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-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

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Friday, April 27, 2001

Treasurer Offers to Negotiate

By Dan McKay and Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writers
    Bernalillo County Treasurer Alex Abeyta Jr. offered Thursday to negotiate a temporary solution with the city and other agencies that still haven't received a chunk of their property-tax revenue.
    Abeyta said that if the agencies haven't received their tax distributions by the time a bond payment is due, he will negotiate a settlement that allows the agency to make the payment.
    "If we can't get you the money you need" in time, he said, "we're willing to sit down and negotiate the amount."
    Abeyta made the offer during a meeting with representatives from several agencies that rely on the county to collect and distribute property-tax money.
    But Lawrence Rael, the city's chief administrative officer, said there is little to negotiate: Albuquerque wants the money its residents pay in property taxes.
    "We impose taxes — we expect 100 percent collection of those taxes," he said.
    In an interview after the meeting, Rael said: "I'm not interested in negotiating with the county."
   
Blamed on software
    A computer software problem, Abeyta said, has left the treasurer's office unable to distribute the tax money correctly — though many of the agencies and Abeyta disagree over how much is owed.
    Meanwhile, the county is distributing tax money based on what the city and other agencies received in 1999.
    Abeyta says the payments aren't far off from what's actually owed. Bernalillo County, he said, has already distributed about 90 percent of what's owed to the city and other agencies.
    "Every dollar that has been paid for taxes is accounted for and drawing interest," Abeyta said. "Your money is fully protected."
    But Albuquerque officials say the county owes the city $7.5 million in back property taxes. It needs the money to make a bond payment by the end of June; without the money, the city faces damage to its credit rating, Rael said.
    Albuquerque officials sent a memo to Abeyta on Thursday requesting information on how the undistributed tax money has been invested and how much is available for distribution now.
    During the meeting, Abeyta said the county has easy access to the tax money that's been collected but not yet disbursed.
    "Where we have the money should not be anyone's concern," Abeyta said. "It is in safe investments."
    Abeyta, who took over the treasurer's office in January, also said that he has hired an independent accountant to review his staff's work.
    County officials also said the software trouble that has delayed the distribution of taxes has largely been fixed. Abeyta said he expects to be up-to-date by mid-July — though some balances will be paid out before then.
   
Underpayments estimated
    The treasurer's staff must now go back and recalculate tax distributions for the past 16 months or so, county officials said. The treasurer's old computer system wasn't Y2K compliant, and the new $4.5 million software package was brought online in late 1999.
    Local agencies that rely on the county for tax collection — including the city, Albuquerque Public Schools and Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute — estimate the county's underpayment will total at least $23 million by June 30.
    Michael Vigil, APS associate superintendent, said the school district needs the money to make a payment in August. By June 30, the county will have underpaid APS at least $8 million, school officials say.
    "They've been giving us deadlines in the past, and none of them have been met," Vigil said in an interview. "I want a permanent fix. I want their books reconciled."
    Abeyta argues that the city and other agencies are miscalculating what they're owed. He said the groups might be overestimating property values or incorrectly accounting for tax protests and delinquencies.
    But Rael said the city has an excellent estimate on how much the county owes the city in underpaid property-tax revenue.
    "We've got a 10-year history of using our numbers and hitting our numbers on the mark," he said.
   
Audit prevented
    State Auditor Domingo Martinez, who attended the meeting Thursday, said Bernalillo County's computer problems have prevented his office from completing an audit of the county for fiscal 2000, which ended June 30.
    Martinez said he expects to finish the audit in late June after Abeyta provides auditors with information about tax collections and distributions. Typically, audits are completed in November.
    Abeyta should provide the calculations by mid-May, Martinez said. Auditors will perform a few "test samples" to make sure the county accurately calculated collections and distributions, he said.
    Harold Field, secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, also attended the meeting Thursday.
    The department could hire an accounting firm to represent DFA at the county treasurer's office as Abeyta's staff calculates distributions, Field said.

ABQ Journal

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001