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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Doña Ana Considers Spaceport Tax Plan
By Diana M. Alba
Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES — A new proposal for doling out the educational dollars from a Doña Ana County spaceport sales tax — about $2.4 million this year —calls for expanding the recipients to include charter schools, New Mexico State University and the community college, in addition to the area's three public school districts.
Doña Ana County commissioners will vote on the revised spaceport sales tax agreement today.
Who should receive the revenue and how much say the County Commission should have in how the money is ultimately spent have been points of contention between the commission and school districts, which say the funding was initially promised to them alone.
County Commissioner Scott Krahling previously has expressed support for including higher education and other nonschool district educational programs. However, he said on Monday that he doesn't approve of how the new proposal would accomplish that.
Krahling said the agreement that will go before commissioners calls for the county to distribute the funding via contracts with the school districts, NMSU and Doña Ana Community College. However, Krahling said what he'd envisioned was the county channeling the dollars to the school districts, which would then “incorporate other organizations into their plan” and “not for us to incorporate other programs into our plan.”
Krahling said he thinks the school districts should be left to determine what percentage of the spaceport money goes into other programs.
County Commissioner Oscar Vasquez-Butler said he has “serious problems” with the new proposal because the sales tax was marketed to voters on the grounds that a portion would go to area school districts, not higher education.
County Commissioner Karen Perez has proposed including higher education in the spaceport tax agreement.
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