Amid national and local tragedy, San Juan County Commission Chair Terri Fortner opened Tuesday’s meeting with a call for compassion and unity. Her remarks came ahead of a 2025 property tax report, a cannabis ordinance variance, and a $1.21 million state grant for bridge rehabilitation.
“We’ve really sustained a lot of tragedies in the recent past,” Fortner said, offering condolences to firefighter Daniel Stevens and his family after his father died and his brother was hospitalized.
Fortner cited the death of a 28-year-old woman over the weekend, thanked first responders, and referenced the Charlie Kirk shooting, a Ukrainian woman who was stabbed and “horrific shootings in Colorado.”
You know, this is the pain and the shock … that can bind us together, and we can feel really inadequate, but it is our shared humanity, our compassion, our care for one another that we find strength,” she said, and choose to live with greater kindness and respect.
She said disagreement can turn divisive but urged avoiding “dehumanizing one another.”
“So I would just ask each of us to commit ourselves to being people of compassion, of civility and of courage,” Fortner said, adding that Psalms 23 brought her comfort.
CFO Kim Martin asked the commission to order the county assessor to impose 2025 property tax rates.
She thanked municipalities and school districts for quickly returning validation forms.
“There’s a perception that the commission sets the property tax rates. However, that is not the case,” Martin said. “The New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration sets the rates.”
The commission must issue a written order to the assessor within five days of receiving DFA’s rate-setting order. For 2025, the deadline was extended to Sept. 19. The assessor then prepares and delivers the tax schedule to the treasurer by Oct. 1. The treasurer mails tax bills by Nov. 1.
Martin said yield control reduces rates to prevent revenue increases from reappraisals and valuation maintenance. Rates are adjusted downward based on rising property values.
She noted that yield control lowered nonresidential mill rates for 2025, a change last seen in 1997-98.
Because of yield control, aggregate tax rates are fairly consistent, avoiding large variations that would impact citizens, Martin said. Residential property tax rates decreased by an average of 0.14%, and non-residential rates decreased by an average of 0.17%.
The county last raised property taxes in 2005 for the water reserve fund, Kim Martin said.
The county’s gross receipts taxes provide a strong and steady revenue stream, helping maintain one of the lowest mill rates among New Mexico’s 33 counties. The county has also avoided general obligation debt for 34 years.
The state constitution caps property tax rates at 20 mills without voter approval: 11.85 mills for counties, 7.65 for municipalities, and 0.5 for school districts. San Juan County’s current rate is 8.5, second lowest statewide.
Yield control lowered nonresidential mill rates for 2025, a shift last seen in 1997–98. Rates adjust downward based on rising property values.
Item 2, a request for a variance from San Juan County Cannabis Ordinance 120 by Kannabis Klub LLC, was presented by Michele Truby-Tillen, Community Development director.
Truby-Tillen said Kannabis Klub proposed using an existing structure at 5641 Bloomfield Highway for a retail cannabis dispensary. The facility is within 300 feet of three residences. She said no nearby resident complained, and the item was unanimously approved.
Public Works Director Nick Porrell presented a resolution to accept a $1.21 million Transportation Project Fund grant from the New Mexico Department of Transportation for Bridge 8113 rehabilitation. He said the county was notified recently that the project is fully funded and designed.
He said the program began six years ago and has awarded the county $7.3 million across five projects. The $1.21 million grant for Bridge 8113 requires a 5% match, or $60,500, prompting the resolution, which passed unanimously.
The final item was a report from County Attorney Joe Sawyer, who said all five commissioners had toured the Adult Detention Center and found it to be in good condition.
Reports from elected officials and department heads will be covered in a subsequent article.
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