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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Anderson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/23/08

HJR 4

SHORT TITLE Senior Citizen Property Tax Exemption, CA

SB

ANALYST Francis

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

FY10

NFI Recurring

Local Governments

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Joint Resolution 4 proposes to amend Article 8 of the New Mexico constitution to provide

an exemption in valuation for persons over 70 years of age and reductions in valuation for

persons 65 to 69 as follows:

Age Reduction in Property Value

65

10%

66

20%

67

40%

68

60%

69

80%

70

100%

If enacted, the amendment would be submitted to the voters for approval at the next general

election.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

As with other property tax exemptions, the fiscal impact is borne by those property owners who

House Joint Resolution Bill 4 – Page

2

are not exempt as their rates would rise to meet the revenue requirements imposed primarily by

general obligation debt. If a community has a large population over 65 years old, there may be

revenue impacts if the local government decides it cannot raise rates.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

TRD notes that the “language of the proposed measure would require the exemptions, rather than

allowing the legislature to consider the exemptions and pass appropriate enabling legislation

following voter approval of the amendment."

TRD highlights that that the measure would not take into account income of individuals

receiving the exemption. “Hence young, low-income individuals who do not receive the

exemption may object to the fact that their elderly counterparts, whom in some cases are quite

wealthy, do receive it."

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Other property tax related bills considered include HB295, HB324, HJR1, HJR6, SB177, and

SB355.

NF/mt