Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - "Lightning" could be ready to strike Las Cruces, but it has nothing to do with the weather.
It's all about increased property taxes.
Las Crucens William and Martha Beerman filed a "tax lightning" lawsuit Wednesday in state District Court in Las Cruces to legally challenge plans by the Do-a Ana County Assessor's Office to increase property taxes on his East Mesa home by as much as jolting 68 percent. The lawsuit comes after the Do-a Ana County Valuation Protests Board upheld a decision earlier this year by the Assessor's Office to raise taxes on the couple's property, off East Lohman Avenue near Roadrunner Parkway, by $599 more than what neighbors are being assessed.
The state Constitution requires that taxes be imposed equally and uniformly, and that annual property taxes be limited.
The lawsuit is the first to be filed in Do-a Ana County, according to Beerman. In a statement of issues filed by Beerman in District Court, he cited two previous state District Court rulings, in separate trials in Albuquerque, where judges there deemed that tax lightning was unconstitutional.
"The plaintiffs contend they are victims of the same unconstitutional discrimination as that corrected by New
Deputy County Assessor Andy Segovia, who was elected last month to become county assessor on Jan. 1, said he was aware of the lawsuit, and discussed it Thursday with a county attorney. Segovia said he is following the law as it stands.
"Those two lawsuits in Albuquerque are sitting in the (state) Court of Appeals right now," Segovia said. "Right now, the law is the law. There's ... county assessors across the state who are waiting to see what the Court of Appeals decides."
Segovia added that an amendment to the state law was almost passed last year by the Legislature, and he has heard another attempt to change the law could be made when the Legislature convenes in January.
"It is an issue that needs to be dealt with," Segovia said.
Steve Ramirez can be reached at (575) 541-5452.
Tax lightning
• Existing state law requires county assessors to charge additional property taxes if a house on a property has been sold in the past year.
• Judgments in lawsuits in Bernalillo County have found that the law is unconstitutional.
• The court decisions in those cases have been appealed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which has not yet ruled.
• The first lawsuit of this kind in Do-a Ana County was filed Wednesday.
