expenses one or the other. We wish there were some other way.”

One of the largest portions of calls to the dispatch center, he said, comes from travelers on I-40, he said, and the tax, which would be added to prices travelers pay for goods and services purchased in Quay County, is one way for I-40 travelers to pay their share.

In addition, Jaynes said, the dispatch center often trains dispatchers only to see them leave for other locations that pay better. The tax increase, he said, would allow the dispatch center to raise pay levels for dispatchers.

Larry Wallin, Logan’s village manager and chair of the emergency communications committee, said the tax increase is the only way that Logan residents can avoid a rate increase specific to the village for emergency communications services.

Wallin, too, pointed out that new dispatch equipment will be needed soon and expenses for the facility are rising.

Motel guests may need emergency assistance of some kind while staying in Quay County, he said, and a small increase in room rates helps to pay for service to out-of-town guests when needed.

Currently, Jaynes said, Tucumcari and the county each pay 45 percent of the dispatch center’s budget, with the villages of Logan and San Jon, and Harding County pay for the remaining 10 percent. All funding currently comes from general funds of each community.

Tucumcari Mayor Robert Lumpkin pointed out that the special tax for the emergency communications center is not the same measure that he has proposed for the city, which has yet been formally presented to the city commission. The city’s measure, he said, would not be an additional tax, but a temporary redirection of funds fom an existing tax to defray the cost of disposing of the Sands Dorsey building downtown and possibly other city improvement projects.

Lumpkin said he does not anticipate action on the city’s tax redirection until next year.