Hobbs Municipal School District (HMSD) is having a “Special Mail-In Ballot” election on August 24. Ballots will be mailed out in July. These ballots will ask HMSD voters to renew the district’s soon to expire two- and four-mill property tax levies. The renewal of the levies is nothing new. It has been going on for decades, although the actual process of this summer’s election is different.
Specifically, the electorate is being asked whether the existing property tax of “$2.00 on each $1000.00 of net taxable value of property” and whether the existing property tax of “$4.00 on each $1000.00 of net taxable value of property” should be renewed for HMSD capital improvements for the property tax years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 states the resolution passed and adopted by the HMSD Board of Education on March 16, 2021.
Renewal of the levies will generate about $6,000,000 each year for HMSD. “We’re not increasing any taxes. There’s no rates that are going up by maintaining this [the renewal of the levies],” stated acting HMSD Superintendent Gene Strickland at a recent Hobbs Rotary Club luncheon. In real figures property owners will be taxed $198.00 annually for every $100,000 worth of property. According to Strickland, this breaks down to 0.55¢ per day per $100,000.
The money generated from the levies will be used for maintenance, upkeep, technology, safety and security, as well as for playground equipment, ground maintenance, ground surfacing, roofing, air conditioning maintenance, furniture and carpeting replacements, joint use agreements with the City of Hobbs and such.
According to Strickland, the school district is this summer cutting into the floors in various buildings and doing about $1,000,000 of work on the sewers. All of the funds to pay for this work have been generated through the mill levies. One hundred percent of the tax money realized from the levies goes into the HMSD operating budget, comments Strickland. “No longer is any of that millage going to Santa Fe for redistribution.”
This year or next, HMSD wants to install ZEROEYES artificial intelligence technology to trigger an alert before a gun shot is fired, explained Strickland. Passage on August 24 of the renewal of the levies would provide the necessary funds for this important safety improvement to Hobbs schools. During his comments Strickland noted that statutorily the dollars from both the two and four-mill levies cannot be used for teachers’ salaries and/or bonuses but only for capital improvements.
This summer’s special election is new to HMSD. Not only is the election titled “special” but it is also special because voting is only conducted by “mail-in ballot”. What this means is that on July 28 the Lea County Clerk will mail out about 25,000 ballots, comments Strickland in a video posted on the HMSD’s Facebook page.
Voters will have nearly a month, until August 24 by 7:00 pm, to submit their ballots. The fate of the Hobbs school district’s mill levy for the next six years will be determined by the election results. An HMSD statement said, “An expiration of Levy would severely limit Hobbs ability to maintain facilities, purchase technology and provide safety and security components.”
The scope of this summer’s “Special Mail-In Ballot” election with 25,000 ballots being mailed is much larger than HMSD traditional elections. Normally, only about 5,000 individuals participate in HMSD elections, and they participate in person, says Strickland. The new “mail-in ballot” procedure puts a whole new light on HMSD elections, and the potential outcome is anyone’s guess.
Mail-in voting is the outgrowth of the 2018 New Mexico State Legislature’s overhaul of the state’s election laws. The revamping eliminated school districts’ General Elections and placed such elections in the regular November election cycle. The result is the need for school districts to hold “Special Mail-in Ballot” elections when bonds or levies expire outside of the November election window.
Titled the “Local Elections Act”, legislators passed the 2018 law to save taxpayers money and reduce “voter fatigue” by having elections just once a year, in November. But for school districts the new law has created numerous problems, including funding gaps. Even more problematic is the fact that, unlike municipalities, school districts do not have the option to “opt out” of the law.
Consequently, the need for HMSD to have a “Special Mail-In Ballot” election on August 24 is mandatory. Strickland reminds taxpayers that Hobbs mill levy, its tax dollars, “go to help keep our campuses clean, safe, secure for our students and our staff to receive a phenomenal education….our campuses, our district, ranks in the top ten every single year in terms of facility maintenance, facility repair and condition.”
Hobbs School District taxpayers have a serious decision to make in August. Strickland hopes that they will choose to allow Hobbs Municipal School District to remain in the top ten when it comes to facility maintenance, repair and condition.
You may be one of those taxpayers who will decide the outcome of this very important election for the Hobbs Municipal School District, the children it nourishes, its staff and the general public. Your vote counts. Learn as much as you can about the renewal of the mill levies before casting your vote.
