Tax revenue drops 23 percent

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EUNICE
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Community News
VOTER REGISTRATION
for the Nov. 4 general
election has started
and lasts through Oct.
7. Voter registration
can take place at any
New Mexico state
office or at the Lea
County Clerk’s Office
at the County courthouse in Lovington.
For more information,
call 396-8619.
I
LOVINGTON
I
TATUM
SEMINOLE
I
I
DENVER CITY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
50 cents
Tax revenue drops 23 percent
DENISE MARQUEZ
NEWS-SUN
Hobbs gross receipt tax revenues
have been breaking records in recent
months, but June’s GRT distribution
fell by $1.6 million.
Hobbs received about $5.7 million
this month for its share of gross
receipts taxes generated from April
business activity. Last month Hobbs
received about $7.3 million for its
March business activity, which was
the third time this fiscal year the city
collected more than $7 million in GRT
revenues.
Gross receipts are
defined by the state as
the total amount of
money
businesses
receive through selling
or leasing of property
or goods in New
Mexico, or through the
performance of services.
Grant Taylor, Hobbs Chamber of
Commerce executive director, said
this is the first time in about a year
that the city received a distribution
less than $6 million.
“The last time the
city received a distribution of less than $6
million was June
2013,” he said. “The
$1.6 million — 23 percent — drop in GRT
from May to June is
the steepest in years
for the same period.
The May to June drop
in 2013 was only three percent.”
Taylor said the April business activity report has yet to be released by the
state’s
Taxation
and
Revenue
Gross receipts
The Hobbs Police
Department invites the
public to a COMMUNITY COFFEE at 7:30
a.m. today at the HPD
headquarters. Enter
through the north
doors.
CHRISTIAN BETANCOURT
NEWS-SUN
The new club will feature two large gymnasiums, activity rooms, a theater, an administration wing, two large
multi-purpose rooms, a technology center, an art room
and a kitchen. The gymnasiums and multi-purpose
rooms will also feature moveable wall partitions that
allow the rooms to expand into larger event spaces.
The Boys & Girls Club currently serves approximately
1,200 children per year at the club’s four locations
throughout Hobbs including the club’s three schoolbased sites at College Lane Elementary School, Stone
Elementary School and Taylor Elementary School.
Robert Wallach, Boys & Girls Club board member, said
that with the new building, the programs offered by the
club will only be better.
“This is so exciting,” he said. “What this does for us is
it gives us tremendous opportunities for programing and
After pleading guilty to fraud and
embezzlement charges and sentenced to 21 years in prison former
Lovington accountant Doyle Yancey
was before Fifth District Judge Mark
Sánchez Monday asking for a plea
withdrawal.
Yancey, 71, told Sánchez that he was
coerced into taking a guilty plea for
fraud, embezzlement and racketeering. He said he did not understand
the
charges
brought against
him at the time
and wanted to
withdraw his plea
and have his sentence
reconsidered.
After
hearing
Yancey’s testimony Sánchez denied
the motion and
ordered him to Yancey
remain in custody
and serve the remainder of his sentence.
In March, Yancey plead guilty to
charges of fraud of more than $2,500,
embezzlement of more than $2,500
but less than $20,000 — both thirddegree felonies — two counts of
fraud over $20,000, embezzlement
over $20,000 and two counts of racketeering — all second-degree
felonies.
When Yancey was sentenced in
April, Gwen Gist, assistant district
attorney, recommended Yancey
serve 12 years in prison for his
crimes while Yancey’s defense attorney Jon Fredlund asked for clemency for his client due to his advanced
age.
Sánchez however, felt Yancey
should be sentenced to 21 years
imprisonment while serving consecutive sentences for his crimes.
During Yancey’s sentencing hearing several of his victims spoke
about feeling betrayed by Yancey,
SEE CLUB, Page 4
SEE YANCEY, Page 4
The Lea County Board
of COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS will
meet at 9 a.m.
Thursday at the Lea
County Courthouse,
100 N. Main in
Lovington. For more
information, call 3968602.
Inside Today
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Posted
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$106.03
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575.392.0664
Cell: 575.631.8789
4220 Lovington Highway
Hobbs, New Mexico 88240
email: [email protected]
website: www.hobbstrailersnm.com
David Moghaddam - Owner
“We’ll follow you Anywhere!”
KIMBERLY RYAN/NEWS-SUN
Members of J.F Maddox Foundation, board members of Boys and Girls Club, city commissioners and city
personal along with Boys and Girls club members break ground on the Hobbs Boys & Girls Club’s new $10
million, 30,000-square-foot facility at 301 E. Broadway Street.
