The Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners voted today to create a committee that will help it determine how to spend the money from the spaceport tax that will be set aside for education.
When voters approved the tax to help fund Spaceport America in April, they also OK’d the setting aside of 25 percent of the proceeds – about $1.6 million annually – for spaceport-related education in the county. The commission has already approved a resolution stating that the funds will be divided among the Las Cruces, Gadsden and Hatch school districts according to population and will be used education related to the aerospace industry in grades 6-12.
How the districts will use the money is what is yet to be determined.
On a 4-0 vote, with Commissioner Kent Evans absent, commissioners approved the creation of the committee. It will consist of nine members – one representative of each school district, one county commissioner, one member from the New Mexico State University College of Education, one from the NMSU College of Engineering, a representative from the aerospace industry and two members of the public.
Commissioners will accept applications for membership and then, at their second meeting in July, appoint members to the committee. The committee will be tasked with making recommendations to the commission by January.
The tax begins on Jan. 1, and the county should receive its first tax payment in approximately March, county Attorney John Caldwell told commissioners.
The Sierra and Otero county commissions have not yet voted on whether to let voters decide if they want to enact the tax. Until at least two governments approve the tax, a spaceport taxing district can’t be formed. State law requires that such a district be in place before the other 75 percent of the county’s tax revenue can be spent on the spaceport.
In addition, commissioners in