Taos Parking Lot Impasse

San Francisco Giants' Cody Ross is sprayed by teammates after Game 6 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010, in Philadelphia.

Newsbreak (Carlsbad to Frisco). The San Francisco G-men, led by Carslbad NM native, and NLCS MVP, Cody Ross, beat the Phillies in Game 6 and open up in the World Series on Wed. night at AT&T Park, next to McCovey Code in Baghdad by the Bay.

Trick or Treat at Dunn House

Just when things got bad…they got worse.

Weary merchants, who have been tricked by TMS school board members and KCEC Trustees—higher property taxes, increased rates for electricity—now face another assault on their pocket book. As most Taosenos know, gross receipts tax revenue finances bonds for the County Complex and Town Operating expenses. Property taxes pay for school bonds. As retail sales drop or property is re—appraised or devalued, expenses remain high and other sources of revenue must be tapped or rates increased—see school bond effect. The Town of Taos has beaten back the GRT recession due to County and School construction projects, the bulk of which will end in the next year or so. Then the piper will come calling. According to Town Council members, the town is tightening up its belt.

But why isn’t the KCEC cutting expenses. The rate increase will kick in sometime after a PRC hearing. Regardless of the way the Coop spins the news, diversification, expansion, and highflying trustee and management costs all contribute to the Coop indebtedness—soon to be some $80 million. If it weren’t for the Coop’s almost thirty thousand members and their meters, the Coop couldn’t borrow the money to finance Propane, Internet, Call and Command Centers, and, now, Broadband. Many small commercial and residential members will pay a premium for their efficient use of electricity, according to the Coop’s projected rate increase. Use less energy: get charged more per unit.

Now comes Trick or Treat—bad news for Dunn House and Bent St. merchants. Apparently, as reported here, the town missed an Aug. 31 deadline to renew their option on the 33 spaces or the front portion of the Parking Lot—ingress and egress—on Placitas Road. Brenner property representatives say they sent a notice about 90 days in advance to the Town of the  lease expiration date, Aug. 31. But they say the town ignored an opportunity to renew an option for a modest monthly increase at that time.

Now, the month to month lease expires completely on Oct. 31—Trick or Treat—and the property owner says the front of the lot—ingress—egress—will be closed. Hence the parking spaces adjacent to the Dunn House, Bent St., Alley Cantina, and the Plaza will be lost—no ingress—egress.

A Town official said they were being asked to pay more–about an 80% increase in comparison to the prior lease. The same  official wouldn’t comment on the “missed deadline and option to renew.” According to the official, the Town is tightening its belt and hopes the property owners will continue to negotiate in the same spirit.

Mayor Cordova said the Town was prepared to offer a “modest increase” but needed to observe fiscal responsibility.

The property owner said county taxes had gone up and they were just trying to maintain in this difficult financial environment. The Townie also pointed out that the town provides free parking at the Dunn House, Couse Pasture, Guadalupe, and TCA parking lots. All is not lost, in other words, except easy in and easy out affecting one of the last thriving retail locations in the community—if the impasse comes to pass. Trick or Treat, indeed.

We have some good news from the County. Commissioners will vote on a new ordinance on Tuesday. To Wit: Discussion, consideration, and decisions regarding the following: Request for Approval of Taos County Ordinance 2010-4, An Ordinance Establishing an Advisory and Informational Committee on Public Welfare Impacts of Water Appropriations and Changes in Point of Diversion, Place of Use or Purpose of use.

In response to years of regional water planning and in view of state and national plans to privatize water resources (See Newsweek on Texans and planned Water Use in the Southwest this week) County Commissioners are creating an organization of citizens to keep and eye on potential water transfers, etc. It’s a helluva good idea, given Tejano Bob Perry’s oil, gas, water and construction money that is flowing into Susana La Tejana’s coffers.

Bob and the Koch Bros. (oil and gas) contribute to Tea Party deregulators and anti-tax candidates all across the country. This is more about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The Tea Party is coming to New Mexico in the form of sleeper cell candidate La Tejana.

In turn local Dimos and Republicos are selling their village rights down the Rio.But your County Commissioners are oddly awake—even as they were last week when they gave KCEC a little “what for” re: raising rates. Commissioners first notified the community about the the school board property tax coup—due to “I didn’t know.” They also raised hell in public about electricity rates—Luis needs the money for the margins—at a time when the economy is taking a plunge.

We citizens are getting stuck with the bill because elected officials at TMS and KCEC didn’t do their homework. As a Republican friend remarked, “Most of them are Dimocrats.” True, as Flavio says, “so are the commissioners and they ain’t selling the community down the river.” Hey, the Commissioners also stopped the exploitation of Miranda Canyon, the upper watershed for La Serna et al and Llano.

In closing, the Town did away with free parking on the Plaza last year. Now they are in the midst of losing, arguably, the best and most productive parking lot for visitors. Bent St. and the Dunn House area seem sheltered from the vacant streets and sidewalks on the Plaza, Kit Carson St., or in other retail traffic areas.

Due to a slow response by the Town or an Impasse, caused by the town and private property owner—“Return those Phone Calls”—the merchants are about to suffer. Maybe we can bring back “Parking Lot Lou” and keep the Dunn House alive. Maybe negotiators just like to keep us all on tenterhooks.

Excerpt: Newsweek, Oct. 18 “The New Oil”

Should private companies control our most precious natural resource?

“The transfer of water is nothing new. New York City is supplied by a web of tunnels and pipes that stretch 125 miles north into the Catskills Mountains; Southern California gets its water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Colorado River Basin, which are hundreds of miles to the north and west, respectively. The distance between Alaska and India is much farther, to be sure. But it’s not the distance that worries critics. It’s the transfer of so much water from public hands to private ones. “Water has been a public resource under public domain for more than 2,000 years,” says James Olson, an attorney who specializes in water rights. “Ceding it to private entities feels both morally wrong and dangerous.”

“Proponents of privatization say markets are the best way to solve that problem: only the invisible hand can bring supply and demand into harmony, and only market pricing will drive water use down enough to make a dent in water scarcity. But the benefits of the market come at a price. By definition, a commodity is sold to the highest bidder, not the customer with the most compelling moral claim.

“There is no substitute for water, not even Coca-Cola. And, of course, those other things don’t just fall from the sky on whoever happens to be lucky enough to be living below. Markets don’t care about the environment,” says Olson. And they don’t care about human rights. They care about profit.”

“The real water barons cannot be reduced to a simple archetype. They include a diverse array of buyers and sellers—from multinational water giants like Suez and Veolia that together deliver water to some 260 million taps around the world, to wildcatter oil converts like T. Boone Pickens who wants to sell the water under his Texas Panhandle ranch to thirsty cities like Dallas. “The water market has become much more sophisticated in the last two decades,” says Clay Landry, director of WestWater Research, a consulting firm that specializes in water rights. “It’s gone from parochial transactions—back-of-the-truck, handshake–type deals—to a serious market with increasingly serious players.”

Eventually, Olson worries, every last drop will be privately controlled. And when that happens, the world will find itself divided along a new set of boundaries: water haves on one side, water have-nots on the other.”

“These days, global water barons have set their sights on a more appealing target: countries with dwindling water supplies and aging infrastructure, but better economies than Bolivia’s. “These are the countries that can afford to pay,” says Olson. “They’ve got huge infrastructure needs, shrinking water reserves, and money.”