Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brad Moore

              Director of Communications/Media Relations

              Central New Mexico Community College

              505-224-4423

Voters Approve CNM District Expansion

Through mail-in ballots, voters elected to expand the Central New Mexico Community College tax district into northern Rio Rancho by an impressive margin. The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office called the election a win for CNM on Nov. 15.

Two separate electorates had to vote in favor of expanding CNM’s taxing district for the election to succeed – voters currently residing in the district and those who were residing outside of the district in northern Rio Rancho.

Sixty-five percent of voters in northern Rio Rancho voted in favor of approving the measure while in-district voters approved the expansion with 85 percent in favor. As a result of this approval, CNM will immediately begin implementing plans to build a CNM Rio Rancho campus on the 40 acres of land it owns at Rio Rancho’s City Center.

“CNM is pleased to have the opportunity to better serve the Rio Rancho community with a full-service community college campus located in the new heart of the City of Vision,” CNM President Kathie Winograd said.  “Approval of this district expansion will result in a new level of higher education access that Rio Rancho residents have not seen in their city before. It will also open the door for a groundbreaking collaborative partnership between CNM and UNM in Rio Rancho.”

Eligible voters received their CNM District Expansion ballot in the mail in late October and ballots were due to the Bernalillo or Sandoval County clerks’ offices by 7 p.m. today (Nov. 15). The ballots were marked In-District or Out-of-District, depending on whether the voter lived in the current CNM taxing district, which is based on the original Albuquerque Public Schools boundaries that years ago also included southern Rio Rancho.

• In-District – Voters in-district approved the addition of Rio Rancho residents that live north of Northern Blvd. to the current CNM taxing district.  Eligible voters included residents in the original Albuquerque Public Schools District (Bernalillo County residents and Sandoval County residents that live south of Northern Blvd.) There is no tax implication for approval of this election for in-district voters.

• Out-Of-District – Out-of-district voters approved the addition of Rio Rancho residents north of Northern Blvd. to the CNM taxing district. Approving this measure includes the addition of a property tax of $119 per year per $100,000 of assessed home value for those in northern Rio Rancho.

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