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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Estancia Looking for Ways To Save

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
      The Estancia Board of Trustees again discussed ways of cutting some corners at their June 19 meeting.
    “It's tight because we don't have much gross receipts tax. We're a small community without a lot of businesses. A tremendous amount of what we work with is grants, and that's what keeps us going. Small Cities Assistance was reduced and this really hurt us by $70,000. We hadn't planned on that,” said Mayor Martin Hibbs.
    Officials last talked about the town's budget at their June 5 meeting.
    Earlier this year Estancia received a Small Cities Assistance check for fiscal year 2008 for $49,975.95 as compared to last year's check of $120,075.38. The money came from the Small Cities Distribution Act, calculated by the Taxation and Revenue Department using population and gross receipts tax, said Nicole Gillespie, senior policy analyst with the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
    State of New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department Economist Clinton Turner said the department had already examined Estancia's small cities “distribution and checked its accuracy due to the large decrease.”
    According to Turner, the “factor responsible for the large reduction” is lower taxable gross receipts in fiscal year 2006 and higher taxable gross receipts in 2007.
    Taxable gross receipts are an indicator of economic activity that Estancia businesses have, Turner said.
    Reporting over the last few years of some businesses in Estancia reflects a “dramatic” increase and decrease in revenues, but the TRD does not suspect fraudulent activity, Turner said.
    These “year-to-year changes” have been responsible for the variable Small Cities Assistance checks that Estancia has received over the last four years, varying from $35,000 to $119,834, Turner said.
    Those variations in assistance monies leave the town trying to pay bills.
    “These will be the first (swimming) lessons that we've had” since the pool opened this season, said Janice Barela.
    The problem was that the pool's heater was not working and the town could not afford a $6,000 repair bill that a repair company required.
    Another company, Ross Plumbing & Mechanical, charged the town a little over $1,000 for the cleaning and reassembly of the heater, said Town Clerk Tammy Meyer.
    “He did a Band-Aid approach as well as he could. It's working great. The temperature for the water has been good,” Barela said.
    Because some tree branches hang over the roof of the Williams Family Memorial Library, trustees approved a contract with Twin Pine Tree Trimming.
    Owner Rick Crabb told trustees he would be able to finish the work in three days, but trustees only approved a two-day contract.
    Hibbs told trustees he has tentative plans to get the trolley running for the day of July 4th.
    Hibbs hopes that a discussion he had with Executive Director of Mid-Region Council of Governments Lawrence Rael and an official from New Mexico Department of Transportation will result in money to keep the trolley running.
    “If MRCOG and DOT can make it work for us, then we can figure out how many hours they can operate the trolley,” Hibbs said.
    In other town business:
    Barela told trustees that Friday would be her last day as administrative assistant at the Estancia schools and pool administrator. She has taken a position with the district attorney's office at the Seventh Judicial District Court.
   

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