A vote on Tuesday by the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners to delay action on the creation of a spaceport tax district reveals a political reality of the process of securing funding for Spaceport America: There’s no certainty tax increases will be approved in Otero and Sierra counties.
What the failure to approve such tax increases would mean for the spaceport project is unclear, and something state officials have been hesitant to discuss.
On the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting was a proposal to give county Manager Brian Haines the authority “to take certain preliminary steps” toward formation of a spaceport tax district. Such an entity, in state law, is the organization that would collect tax dollars from counties, sell bonds and issue money to the Spaceport Authority for construction of the facility.
According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, some commissioners objected. The other two counties haven’t even set dates for voters to decide whether to increase their gross receipts taxes to help fund the spaceport. No tax dollars from
After the tax increase was approved by the narrowest of margins in the more liberal
The money Sierra and Otero would provide is important, but not critical, to the project. The state has provided $124.5 million. The Doña Ana tax will provide about $49 million. The other counties, combined, would provide about $8.9 million if they approve the tax increases.
But bonds can’t be sold by a tax district unless the district is created.
So the failure of Sierra and Otero county voters to approve a tax increase could jeopardize the project. A change in state law could still allow the spending of the
Commissioners decided at Tuesday’s meeting to give Haines authority of negotiate details of the district – such as how many members from each county would sit on the board – with other counties, but only once those counties’ commissions set dates for tax-increase elections, the newspaper reported.
That makes sense. Unless, by setting dates for elections, those counties formally declare their intentions to join a tax district (if voters OK tax increases), with whom would Haines negotiate?
The request from the state to approve the resolution on Tuesday – without the provision requiring that Haines wait until the other counties schedule elections – was likely designed to further pressure the other counties’ commissions to schedule elections. Haines said Sierra commissioners are talking about April, but Otero commissioners haven’t begun planning for a specific date.
The commission’s decision to wait until the other counties schedule elections was wise. Those counties’ commissioners know better than state officials how to sell a tax increase to their skeptical constituents. Let them decide how to proceed.