Morning Word: Feds Suggest Changes for NM Monument Management

Zinke's monument changes
The Washington Post has a copy of US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke's secret memo written after his review of newly designated national monuments. While it appears permitted activities at New Mexico's Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monuments will change, the boundaries of the two may stay the same. The report also indicates Zinke recommends greater tribal involvement in monument management.

Suicide rates drop
Incidence of those taking their own life dropped six percent last year, reversing a trend in which New Mexico's suicide rates had been increasing. The state still has high rates of suicide by military veterans.

Watching your step
Most pedestrian deaths around town are due to mistakes on the part of people walking, the New Mexican reported this weekend. The city is coming off a year in which there was just a single pedestrian killed on Santa Fe's roads, but four people have died already this year. Alcohol is a frequent culprit, especially with the pedestrians themselves.

KRQE pilot dies in helicopter crash
Bob Martin, a longtime reporter at KRQE-TV and the pilot of the station's helicopter, died Saturday evening when the aircraft crashed near Carrizozo in Lincoln County. Martin had been a fixture in the station's helicopter for more than 20 years as well as being an accomplished reporter and photographer. The NTSB is investigating and so far has not released a cause of the crash. Our thoughts are with everyone at KRQE.

Tackling taxes
One of the biggest unresolved issues from the Legislature's last special session was gross receipts tax reform. Lawmakers will be at it again in 2018. New Mexico's system for what equates roughly to sales tax is constructed to leverage the federal influence here by taxing contracts with the US government for services that wouldn't normally be nicked under a sales tax. But that means a ton of carve-outs for various industries as the Legislature has looked to keep the state's taxes from reaching onerous levels. 

You decide
The oh-so-quiet special election to raise money for county public safety personnel as well as a behavioral health triage center in Santa Fe city limits is tomorrow. The one-question ballot asks county voters to approve or reject a proposed one-sixteenth percent tax on goods or services sold within county limits. It would add $2.3 million to the county budget and would be paired with a one-eighth percent increase county commissioners were allowed to authorize on their own.

Gone with the winds
Down in Albuquerque, the KiMo Theater canceled a scheduled showing of the classic movie Gone with the Wind because of concerns it was too sympathetic to the Confederacy. Instead, the theater showed Ben Hur, which was based on the novel penned by New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace.

Autumn
It starts this week, all you equinox-loving folks. And the weather seems like it may be appropriate. It's going to be pretty average today and kind of windy on Tuesday as we build into a chance of storms in the latter half of the week.

Thanks for reading! The Word wonders if there's a toxicity level for pumpkin.

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Santa Fe Reporter