Las Cruces City Council is voting to approve an issuance of $28.5 million dollars in bonds that would be paid off using Hold Harmless GRT tax funds. The money will be used to fund projects including roads, energy efficiency and business incentives.
While, Hold Harmless payments are being phased out by the state, Las Cruces is projecting an increase in available funds from the GRT tax revenue after the budget is balanced. City Council is trying to use that increase to fund projects that could be a greater cost to the city in the future.
Currently, 20% of the funding will be used to increase energy efficiency of city facilities, 45% will be allocated toward road projects, and 35% will be used for business incentives.
City Manager Robert Garza says the funding breakdown was decided by city council during a work session.
“Council then decided diversification is important,” Garza said. “Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket, let’s not focus all these funds for just one purpose. Because you can go into something and say it’s going to be the best that it can be. But if there is any flaws in your thought process, putting everything in one place doesn’t make sense.”
The City formed an economic development committee to help narrow down business incentive projects to be funded including expanding the convention center, building a soundstage, and investments at the Las Cruces airport among others.
However, many in Las Cruces are also looking for quality of life investments, such as improvements at parks, a competition pool, and bike trails throughout the city.
“Enlarge the library, and have extension locations,” Phyllis Radtke said.
“We need some kind of little parks, like we used to have the put-put,” Asuncion Dudan said. “And stuff like that, things for kids to do instead of just hanging around.”
“Beautiful parks, art, cultural things,” Linda Corbet said. “Definitely, nice places to eat, people can go hang out, that bring people together, anything along those lines.”
“I don’t think we have enough activities here for children,” Phyllis Radtke said. “Teenagers especially, if you want to keep people in town. That would be the way.
This is in line with a recent survey commissioned by the city of Las Cruces on their comprehensive plan. 61% of people wanted to be able to walk to city parks or recreational areas, and 59% wanted convenient access to city facilities such as recreation centers, senior centers, libraries, and museums.
72% of people also said more work opportunities are needed, and New Mexico State University Economics Professor Chris Erickson says the two are not mutually exclusive.
He says the number one thing business look at when coming to an area is the quality of the workforce, and to get that a city needs a high quality of life.
“One it works to attract businesses in because you can attract and retain high quality workers,” Erickson said. “And then two it helps economic development by attracting high quality workers who can then later on start their own businesses.”
Erickson says quality of life includes good K-12 education, good roads, and good amenities like parks and recreation areas.
“Issuing bonds to fund that kind of investment makes perfect sense,” Erickson said. “Because you’re investing in livability of the city that both benefits the people who are already here, and it benefits in attracting people outside the community who might not have otherwise considered locating here.”
City Manager Robert Garza says, while quality of life projects do help with economic development, for the $12.6 million in bond funding that is being put toward business incentives they are focusing on projects where they expect a return on investment.
“Building a new park would be another example of not having a return on an investment,” Garza said. “People will enjoy it, but there is no revenue generated as a result of building a park. People don’t pay to go to parks, they enjoy them and we all like them, and they are important part of quality of our quality of life, but quality of life doesn’t really return dollars back into the coffers of the city.”
City Council will be voting on these business incentive projects over the next few months, as specific plans are brought forward. If any money is left after the next year, the money will then be rededicated to roads projects.