Ground broken on new Hobbs Boys & Girls Club
A moment in history
DENISE MARQUEZ
NEWS-SUN
More than 100 children chanted, “We’re going to the
new Boys and Girls Club” as they marched to the site of
the future club, Tuesday.
The Hobbs Boys & Girls Club broke ground on a new
$10 million, 30,000-square-foot facility at 301 E. Broadway,
which has been funded by the J. F Maddox Foundation.
The new club is being built by Albuquerque-based HB
Construction and is expected to be completed by May
2015.
Tres Hicks, Boys & Girls Club board member and president of the project’s building committee, said the new
facility will be state-of-the-art but is designed specifically for the children of the community.
“What we’re excited about today is we are just imagining what can be done in a facility designed for and
around the kids,” he said.
Zoning change OK’d for Lovington storage facility
JAYCIE CHESSER
NEWS-SUN
REBECCA
LONG
226 W. Vega
Hobbs, NM
88240
575-393-2661
[email protected]
auto • home • life • commercial
SEE TAXES, Page 4
Attempt to
withdraw
guilty plea
denied
Eunice will be hosting a
MARROW DONOR
REGISTRY DRIVE
today at the Eunice
Public Library meeting
room, 1003 Avenue N,
from 9:30 a.m.-5:30
p.m.
Obituaries ...........................2
Lottery.................................2
Mark the date ....................3
Fun & Games ......................5
Weather ..............................6
Sports ..................................7
Classifieds..........................10
TV ......................................12
Department, but said staff have
looked at past reports to see if there
was a trend.
“We looked at past reports from 20092013 to see if there was anything consistently appearing,” Taylor said.
“From 2009-2013, gross receipts for
those Hobbs businesses classified as
‘mining, quarrying and oil and gas
extraction’ during April were lower
than the calendar year average for all
five years. The business activity of
Hobbs retail trade was a little more
LOVINGTON — What began as a
standard action item on the
Lovington City Council agenda
Monday, ended in serious debate
regarding whether or not to
approve the advertisement of an
ordinance concerning the annexation and zoning change of an 8.28
acre tract of land located on the
east side of 17th street.
“The recommendation from the
planning and zoning board was to
bring this area into the city limits,”
James Williams, Lovington city
manager said. “Further, their recommendation was to proceed with a
self storage facility to be built there
and request a variance that would
grant only the interested developer
for that particular project the ability to construct and operate a business in that particular zone.”
Ryan Burkett, along with partners, requested annexation of the
property into the city in order to
develop that land into a brand new
storage facility.
“I would like to request a zoning
SEE LOVINGTON, Page 4
Members of the
Lovington City
Council approved
the annexation and
zoning change of
an 8.28-acre tract of
land on 17th Street
Thursday in order
for a proposed storage facility to be
built in that area.
The facility is
expected to resemble the one at left.
FROM
HOBBS NEWS-SUN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
Yancey
from PAGE 1
who they considered a friend.
During Monday’s proceedings while sporting
a long white beard and a blue jumpsuit, Yancey
made his way to the witness stand as he prepared to testify on his behalf.
He said during testimony that he never fully
understood the charges brought against him
and only took the plea to stop an extra 31
charges that were brought up against him for
failing to file taxes with the IRS.
Fredlund asked Yancey if those charges were
the main motivator for him entering into a
guilty plea.
“My understanding was that if I entered a
guilty plea those charges would be dismissed by
the prosecution,” Yancey said.
He further testified that while the Lovington
Police Department served a search warrant at
his residence, important documents were taken
that prevented him from fixing his situation
with the IRS.
Yancey continued his testimony saying he
waived three preliminary hearings and the first
time he faced a judge he took the plea but was
unaware of the consequences.
Gist cross-examined Yancey asking him if
when he stood in front of a judge in April he
remembered the judge asking him if there was
basis for those charges, possible penalties and if
he understood.
Taxes
from PAGE 1
varied year over year for the month of April
during those same five years, sometimes being
higher than average.”
“I’m not versed enough in the oil and gas
industry to know what’s happening — or not
happening — in April each year that would
cause the drop in gross receipts,” Taylor continued. “It certainly does translate to a June dip
in gross receipts tax distributions, but the relationship between the two is not necessarily proportionate either, so there are obviously more
facts to consider.”
Toby Spears, city finance director, said it’s difficult to tell if having a lower GRT check for
April business activity is a trend since activity
changes from month to month and year to year.
“It falls in line with last year,” he said. “You
have to look at each month compared to last
month. All your quarterly filers is probably the
reason for the difference. If you look at the
future, it usually dips up in August because
Yancey replied “Yes.”
She also asked him if those extra charges that
were brought up against him occurred
overnight or were the result of several liens
that he had with the IRS for not filing taxes in
time over a period of time.
Yancey testified to not making any efforts to
contact the state to fix his tax situation.
