About

Benito Martinez Jr. served as the Santa Fe County Assessor between June of 1997 and December 31^st, 2006. Benito Jr. was first appointed to the position in1997 by the Santa Fe County Commission to finish the term of Mercy Quintana whom left the position for health related reasons. Prior to his appointment by the commission, Benito Jr. began his work for the Assessors office as an Enumerator. He served as an Appraiser, Senior Appraiser and in 1994, Benito Jr. was appointed as Chief Deputy Assessor. Benito Jr. was responsible as the administrator of the office and was second in command of operations.

During Benito’s stint as Santa Fe County Assessor, he was elected to head up New Mexico’s statewide assessors association as president of the association in 1998, having been elected by his statewide peers, and in 2004 became president of the New Mexico Association of Counties. During both of these terms, Benito was directly involved and spearheaded the lobbying efforts for property owner’s rights and issues effecting constituents across the state in venues such as the New Mexico Legislature. Benito is well qualified by education and experience to be the next county assessor for Santa Fe County as he has amassed over 180 hours of real property appraisal certification courses and is a certified appraisal instructor, having instructed county employees at New Mexico Technical Institute in Socorro, New Mexico.

Benito worked for the State of New Mexico between May of 2007 through January of 2010 first as the Director of the Manufactured Housing Division and more recently as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Special Projects Co-coordinator for the Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD).

“I loved being county Assessor. I enjoyed going to work every day and meeting constituents on a one-to-one basis.  It allowed me to interact with people and their largest investment – their homes – as well as other real estate investments.

While I served as county Assessor, it was important to me to be fair and balanced, while being cognoscente of the impact to revenue recipients whom relied upon property tax revenue utilized to finance vital community needs such as public safety, schools and local government needs.

Balancing these needs of the community at large and the individual became an art form. Because of this, it was my duty to visit with people that had concerns and explain how the Assessor’s Office works with the constituents to create a fair and equitable distribution of our tax base. This also required me to go out in the field at any time to meet with a constituent whenever the need arose.

That, to me, is what being assessor is all about: to listen, evaluate, be responsive, and make fair and impartial decisions based upon property tax code.”

Biography

Benito J. Martinez Jr. grew up in the Barrio La Canada neighborhood on the west side of Santa Fe. He is one of four children reared by the late Benito V. Martinez and his wife Viola. Benito’s sisters Therese and Maggie and brother Arturo spent their weekdays attending St. Anne’s catholic school and on weekends were up early heading east up the dirt road to the Santa Fe Ski Area. A family ski pass was a fixture for the family. Skiing was introduced and passed on to the kids and their mother by Benito Sr. as Benito Sr. was stationed in Alaska prior to the Korean conflict and learned to ski there. Benito Sr. served his country in the Korean Conflict.

Following middle school at B.F.Young Jr. High, Benito Jr. attended Santa Fe High School and was a successful all state champion wrestler. His senior year he was voted Santa Fe’s “Most Valuable Wrestler” athlete award by the Santa Fe Kiwanis. After completing high school, Benito Jr. attended the College of Santa Fe on a scholarship and wrestled for the college. After a successful year, Benito Jr. Attended New Mexico Highlands University and in 1984 accepted a position with the Santa Fe County Assessors office.

Public Service

Benito has served on several statewide tasks force groups and committees in the following areas:

• Geo-spatial Data Acquisition Co-ordination Committee (GDACC) 2005

A collaborative group of professionals representing local, state and federal governments that was charged with the duty of the acquisition of $3.3 million dollars for the purchase of Aerial Imagery of the entire state of New Mexico.

Benito was appointed to this committee by the Governor as the county representative, representing 33 Counties from throughout New Mexico. Benito was Board President of the New Mexico Association of Counties at the time of the appointment. The primary principal was to focus on moving the GDACC Aerial Imagery Acquisition program forward for statewide use by counties, municipalities, the state, tribal and federal governments. This critical data is in use across the state today.

• Women’s Historic Marker Initiative

The New Mexico Historic Women’s Initiative’s purpose is to honor women of history who have made significant contributions to the state. The initiative creates roadside markers to recognize these important women who have previously gone un-acknowledged on our states historical markers. Previous to the initiative, recognition of significant women was nearly non-existent. The initiative was founded by members of the New Mexico Women’s Forum, which oversees the program. Benito was instrumental by coordinating a statewide county nomination process by which every board of county commission was involved in the nomination of historic women, in their respective counties, for final selection. The program was a grand success.

• State Tribal Collaboration Act (STCA)

On March 19, 2009, this landmark Act was signed into law. Senate Bill 196, sponsored by Sen. John Pinto, enhances government to government communication and collaboration between the state and tribal governments. The Act requires cabinet-level agencies to develop policies that promote communication and cooperation between the governments and ensures that all 34 Executive agencies permanently designate a tribal liaison. Benito created the draft policies for RLD for review and approval by the superintendent of the department.

• House Joint Memorial 81 (HJM 81)

House Joint Memorial 81 was sponsored in the 2009 legislative session by Representative Janice Arnold-Jones. The memorial directed a task force to make recommendations for geo-spatial data sharing and study the data sharing model for use in local and state governments. Benito represented RLD in the drafting of policies for recommendation to the states Department of Information Technology.

In The Community

Benito has proven his interest in the past in our community by his voluntary involvement with the following organizations:

• Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, board member and homebuyers training, property tax instructor
• Santa Fe Boys and Girls Clubs, board president of Santa Fe and statewide boards
• Santa Fe Junior Wrestling, board president, official and referee
• New Mexico Junior Wrestling, official and referee
• Gonzales Elementary School Junior Wrestling Coach
• Gonzales Elementary School PTA
• United Way of Santa Fe County

On a personal level, Benito enjoys woodworking and carving, fly-fishing, skiing, hunting, history, genealogy and the outdoors spent with his partner Lisa and his 125 lb. German Shepard, Oso. Benito has three children ages 13, 15 and 21. His 13 year old son Kristian Arturo Martinez enjoys school, fly fishing, skateboarding and snowboarding. His 15 year old daughter Lauren Ann Martinez also enjoys school, learning several languages and soccer. Benito has a 21 year old son named Benito Martinez III whom currently attends New Mexico Highlands University studying elementary education and enjoys music, snowboarding and wrestling on the university team. Benito III was an AAU All American having placed 3^rd in the Grand Nationals Wrestling Tournament in 2007.