The Las Cruces City Council will convene for a work session at 1 p.m. Monday, June 13, 2022 in Council Chambers at City Hall, 700 N. Main St.
At Monday’s work session, City Council will receive an update on the 2023 General Obligation (GO) Bond, an overview of the City’s Telshor Fund, and a presentation on cannabis revenue allocations.
Architectural Research Consultants, Inc. (ARC) will present a summary of public engagement activities, the potential GO Bond projects and scopes, and begin the discussion to prioritize projects that will formulate the GO Bond election questions. In support of the 2022 GO Bond initiative, the City hired ARC to conduct public engagement activities which included meetings, website development, and a citizen survey to scope GO Bond projects.
Information about the 2022 GO Bond initiative is available online at https://www.las-cruces.org/2547/2022-GO-Bond.
In 2018 city voters approved $35.6 million in GO bonds that are now being used to build new City parks and recreation facilities and for improvements to some existing parks and sports fields; replace Fire Station No. 3, on Valley Drive, with a new station; construct a new Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley; and to build and improve recreational walking, jogging and biking trails throughout the city. The status of those 2018 GO Bond projects is available online at https://www.las-cruces.org/1892/2018-General-Obligation-Bond-Projects.
The overview of the Telshor Fund will include background and corpus of the fund; investment income; annual allocations for health-related public services; other allocations; and value of the fund. The fund receives proceeds from lease payments the City receives from Memorial Medical Center.
The Telshor Fund is used to subsidize various health and human services programs provided to city residents from nonprofit agencies and organizations.
For the final item on the agenda, City Council soon could begin deliberations and make decisions about allocations regarding retail cannabis excise tax revenues. City staff presented cannabis revenue information to the City’s Finance Select Committee on April 22 and to the Economic Development Policy Review Committee on May 18.
Adult-use cannabis retail sales began April 1, 2022 with an excise tax levied on all sales that starts at 12 percent until July 1, 2025, and then increases by one percentage point per year, capping at 18 percent on July 1, 2030. The tax does not apply to medical cannabis sales.
Approximately 4 percent, or one-third of the cannabis excise tax, will be allocated to the City, or to the municipality where the point of sale occurs.
Initial cannabis sales were very brisk in Las Cruces when they began April 1.
The agenda for Monday’s City Council work session is available online at https://lascruces.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=387.
Monday’s work session will be televised live on CLCTV, Comcast Cable channel 20, and in high definition on Comcast Cable channel 928. The work session also will be available online at clctv.com and at YouTube.com/clctv20.
Prior to the work session, City Council will meet at 10 a.m. Monday at City Hall for a Closed Meeting to discuss threatened litigation. Immediately following Monday’s work session a brief Agenda Setting Meeting will be conducted in Council Chambers at City Hall to determine the agenda for City Council’s June 20, 2022, regularly scheduled meeting.