Grants tax to increase to 7.875 percent effective July 1

GRANTS - Happy July! Any purchase within the Grants city limits with a gross receipts tax on it will be just a little more beginning next Wednesday, July 1.

After a third go round, a majority of Grants' voters in February of this year approved a GRT increase by one-quarter percent, or one penny for every four dollars spent. The increase will put Grants' GRT rate at one of the highest ones in the state at 7.875 percent, nearly half a percent less than the highest in New Mexico. The current rate through June 30 is 7.625 percent.

In comparison, Albuquerque tax is 6.75 percent and Gallup and Santa Fe are at 7.9375 percent. The highest rate in the state is Taos Ski Valley at 8.4375 percent. The lowest in the state is 5.375 percent. The rate in Grants sister city, Milan, is 6.5625 percent.

Grants' increase is estimated to earn a little more than $400,000 per year. The money is targeted for much needed road, infrastructure, and recreation facility improvements.

“Each year we are getting less and less from the gas tax and legislature,” said Mayor Joe Murrietta recently. “This increase will nearly triple the funds we put into road improvements each year and at this point roads are priority and recreation second.

“It is no secret the roads in Grants are very bad. City officials listened to the residents and our only option was to go to them for an increase and gladly, the majority voted for the increase.”

The funds are expected to go into a separate fund and cannot be spent on anything else, “and as long as I'm here… trust me, I will make sure on a monthly basis that the funds will only go towards what they were voted for,” said Murrietta.

Of all the cities' gross receipt tax percentages, five percent is the state's. New Mexico's gross receipts tax rate is five percent.