Doing Business in Catron County

Doing Business in Catron County

Quality of Life

Education

Reserve Independent Schools includes two elementary schools and one high school. In the 2007-2008 school year there were 180 students and 23 teachers. More information on the district is available on the Public Education Department web site.

Post-secondary education in the County is provided by Western New Mexico University(WNMU). WNMU is a four year state university offering more than 70 areas of study. Ten master degrees, 41 baccalaureate degrees, and 18 associate degrees and certificate programs are available. Fields of study include accounting, criminal justice, education, nursing, occupational therapy, and zoology. Students receive personalized attention from qualified instructors. More than 90 percent of WNMU’s professors have terminal degrees and the student to faculty ratio is 13 to 1. A growing list of courses and degree offerings are provided through the Extended University for online students. Students from anywhere in the world can earn degrees exclusively online including the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, and Business.

Health Care

Three regional medical centers serve Catron County.

Catron County Medical Centeris locatedand is operated by Presbyterian Medical Services with two part-time physicians. Immunizations and treatment services are provided five days per week. After-hours care is available in Springerville, Arizona (40 miles) and Silver City (99 miles).

White Mountain Regional Medical Centeris located in Springerville, Arizonaand is a full-service, private, not-for-profit, 20-bed acute care hospital. Clinical services include cardiopulmonary, chiropractic, emergency room, laboratory, medical imaging, nursing, pharmacy, rehabilitation, sleep diagnostic center, substance abuse programs, surgical services and telemedicine.

Gila Regional Medical Center (GRMC) is a world–class medical facility and home of the Gila Regional Cancer Center and Surgical Center of the Southwest. This not-for-profit county-owned and fully-accredited 68-bed hospital offers a medical staff of 48 physicians and specialists. The hospital is recognized for its quality performance outcomes based on a national program for performance excellence.

Arts, Culture and Tourism

At nearly 7,000 square miles, Catron County is New Mexico’s largest by geography. The vast wide open spaces are one of its most endearing attractions. A portion of three national forests lie within its boundaries: Gila, Apache and Cibola. Hiking, camping and fishing abound in the forests and throughout the County. The Catwalk, a National Recreation trail along the canyon of Whitewater Creek, is a famous scenic destination.

The county seat is the Village of Reserve, once called Milligan’s Plaza after a merchant and saloon owner. Milligan’s Plaza was the site of the first legendary exploit of Elfego Baca. In the early 1880’s 19 year old Deputy Sheriff Baca held off a band of 80 Texans in a gun battle that lasted 33 hours. He was not injured and it is told that he cooked himself breakfast during the battle. Today a statue of Baca graces the town square.

Catron County was also home to several famous Apache leaders: Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, Geronimo, Chato, and Cochise.

Pie Town is a village located on the Continental Divide that was made famous by depression-era photographer Russell Lee. Pie Town’s Daily Pie Cafe is still thriving and the village looks much the same as it did decades ago. Read more about Pie Town on Smithsonian.com

The town of Mogollon (pronounced muggy-yone) was founded in 1895, and produced gold and silver until 1942 when wartime legislation was passed by Congress affecting gold production. Today it has few full time residents. Mogollon has two small museums, an antique shop filled with mining artifacts, a B & B, and an old theater under restoration.

Glenwood is another lovely village on the scenic drive between Reserve and Silver City. Glenwood offers a cafe with delicious fresh food and several local businesses. Contact the Glenwood Chamber of Commerce at 575.539.2711 for more information.

Housing

The estimated median house or condominium value in 2007 was $148,816, just slightly lower than the State, at $155,400. The median value in Catron was $81,200 in 2000 indicating a substantial increase over seven years.

For more information, contact the Catron County Chamber of Commerce: or 575.533.6116.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Although no interstate highways cross Catron County, U. S. Highway 60, U. S. 180 and State Road 12 connect the villages and provide access to Interstates 25 and 10. These are shown in the map.

Catron County also has two airports, Reserve (map available here) and Glenwood (map available here). Commercial air service is available from Grant County Airport (99 miles) or Albuquerque International Sunport (200 miles). The Sunport offers both container and cargo services.

Utilities

Electricity is provided by Navopache Electric Coop. Telecommunications services are provided by Western New Mexico Telephone Cooperative.

Public Safety

Catron has county-wide 911 emergency response service. The Catron County Sheriff’s Department provides protective services.

Tax Policy

Gross Receipts Tax

New Mexico’s gross receipts tax differs from a sales tax in that it is levied on the total amount of money or other consideration a business receives from five kinds of transactions in New Mexico:

• selling property in New Mexico, including tangible personal property, licenses and franchises;

• leasing property used in New Mexico;

• licensing property employed in New Mexico;

• performance of services in New Mexico (construction is a service that includes all the ingredient and component materials and subcontracted construction services); and

• sale of research and development services performed outside New Mexico when initial use of the product of the R&D service occurs in New Mexico

A basic 5% state gross receipts tax is supplemented by local option gross receipts tax available to all counties and municipalities. Tribal taxes imposed by certain pueblos are included. The state collects the taxes at the same time and in the same manner as the state gross receipts tax and then distributes the counties’ and municipalities’ share for their use. Because the local taxes are optional, the total gross receipts tax ranges from 5.125% to 8.5625% depending on location. Businesses report according to their locations. There are some exceptions for point-of-delivery businesses like utilities and construction services that report and pay according to the rate in effect at the delivery or construction site.

Municipalities are funded by gross receipts taxes and counties and schools are funded by property taxes. The state receives the entire tax amount and returns approximately 40% to the municipalities and a very small percentage to the counties. According to the Tax Foundation, New Mexico ranks 48th in property tax collections per capita as it charges one of the lowest property tax rates in the nation.

Personal Income Tax

The New Mexico personal income tax (PIT) is based on federal adjusted gross income. The maximum PIT rate is 4.9%, effective in 2008. The minimum PIT rate is currently 1.7% and is not scheduled to change. New Mexico income tax collections per capita are ranked 37th in the nation according to the Tax Foundation.

Corporate Income Tax

Corporate income tax is imposed only on the net income of domestic corporations or foreign corporations’ business within the state or from the state, or deriving income from property or employment within this state. "Corporation" means corporations, joint stock companies, real estate trusts organized and operated under the Real Estate Trust Act and limited liability companies and partnerships taxed as corporations under the Internal Revenue Code. "Net income" is federal taxable income adjusted to exclude amounts not taxable by states.

The corporate tax structure levies taxes only on net income of the corporation’s business within the state. Separate entity and federal consolidated group filing is permitted. There is a double-weighted sales apportionment factor option for manufacturers. The corporate income tax piggybacks onto the Internal Revenue Code. The rates, based on federal taxable income rates, are:

•Up to $500,000: 4.8% of net income

•$500,000-$1 mil.: $24,000 plus 6.4% of excess over $500,000

•$1 million plus: $56,000 plus 7.6% of excess over $1 million

For more information visit the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department web site.