Our View: Labor Day weekend Santa Fe High runner shoots Zozobra? We’ll take it Opinions, B-2 to stardom at meet Sports, D-1
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Locally owned and independent
www.santafenewmexican.com $1.25
The ‘fire’ of faith During solemn Easter Vigil, Pope Francis urges Catholics to remember their beliefs. PAGE A-2 Miracle that cleared way for Pope John Paul II’s sainthood brings fame to Costa Rican. PAGE A-2
A ‘monuments man’ of our own
Ludlow Massacre at 100 Deaths of 13 in southern Colorado camp helped spark labor reforms. PAGE C-5
Photograph ties late Santa Fe man to World War II mission to locate, return art stolen by Nazis. PAGE C-1
Common Core revolt Resistance from the right has GOP reversing course on education standards PAGE A-5
Property tax rolls gaining accuracy, to owners’ surprise Assessor: Yearslong county appraisal effort finds $343M in omitted improvements By Bruce Krasnow The New Mexican
Passengers on a southbound Rail Runner train to Albuquerque are shuttled to city buses after the train fatally struck a bicyclist Saturday. JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
W
hen Santa Fe County Assessor Domingo P. Martinez came into office in 2007, the tax rolls were a mess — thousands of properties were not being taxed at all, while some owners were paying too much and others, almost nothing. And there were complaints. Today, more property than ever is valued at what the state has determined is fair market — and hundreds of guesthouses and casitas that were never on the tax rolls are being being assessed both current and back taxes, some going back 10 years. Yet for Martinez, who leaves office Dec. 31 after serving two terms, some things have not changed: There are still complaints. After a massive countywide residential reappraisal, Martinez said more homes than ever before are valued at 90 percent of market, the level sought by the state Department of Taxation and Revenue. The result has been more accurate information about what homes are worth and how improvements affect values. What that means is that some neighborhoods are seeing significant declines in assessed valuations for the first time in years. “Reappraisals don’t have the goal of increasing taxes and collection of taxes. What it does do is ensure equity,” Martinez said. But it also has meant that 1,573 property owners are paying for additions or improvements that
Please see TAX, Page A-4
Bicyclist fatally hit by train 60-year-old woman’s death is second fatal accident in week for Rail Runner By Uriel J. Garcia The New Mexican
Chuck Simandl, with Kansas City, Mo.-based Tyler Technologies, collects photos of homes in the Nava Adé neighborhood in April 2012, part of an effort by the Santa Fe County Assessor’s Office to update assessments of all the homes in the county. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Number: 2,048 Total value: $945 million Owners’ estimate: $505 million Final adjusted value: $759 million
Santa Fe County Assessor Domingo P. Martinez will leave office Dec. 31 after two terms and a massive countywide reappraisal.
2007 to 2014: 1,572 accounts Taxable value: $343 million Total taxes: $7.27 million
City, residents have different motivations for choosing a more sustainable path The New Mexican
The city of Santa Fe is aiming for more renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings and solar-powering stations for electric vehicles. Tax analyst Laird Graeser is aiming for the same, powering his super-insulated house with solar panels. He hopes that one day soon he’ll also be able to use the sun’s energy to power a car. For the city, these actions primarily are about doing its part to help save the planet and help its citizens adapt to climate change. For Graeser, it’s more about financial security over the long run than saving the planet. Regardless of the reasons, the city and local residents such as Graeser are taking the kinds of actions an international panel of scientists says are needed worldwide to slow
Index
Calendar A-2
2008: $6.55 2009: $6.70 2010: $6.89 2011: $6.79 2012: $6.89 2013: $6.87 2014: $6.44
OMITTED PROPERTIES ADDED TO COUNTY TAX ROLLS
FOR THE EARTH OR THE BOTTOM LINE By Staci Matlock
TOTAL TAXABLE PROPERTY IN SANTA FE COUNTY, IN BILLIONS
2013 VALUATION PROTESTS
down climate change. The U.N. International Panel on Climate Change has released its latest climate change report in three sections over the last several months. In April, the panel published recommendations on how countries can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and reduce climate change impacts. Among those recommendations are increasing solar, wind and other renewable energy supplies, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, using the most efficient manufacturing technology and improving urban planning.
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Ray Brown Jazz concert with Seattle bassist Michael Glynn, 3-5 p.m., $35, call 989-1088 for tickets and venue directions
Christine M. Baca, April 16 Dorothy (Jeanne) Gabaldon, 76, April 13 Rae C. Garduno, April 13 Delfino Richard Montoya Sr., April 13 Sandra Ramirez, April 13 Julian F. Roybal,
88, April 13 Ramona Ruybalid, 90, April 15 Donald Silversmith, 71 April 17 Rosanne “Roni” Rae Sugarman, March 5 Joann (Josephine) Tapia, 65, April 10 Manuel C.J. Tapia, 54, April 14 PAGE C-2
A wise investment
Today
Graeser, who has worked for the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue and the
Partly sunny, chance of rain. High 69, low 45.
Classifieds E-7
PAGE D-6
See SUSTAINABLE, Page A-7
Local News C-1
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Lotteries A-2
Neighbors C-6
Please see TRAIN, Page A-4
Arizona tribe first to test law, prosecute non-Indian By Sari Horwitz
Yours Truly
Obituaries
A southbound New Mexico Rail Runner Express train struck and killed a female bicyclist at about 11 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of Zia Road and St. Francis Drive, the commuter train’s second fatality in a week. On Monday, a southbound train from Santa Fe to Belen hit Mary Odell, 67, of Albuquerque near Second Street and Prosperity Avenue in Albuquerque. According to witnesses of Saturday’s collision, the 60-year-old Santa Fe woman was wearing headphones as she was riding her bike westbound on Zia Road, said Santa Fe Police Department Lt. Andrew Padilla. The woman’s identity was withheld pending notification of her family. The area was closed for about seven hours as crews investigated the accident. Augusta Meyers, a spokeswoman for the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which oversees the commuter rail service, said trains generally travel at about 30 mph in that area, but the exact speed of the train involved in the collision won’t be known until inves-
Opinions B-1
Real Estate E-1
The Washington Post
PASCUA YAQUI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. — Tribal police chief Michael Valenzuela drove through darkened desert streets, turned into a Circle K convenience store and pointed to the spot beyond the reservation line where his officers used to take the non-Indian men who battered Indian women. “We would literally drive them to the end of the reservation and tell them to beat it,” Valenzuela said. “And hope they didn’t come back that night. They almost always did.” About three weeks ago, at 2:45 a.m., the tribal police were called to the reservation home of an Indian woman who was allegedly being assaulted in front of her two children. They said her 36-year-old non-Indian husband, Eloy Figueroa Lopez, had pushed her down on the couch and was violently choking her with both hands. This time, the Yaqui police were armed with a new law that allows
Sports D-1
Time Out C-8
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
Indian tribes, which have their own justice system, to prosecute nonIndians. Instead of driving Lopez to the Circle K and telling him to leave the reservation, they arrested him. Inside a sand-colored tribal courthouse set here amid the saguaro-dotted land of the Pascua Yaqui people, the law backed by the Obama administration and passed by Congress last year is facing its first critical test. The Pascua Yaqui, along with two other tribes chosen by the Justice Department for a pilot project allowing the prosecution of nontribal men, received the go-ahead to begin enforcing the law a year ahead of the country’s other 563 tribes because tribal officials made the case they were able to protect the rights of the accused. Some members of Congress had fought hard to derail the legislation, arguing that non-Indian men would be unfairly convicted without due process by sovereign nations whose
See PROSECUTION, Page A-4
Six sections, 76 pages 165th year, No. 110 Publication No. 596-440