BY DAVID HAMPTON
White Rock

Editor’s note: The Los Alamos Reporter has discovered that a resolution passed by the UNM-LA Advisory Board Monday evening may not be valid as there was no agenda or notice of the meeting posted on the UNM-LA website. The resolution was to propose a .5 mill bond on the fall ballot for Los Alamos County. The Reporter has reached out to UNM-LA Chancellor Mike Holtzclaw for a response.

I strongly support UNM-LA’s mission and view it as essential within our community. I further strongly agree with the proposed capital improvements as necessary to the mission.

That being said, I’m concerned that the proposed bond, approved on Monday night (4/8/24), is not the right way to pay for it. At County Council Tuesday night (4/9/24), Dan Osborne, our Housing and Special Project Manager within Community Development, provided information on our Affordable Housing Plan. We learned that 13% of Los Alamos County households pay more than 30% of their household income for housing costs, putting them in the distressed, or cost burdened, category. A .5 mill increase to these people would not be insubstantial, and would increase the number of people who fall into the distressed category.

On top of that, our state and local governments have been the beneficiaries of immense windfalls from oil and gas extraction revenue and GRT tax over the past few years. That the state expects local populations to provide a 25% matching for capital improvements is both unreasonable and unnecessary with these windfalls in mind, especially when the impact will disproportionately fall on the most at-risk parts of our population.

As we move forward with the bond campaign, please take bond impacts into consideration and address possible mitigations and alternatives.

Thank you.