Valencia County tax blunder under review

A solution for incorrect Valencia County property tax bills seems to be in reach, but there still looks to be some waiting to be done.

Early in November, property owners across the county opened their annual bills to shocking increases.

Valencia County Assessor Celia Dittmaier has owned up to the mistake, telling the News-Bulletin she entered the incorrect property valuation amount for the village of Los Lunas — setting the residential valuation at more than $2 billion rather than the $200-plus million is should have been. The incorrect valuations pushed up the county’s operational mill rate by almost double, adding hundreds of dollars to tax bills.

The correct valuations were submitted to New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department on Nov. 12, and the county received the corrected mill rates on Nov. 25.

However, a software snag is causing a delay. Since there is already a 2025 tax roll in the county’s software system, it’s not accepting a new roll, said Valencia County Treasurer Ron Saiz.

Until the corrected numbers are entered, new tax bills cannot be created and sent out.

“Normally, Celia runs the new roll overnight, but that’s not the case this time,” he said. “There’s already a tax roll in the system so there are more steps in the process.”

This might change by the end of Tuesday.

Saiz said the county had a meeting scheduled with its software vendor Tyler on Dec. 2 and hopes to have a fix in place soon, allowing the new information to be sent to the printer and revised tax bills mailed. Whether that meeting was successful in allowing the new tax roll to be processed was unknown at News-Bulletin press time on Wednesday.

“The state has given the assessor the correct mill rates and she is currently working to import it into our system. We are working with our software vendor and, hopefully, by the end of the week, we’ll have the new information input into our system and sent out for revised tax bills,” Saiz said. “We are still on track to have corrected bills out by Dec. 10.”

Since at least the first half of property taxes is due by Dec. 10, Saiz has urged taxpayers to pay that if they are able. If payments are made after the deadline, he said any penalties and interest will be waived.

“If property owners haven’t received new bills by Dec. 10, they can call our office and we can give them the correct information,” the treasurer said. “We will have the correct information in the system; they just might not have gotten the new bill in the mail.”

The Valencia County Treasurer’s Office can be reached at 505-866-2090.

If property owners have already paid the full 2025 tax bill, the treasurer said they can either request the overage paid on the bill be refunded or left as a credit on their account for next tax year.

On Nov. 20, Saiz issued a letter to mortgage companies asking them to refrain from paying the property tax bills for borrowers until they receive the corrected bill.

On social media, many people have posed the question of whether they will get any potential interest the county earns on the excess amount they have paid on their bills.

Saiz said money collected for property tax bills goes into a non-interest bearing account.

“It’s the county operating fund. It doesn’t earn interest. The money comes in and it’s disbursed monthly to the municipalities, school districts and other agencies,” he said.

An investigation into how the error occurred was authorized by the Valencia County Commission at a special meeting on Nov. 24, and is underway, according to Valencia County Manager Jhonathan Aragon.

“The chief deputy assessor for Cibola County, Jenna Rodriguez, has agreed to do the investigation. I’ve provided her with the documents she requested and she has started,” Aragon said on Monday. “Since it’s an agreement with another government agency, the investigation is being done at no cost to the county.”