Is New Mexico’s property tax system broken?

07.15.2025

The latest from Channel 13 KRQE reports on some of the massive increases in commercial real estate property taxes. Lance Sigman owner of Allen Sigman Real Estate Group reports a 76% increase in the values of our commercial properties.

According to Rhiannon Samuel, Executive Director of NAIOP New Mexico, “There’s a lot of folks who are deeply concerned and frustrated when they get a letter that says their property has gone up 704%.

We talked to commercial real estate developer Doug Peterson about spiraling property tax assessments on a few recent episodes of Tipping Point NM as well. 

Residential property taxes also have their issues as this RGF supporter shared (he attempted to challenge his tax assessment). 

Recently, a friend of RGF emailed Bernalillo County Assessor to better understand how New Mexico’s property tax system works. Here’s his reply:

In New Mexico the property tax system is set by the NM Constitution and the State Legislature. The county assessors have the responsibility to value or “assess”, the taxing authorities (e.g. counties, municipalities -like Abq-, school districts, hospital districts, soil and water, etc.) have the responsibility to request a budget from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA). It is the DFA that has a statutory created formula to set the property taxes.  DFA takes the assessment, multiplies the requested budgets from the taxing authority and sets the tax rate. That is how property taxes are calculated.  
 
I don’t raise taxes. I am mandated by the NM Constitution and State Statute to value property in the county at its current and correct value each and every year.  

Clearly, if this is the case, New Mexico’s property tax structure is in need of reform (like the rest of our tax structure). And this doesn’t even touch all of the special “inducements” like Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRB’s) which are a massive property tax break, TIF’s, and other exemptions that impact property taxes.

New Mexico is low (34th in property tax burdens) according to the Tax Foundation. But that doesn’t mean the system works well or is fair to taxpayers.