Voters in Bernalillo County and surrounding areas will decide whether to increase property taxes to support conservation efforts.
Currently, the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District relies solely on grants, state and federal funding to provide services like tree thinning on residential properties in the East Mountains, expanding education opportunities for children and providing a nature preserve in Albuquerque.
Board chairman Steve Glass said the mill levy on the ballot would result in small increases in property taxes. For the average residential property in the district’s boundaries, that would be an estimated $16 annually.
The mill levy on the ballot is up to 0.25 mills.
“Soil and water conservation districts work tirelessly across the state,” Glass said. “Ours happens to be in the middle with most of the people, but we work in every realm of natural resource protection on behalf of all of our citizens.”
This is the first time in more than 20 years that the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District has asked voters to approve a mill levy. Glass said in 2003 the district sought funding through a mill levy, but that measure ultimately failed.
The Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District encompasses most of Bernalillo County, with the exception of the Isleta Pueblo. Its eastern boundary is in the Sedillo Hill area of the East Mountains. The district also includes a small portion of Santa Fe County as well as parts of Sandoval County, including all of Rio Rancho. In total, the district encompasses about a million acres of land.
“As soil and water conservation districts go in New Mexico, it’s one of the we’re one of the smaller ones land wise, but we are the biggest population wise,” Glass said.
The district has existed for about 80 years, but its reliance on grants has made it hard to do some types of planning.
“The reality is that we could be so much more effective if we could plan five years in the future rather than two years in the future,” Glass said.
Having a steady funding source that the district could rely upon year after year could help its ability to plan for the future and better serve the residents, he said.
Additionally, Glass said the mill levy could allow the district to go after different types of grants that require monetary matches and to be more competitive when pursuing grants.
Funding sources like grants are increasingly requiring monetary matches or asking for the recipients to pay a larger portion of the total cost of the project.