By Roger Lanse

At its Thursday, Feb. 19, meeting the Silver City Town Council passed a notice of intent ordinance to raise the gross receipts tax by one-fourth of one percent pursuant to the New Mexico Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act.

Mayor Michael Morones said, "This has been an item that I've been thinking about for the last five years, being on the council and as mayor, and this has probably been one of the more difficult things that I've had to deal with simply because I don't want to increase taxes - I don't want to pay more taxes. We're probably a year too late.

"We've always been opposed as a government entity in Silver to pass taxes just for the sake of building our coffers - building reserve funds. If we didn't need it we didn't want to have it.

"Over the past four or five years, we've been struggling in getting grants and such" in a timely fashion.

"We've had very little ability to improve our community as our recession has started to wane," Morones continued. "We're still lagging behind everybody else and have not been able to move forward and this will help to mitigate that.

"We're probably not going to be getting a fix to 'hold harmless,' and this is going to be the first necessary evil to mitigate that. I fully support us bringing this notice of intent forward to the public so that we can have a discussion over the next month and allow for and solicit lots of comments as to the benefits and burdens this is going to create."

Assistant Town Manager James Marshall stated, "This quarter percent would basically bring the town back to revenue neutral, which means we don't have to cut services, we're able to maintain our police, fire, library and museum. So this is not a way to generate additional services. The state has kind of backed us into a corner."

"It's a necessary evil," District 1 Councilor Cynthia Bettison remarked. "Town Manager Brown has brought this before us the last several budget meetings and how we would go forward to fix the loss of revenue so that we can continue to offer the services that Mr. Marshall has mentioned.

"In order to continue to provide the services that we have and expect that quality of life, it's going to be critical that this tax goes forward.

"I think it's important to note that this is a notice of intent, and it opens up a series of discussions where people can come and talk to us about it. We do not impose taxes to raise excess funds. We only do it when it's absolutely necessary for us to continue to provide the current services that we have. This is specifically to ensure that we can continue to maintain the services we have in light of the reductions we're facing through legislative action at the state level. I am fully in support of this.

"I wish that we had other sources of revenue," District 2 Councilor Lynda Aiman-Smith said, "to make sure that your trash is picked up, to make sure that the water is clean, make sure that the library is open, make sure that the fire people respond when there is an emergency. I wish it was different."

"I agree with all of the comments made today," District 3 Councilor Jose Ray Jr. said. 'There is a possibility that we could lose some jobs on the city and that would hurt even worse. People would be out there without a job. Any decision that we make is not going to be very popular with everybody. Sometimes we have to do it in order to survive, and I hope the people will understand that."

Silver City resident Art Martinez spoke saying that nothing is more inevitable than death and taxes. This is a regressive tax, Martinez said, which would fall most heavily on our poorest residents. Many families say it comes to, Can we heat our homes? Can we feed our families? "I urge you to reduce the tax or not implement it at this time. Possibly a one-eighth of one percent rather than a one-quarter of one percent."

On another issue, Martinez, representing the Committee to Promote Democracy, brought up the subject of the Voter Convenience Center as it relates to voter access.

Bettison reported that she attended a New Mexico Department of Transportation meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17, regarding the Highway 90 Bridge replacement project, saying that the bridge will be closed for seven months and that the rerouting of traffic and the intersection of Highway 90 with Ridge Road And Cooper Street will be looked at closely.

District 4 Councilor Guadalupe Cano encouraged residents to come to the council meetings. "There are roughly 10,000 people on a certain Facebook page that has a lot of opinions about what's going on in town, but none of those people come to any of us to let us know what they are thinking."

City Clerk Ann Mackie reminded the council and residents of the regular municipal election to be held on Tuesday, March 3, to fill the Districts 1 and District 3 councilor positions. To be eligible to vote, she said, one must have been registered by Feb. 3. Absentee voting ends at City Hall on Feb. 27. Residents with questions may contact Mackie at City Hall, 534-6346.

Marshall referred to a recent resolution passed by the council regarding imposing limits on the interest that can be charged to borrowers from small loan companies, saying that not all legislators feel the same way.

Ronald Quintana came before the council requesting approval of a restaurant beer and wine license with on premise consumption for Q's Southern Bistro DBA Fry House. Quintana told the council the new restaurant to be located at 601 N. Bullard Street would be like the small Texas franchise named WingStop and would offer deep fried chicken and many specialty items. The council approved the license.

Regarding the bequest to the Silver City Library from the Fred S. Norton estate, Ted Lynn, Chair of the Silver City Library Board of Trustees, related to the council that "We currently have local bank account with a little over $20,000. We are prepared to accept this money from this estate and basically any other contributions to our Library Foundation."

Town attorney Robert Scavron said, "I spoke with Alex (Town Manager Alex Brown) earlier today and the options for the town was to take the money and put it into the town's funds as a line item or allow the Foundation to disburse the money with the proper controls. The Foundation is separate from the Board of Trustees who will have oversight over how to spend the money. The town manager has ultimate say over the dispensing of the money."