Fredlund asked for a reconsideration of sentence calling it a cruel and unusual punishment
for his client due to his advanced age.
Sánchez responded that his sentencing was
within the margins of the law and ordered the
sentence to remain the same.
The sentencing stems from three different
cases accusing Yancey of fraud in his accounting business as well as a prayer group where he
served as treasurer.
A criminal complaint filed in the Lovington
Magistrate Court states Yancey told two of his
clients to make checks designated to the IRS in
his name as the federal entity would not accept
their business checks since they originated in
Texas and they ran a business in New Mexico.
Another of Yancey’s clients stated he was
more than $39,000 in debt to the IRS and Yancey
embezzled more than $91,000 during a sevenyear period.
According to the complaint, representatives
from the prayer group said Yancey took more
than $4,200 from their collections.
Christian Betancourt can be reached at [email protected] or 391-5446.
those are June quarterly filers. It’s kind of like
a trend that is normal. You look at every month
of last year and the activity is just different
from one month to the next. So I’m attributing
it to quarterly filers.”
Taylor said next months GRT disbursement
should be looking like May’s.
“By just giving our gross receipts tax data a
quick look on the Hobbs Chamber’s website,
one can pretty confidently say that the city’s
next GRT distribution in July will be above the
$6 million mark,” he said.
Spears said Hobbs GRTs have been impressive
this year.
“We have $72.6 million in unrestricted revenues in GRT compared to last year’s $65.3 million,” he said. “Mining still leads the industry.
It’s about 39 percent of our total $72.6 million.
There’s four trends retail, construction, services and mining. We’re up probably about 11 percent from last year (in mining).”
Denise Marquez can be reached at 391-5437 or at
[email protected].
Club
from PAGE 1
education and a positive influence and a positive place for the kids to go.”
Mayor Sam Cobb attended the ceremony and
said the Boys & Girls Club’s ground breaking is
history in the making.
“This ground breaking signifies a moment in
history of Hobbs,” he said. “Our residents, our
local government and the J. F Maddox
Foundation are coming together to improve the
quality of life for all of our residents, especially
for our children under the leadership of the
Boys & Girls Club.”
“I believe that a community that cares for its
children will always be blessed,” Cobb continued. “Not only in the things that can be quantified, but blessed in its most important assets —
its community spirit.”
The Boys & Girls Club was founded on Aug. 15,
1964 as the Boys Club of Hobbs and the club initially operated out of a small building just a few
blocks away from the club’s current location.
In 1967, the club moved into its current location, a former Safeway grocery store, and later
expanded to allow female membership and
changed its name to the Boys & Girls Club of
Hobbs.
Jim Maddox, president of the J. F Maddox
Foundation, said the foundation is honored to
create a great space for the communities children.
“This is going to be a facility very well designed
Lovington
from PAGE 1
change for the property from
zone A (single family residential) to zone C (commercial),”
Ryan Burkett, managing partner and agent, said. “If the
annexation and new zoning
passes, my partners and I will
be building a high-end, upscale
self-storage facility.”
Burkett presented pictures of
comparable facilities that represented what the new facility
would look like to help visualize the property, which is
directly south of Halsell
Chiropractic.
“The facility will have a very
nice curb appeal and will be an
asset to the neighborhood with
its appropriate appearance,”
Burkett said. “Self-storage
facilities are a very low traffic
business and a secured facility
like ours has very low noise
and disturbance.”
Several homeowners near
the proposed storage facility
area spoke about their concerns regarding the new addition.
“My home sits right at the
edge of that property and I feel
that building a storage unit,
even as one as beautiful as
they’ve shown us, is going to
cause the property value to go
down,” John Benard said. “I
THE FRONT PAGE
More federal charges added
to alleged Lea traffickers
FOR THE NEWS SUN
ALBUQUERQUE – Three
more indictments were filed as
a result of a multi-agency federal drug trafficking investigation involving five Hobbs men.
The indictments come after a
federal grand jury indicted six
individuals with narcotics
trafficking offenses as the
result of the investigation in
May.
The three indictments were
filed June 18 and were
announced by U.S. Attorney
Damon
Martinez,
Fifth
Judicial District Attorney
Janetta B. Hicks, Special
Agent in Charge Carol K.O.
Lee of the FBI’s Albuquerque
division and Commander
Byron Wester of the Lea
County Drug Task Force.
The first indictment charges
the following six individuals
with trafficking methamphetamine in Lea County: Leroy
Castillo, 32, Joe Padilla, 33, and
Roland Cantu, 38, of Hobbs,
Mario Enrique Flores, 28, of
Artesia and Anthony Joe
Pisana, 28, of Roswell.
