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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Estancia Stuck With Small-Town Problem of Not Enough Funding

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
      Estancia might be representative of struggles that other small towns in the state are facing in several ways, according to Mayor Martin Hibbs.
    "I think Estancia could be an example of the problem" that other towns face because of grant and legislative funding, Hibbs said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
    Earlier this year Estancia only got $49,975 through the Small Cities Distribution Act, a grant that is calculated by the Taxation and Revenue Department using population and gross receipts tax.
    Last year, that amount was over $120,000, said Nicole Gillespie, senior policy analyst with the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
    The decrease represents more than a 50 percent loss in funds to the town from the state.
    Gross receipts tax revenues are distributed to municipalities on a monthly basis from taxation and revenue.
    In the state the gross receipts tax is imposed on, among other things, sales of goods.
    A need for fiscal responsibility was discussed at an Estancia Board of Trustees meeting on July 3.
    Trustee Sylvia Chavez said she believed the town should look at cutting back hours at the pool.
    "Because I know the financial situation," Chavez said.
    "We're in the red across the board with the pool," said Town Clerk Tammy Meyer.
    Trustees acknowledged that cutting those hours would not win them any votes in upcoming elections.
    But the town has had to make some cutbacks.
    "We've been trying to be as conservative as we can with utilities and gas," Hibbs said.
    During the summer, however, the town basically doubles its number of employees.
    "We go from about 25 to about 50. The other problem is that we don't get reimbursed from those salaries and expenses" because they are established through grants, Hibbs said.
    Therefore, the fiscal problem is not a budget issue but a cash flow issue, he said.
    "We know there's a check in the mail but it hasn't gotten here yet," Hibbs said.
    Other municipalities in the state receive similar funding.
    "I can't believe that we're the only community to go through this thing. It's kind of sad that we have to go through our legislator (Rep. Rhonda King) to figure this out. We should be able to make a phone call or go to Santa Fe and get clear answers of what happened," Hibbs said.
    Clinton Turner, a state Taxation and Revenue Department economist, said the department had already examined Estancia's small cities "distribution and checked its accuracy due to the large decrease."
    But Hibbs said the problem is that state and town officials are not working "as a team."
    And the bigger problem is that citizens of Estancia and trustees have "lived for months" trying to deal with the cash shortfall, Hibbs said.
    Hibbs also announced at the trustees meeting that he has found a way to use the legislative money which had to be spent prior to the end of June for management of the town's trolley.
    Estancia signed a service contract with DFL Associates Inc., a company owned by Torrance County Project Office Executive Director Pat Lincoln. Lincoln has a contract with the county to manage and operate the various programs operated out of the project office.
    Lincoln's company will be assisting with promotions, scheduling and program building, she said.
   

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