Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A “significant transition” in agriculture was a key topic in discussions about Roosevelt County’s final annual budget during Thursday’s regular Roosevelt County Commission meeting.
“The lack of water and with the struggles of water that we’re facing, we do not have the same agricultural elements within our county that we once did. We don’t have the farming. We don’t have the dry land farming, we don’t have the irrigated (farming). Our crop rotations have changed, it’s just have been a significant shift,” County Manager Amber Hamilton told the commission.
She said that the county is also keeping an eye out for dairy industries this coming year, as numerous farms have closed down or moved out due to the water situation that is affecting the county.
Despite these agricultural concerns, Hamilton said the county had faced a net increase of $175,000 due to property tax and gross receipts tax collections that are based on the 2023 fiscal year performance.
Another concern in the budget that Hamilton discussed was that the Roosevelt County Detention Center’s budget was over $4 million. She said it is a substantial part of the commission’s general fund budget and that the county is not being properly reimbursed at an equitable rate at the state level.
Hamilton said the New Mexico Counties organization is aware of the issue, and that county staff will continue to improve the situation and monitor the budget of the detention center. The current statutory allotment is at $5 million, but it should be aligned to about $7 or $8 million mark, said Hamilton.
“You’ll continue to see this as a priority. It was a priority for the last several years and continues to be a priority for New Mexico counties and one of their legislative pushes,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said that as long as the county continues to closely monitor these budgets and continues to be conservative in placing budgets on projects, there shouldn’t be any cause for major concern.
The commissions approved the resolution for the 2023-2024 fiscal year final budget with a unanimous vote (4/4).
In other items of business at Tuesday’s meeting:
• County Treasurer Layle Sanchez reviewed the commission’s cash balances for the months of April and May. In the beginning of April the commission’s general fund had just over $2 million, which had decreased to nearly $1.6 million by the end of April. The remaining amount was transferred over to the beginning of May, where it had increased to about $3.4 million. Sanchez said the budget had increased through debit and credit claims.
• The Healthcare Assistance Program presented its indigent claims, along with its fiscal 2023 budget, which after a four-quarter assessment came to $86,246.81. Carol Acosta-Flores said that the budget depends heavily on how many medical claims health care providers send.
• The commission agreed to hold a meeting on Aug. 15 to have a master plan presented about how the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds will look like for this year’s county fair and getting public opinions about the project.
• The Commission approved the intergovernmental agreement between the City of Portales and Roosevelt County for road maintenance on Industrial Drive.
