Measure to Redistribute Spaceport America Education Funding Advances in NM Legislature

The Terminal Hangar Facility at Spaceport America will house Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. (Credit: David Wilson, Spaceport America)

Eager to convince skeptical southern New Mexico voters to approve a tax hike to help fund the construction of Spaceport America, then-Gov. Bill Richardson promised that the revenues would bring millions of dollars in direct support to local schools.

Voters in Sierra and Dona Ana counties approved a quarter-cent increase in the local use tax, and Richardson kept his promise. The tax has raised $32 million in revenues so far, with a quarter of it — $8 million — going to local schools to fund additional teachers and new programs.

Now, with Richardson gone due to term limits, that deal is in danger of unraveling as legislators from other areas of the state are eying the revenue.

State legislators endorsed a bill Monday that would stop two southern New Mexico counties from using sales tax revenues to help pay for teachers’ salaries or other school operating expenses.

The bill is aimed at Dona Ana and Sierra counties, both of which approved a special tax to help finance Spaceport America, the $209 million enterprise that is supposed to create a commercial space industry in New Mexico….

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, is challenging the legality of this arrangement.

With one or two counties using a sales tax to help finance school operations, the state’s carefully crafted system of equal funding for public education in its 89 districts is being thrown out of balance, Lundstrom said.

“This has opened a can of worms. Can you imagine if Albuquerque decided to pass a tax for school operations? The whole state would see an inequity in school funding,” Lundstrom said.

Under the bill, the funds designated for Sierra and Dona Ana counties would be placked into a larger pool of money for redistribution across New Mexico.

The measure passed the Finance Authority Oversight Committee and could be considered by the Legislature as a whole during a legislative session that begins in January.

Read the full story at the Las Cruces Sun-News.