The
second
indictment
charges Ruben Cantu, 41, of
Hobbs, with violating the federal firearms laws. The third
indictment charges Antonio
Acosta, 30, also of Hobbs with
trafficking methamphetamine
in Lea County and being a
felon in possession of a
firearm.
Pisana was arrested June 20
during a law enforcement
operation and made his initial
appearances in federal court
in Roswell Monday.
Also on Friday, officers executed two search warrants at a
Roswell residence where they
recovered about 2.25 pounds of
methamphetamine and more
than $9,000.
Roland Cantu, Ruben Cantu
and Acosta are in state custody
and will be transferred to federal custody to face the
charges in the indictments.
Castillo, Padilla and Flores
have yet to be arrested and are
considered
fugitives.
Individuals with information
regarding their whereabouts
are asked to call the FBI at 505622-6001.
The
initial
indictment
includes a conspiracy count
against the six defendants, two
counts of
possession of
methamphetamine with intent
to distribute and four counts of
using communication devices
to facilitate drug trafficking
crimes. If convicted on the
charges in the indictment,
each defendant faces a mandatory minimum of five years to
a maximum of 40 years in
prison.
Ruben Cantu faces two
counts of felon in possession
of firearms and ammunition
for unlawfully possessing a
firearm and ammunition in
March 2014. At the time, he
was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition
because he previously had
been convicted of a marijuana
trafficking charge. If convicted, Cantu faces a maximum
penalty of 10 years in prison.
Acosta is charged with two
counts of
possession of
methamphetamine with intent
to distribute and one count of
being a felon in possession of a
firearm and ammunition in
March 2014. At the time,
Acosta was prohibited from
possessing firearms or ammunition because he previously
had been convicted of forgery,
possession of a controlled substance, and possession of
methamphetamine. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20
years in prison on the narcotics charges and 10 years on
the firearms charge.
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322 W. Bender Blvd. • Hobbs, NM 88240
Man is indicted
in fatal stabbing
KIMBERLY RYAN/NEWS-SUN
City Commissioner Jonathan Sena helps a Boys
and Girls Club member grab a hard hat and a
shovel at the ground breaking ceremony.
and specifically designed for the needs of our
children.” he said. “(It will have) wonderful
spaces to play, create, learn and grow. This is a
community asset.”
think it is a great project just
in the wrong place.”
“We seem to think that this
will be the first piece of commercial land that will be in
that area, Halsell Chiropractic
and Good Samaritan are commercial properties that are
already there,” said city councilor Ava Benge, who is also
the Lea County Assessor. “Do I
think that this commercial
property will be a detriment to
that area, no. My only concern
is are we limiting ourselves if
we grant that change to commercial.”
“They said at the planning
and zoning meeting last week
that this would bring up the
quality of life in that area,”
Jerry Domzalski said. “I just
don’t see how a storage facility
will add to the quality of life.”
In the end, the action item
was approved with a 3-2 vote.
Benge, councilor Paul Campos
and Mayor Scotty Gandy voted
in favor of the ordinance
advertisement while councilors Bernard Butcher and
David Trujillo voted against.
“I have to agree with the
homeowners in this instance,”
Trujillo said. “However, I do
support what you are doing for
the community.”
“For 20 years no one has
taken the opportunity or initiative to build on that property,” Gandy said. “I challenge
you to open your thinking and
vision of your community. If
we continue to grow we will
continue to have these struggles and there will always be
something that one person or a
group of people don’t think is
going to fit there.”
Jaycie Chesser can be reached at
391-5436 or at [email protected].
Grace
ven’sDance
HeaBallroom
104 E. Broadway
Downtown Hobbs
433-0120
[email protected]
LADIES & GENTS SUMMER CLASSES
• MORNING & AFTERNOON CLASSES AVAILABLE
FOR 3RD - 5TH & 6TH - 8TH GRADE
• CLASSES WILL START JUNE 30TH
• CLASSES ARE $80 PER WEEK PER STUDENT
• EMAIL OR CALL FOR MORE INFO & REGISTRATION
FULL SUMMER SCHEDULE AVAILABLE AT THE STUDIO
4
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — An
Albuquerque man accused of
fatally stabbing a neighbor
over a dispute about a barking
dog has been indicted.
Prosecutors say 33-year-old
Ricardo Villanueva-Cordova is
facing charges of first-degree
murder and kidnapping.
A Bernalillo County grand
jury issued a warrant for his
arrest Monday.
Customers
of
an
Albuquerque gasoline station
called 911 on June 18, 2013 to
report seeing a man being
repeatedly stabbed.
The suspect fled the scene in
a pickup truck and 27-year-old
Michael S. Sanchez later died
at a hospital.
Witnesses relayed the vehicle’s license plate to police,
who tracked down VillanuevaCordova at his home.
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