Hospital receipts tax to be on ballot

Quay County commissioners on Friday unanimously voted to place the renewal of a hospital gross receipts tax on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election.

The current one-eighth percent tax raises about $200,000 a year to help operate Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari as a county facility. The tax first was approved in a special election in 1987. However, a new state law requires the consolidation of most local elections into general elections, so the hospital tax now must be voted on amid other general-election races in November.

County commissioners in a previous meeting expressed worry the gross receipts tax for the hospital would be misinterpreted as a new tax. Commissioner Sue Dowell reiterated that concern Friday.

“I think it is crucial a lot of people know and spread the word that this is not a new tax,” she said. “It’s vital that we continue our hospital.”

Dowell said she was concerned voters who were “fed up with politics” would vote down the hospital tax.

Trigg hospital is operated by Presbyterian Health Services, based in Albuquerque.

The Quay County board of commissioners rescheduled its meeting from the usual Monday (Aug. 27) to Friday to meet a deadline to place the ordinance on the Nov. 6 ballot.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved $2,000 in aid to the Tucumcari Public Library for the second straight year.

Library director Linda Gonzalez said the county’s money would be used for the summer reading program, which had about 250 children signed up for it this past summer.

Gonzalez said the library recently installed new interior lighting and soon would install new outdoor lighting and paint the exterior.

• Heard from county treasurer Patsy Gresham on efforts to install a debit and credit-card payment system for her office.

Gresham told the board the software, which likely will cost $8,000 of a budgeted $16,000, may be installed and operational before November.

The software comes from Tyler Technologies, which also has existing contracts with the county clerk and assessor’s office.

County manager Richard Primrose endorsed installing a debit and credit-card payment system in the treasurer’s office because he believes county tax collections are lagging because many consumers no longer write checks to make payments.

“We need to do this sooner than later,” he said.

• Heard from Darla Munsell, county road administrative assistant, who said County Road AI, known as Airport Road, would be closed for two weeks for work starting Aug. 27.

Dowell noted truckers often use the road as a link between Interstate 40 and U.S. 54. She asked Primrose whether the county could impose weight limits and stricter speed limits to curb truck traffic on Airport Road.

n Heard from Cheryl Simpson, county finance director, who said the county’s nine fire departments will receive $21,562 more than last year from the state fire marshal’s office.

• Heard from Primrose, who informed the board about $21 million in possible future road-improvement projects in Quay County on Interstate 40 on Tucumcari’s west side, two stretches of U.S. 54 and Highway 93 south of Russell’s Travel Center near Endee. Primrose said after the meeting there is no timeline of when the projects would begin.

n Heard from county fire marshal Donald Adams, who urged the board to consider placing handicapped parking on the west side of the Quay County Fairgrounds. “I think it’s important for our senior citizens” attending the fair, he said.

Adams also praised county maintenance supervisor Danny Estrada for his long hours at the fair.