We had a great visit to Jefferson Montessori Academy on Wednesday, where we talked about the election process and the different branches of government at the federal, state and local level.
JMA’s students displayed an outstanding understanding of how government works, and on now the election process takes place. We talked about different roles and responsibilities ranging from the county clerk and county assessor up through the Supreme Court. The JMA students also asked us some excellent questions about government, such as how we managed through COVID, how you adjust to population changes, and how you balance a City budget. The students were preparing their own election at the school and they were looking for some suggestions. Special thanks to JMA Principal Kelli Barta and teacher Shawna Frederick for the invitation.
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Legislative update: SB 136 and SB 137 have now been introduced to the New Mexico legislative session, which will help address some of the concerns caused by 2019’s House Bill 6, which made changes to New Mexico’s process for business reporting sales tax. SB 137 will provide a partial, temporary remedy to this issue, while SB 136 will protect communities who are seeing the most negative impact by excluding oil and gas production services from destination-based sourcing. Carlsbad is a growing city, and the responsibilities we must meet have only increased lately. An Associated Press article reported Hobbs estimating a loss of $20,000 to $25,000 a month, but this appears to be an error. We’ve spoken with Hobbs, and their estimated loss is actually a bare minimum of $600,000.00 a month. Carlsbad’s concerns are possibly even greater.
We have spoken with a number of private business owners who are experiencing their own concerns with the implementation of House Bill 6, as they now have to keep track of the location where they provide every single service. This has created a bookkeeping nightmare. Let’s hope for some improvements to this very big problem.
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New Mexico Realtors has released its housing statistics for December of 2021. Eddy County reported 664 homes sold in 2021, which was higher than Chaves or Lea County. The median price of a house sold here was $245,000. There were 51 homes sold here in December, 197 active listings and 52 pendings listed. Let’s hope we can continue to see improvements to our housing market.
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If you are concerned about a family member’s addiction, Lifehouse is offering a service called the Family Empowerment Project. The focus of this program is to help teach life skills like using positive reinforcement while maintaining healthy boundaries. These programs are being offered on Wednesday nights from 7-8 p.m. at 1900 Westridge Road. Please call (575) 725-5552 or visit www.carlsbadlifehouse.com for more information.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway