Blankenhorn’s Report

Regular Meeting Summary
February 4, 2014

Hospital Committee Report

In November, 2013 The Town and County passed resolutions to form a committee of representatives from Town and County governments, the Holy Cross Hospital Board, the hospital workers union and informed citizens to examine the finances and management of Holy Cross Hospital. The formation of the committee was the result of public concern about recent hospital reductions in staff and services due to large financial losses from hospital operations. The committee has met twice per month since its formation in November. Taos County Financial Director, Leandro Cordova and I are the County’s representatives, and we presented the Board with the following information.

Holy Cross Hospital and numerous other small rural hospitals throughout New Mexico suffered large reductions in annual payments for indigent care beginning in 2011. As a direct result of these reduced payments, Holy Cross’ cash reserves were drawn down from approximately 6 million to 1 million dollars. However, due to reduced expenses instituted by the Hospital Board and increased payments from Taos County and the Federal Government, the cash flows have currently stabilized. The hospital expense cuts resulted in the ICU being reduced from 5 beds to 2. This in turn has resulted in approximately 1 patient per week being transported to a different hospital.

Future cash reserves of the hospital will depend in large part upon the results of the current New Mexico State Legislative session, which is considering new formulas for compensating New Mexico hospitals for indigent care. The average estimate for payments to Holy Cross Hospital is $5 million per year, which would be a significant increase from current levels. In addition, the first full year of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) in 2014 is supposed to reduce the cost of indigent care to hospitals, which would also positively affect Holy Cross’ cash reserves. Although Holy Cross’ finances have improved, and there is hope for positive changes in 2014, cash reserves will have to be closely monitored in order to protect against further cuts to services.

The Impairment of the Rio Fernando

Jerry Yeargin, a concerned citizen, and Brian Shields the Director of Amigos Bravos gave a presentation to the Board regarding the contamination of the Rio Fernando, in part, as a result of riparian cattle grazing near the headwaters in the National Forest. The Rio Fernando has been declared an impaired river by the NMED due to e-coli contamination. The Board directed staff to convene a meeting between the Forest Service, the NMED and the County to discuss measures to protect the Rio Fernando from further contamination.

Assessors Report Re: Agricultural Exemption

Taos County Assessor, Darlene Vigil made a presentation to the Board on the NM State Law regarding the agricultural property tax exemption. Under the exemption, property taxes are reduced to nominal amounts if the land is used to produce agricultural goods for consumption. For many years, the Taos County Assessor’s Office did not have the resources to examine properties claiming the exemption to make sure that they qualified under the law. In recent years, increased and better trained staff has allowed the County to inspect more properties. As a result, some properties have lost their exemption, which can mean an increase of thousands of dollars in annual tax payments. These increases can prove a hardship on families. The County Assessor and the Board agreed to facilitate future discussions to consider ways to mitigate these hardships.

Treasurer’s Report

Taos County Treasurer, Susan Trujillo, presented the Board with the second quarter financial report of fiscal year 2013-2014. During the first 6 months of the fiscal year, tax receipts were up. As a result, the County is on pace for a 2 million dollar improvement to the fiscal year 2013-2014 budget, which will end in June, 2014. Hopefully that trend will continue.

LUR Work Study

The Planning Department announced that they had completed the latest revisions to the proposed LUR and that they would post it on the County website for review by the public. The Board will conduct a public Work Study Meeting at 6pm Tuesday evening, February 25. All interested parties are invited to attend and participate in the discussion. It is anticipated that this will be the final Work Study in front of the Board and that a hearing on passage of the LUR will be held in late March.