Over 24.7 million dollars will be distributed to the City of Las Cruces under the American Rescue Plan Act. Funding priorities, which include support for both public safety programs and infrastructure projects, were presented to the Las Cruces City Council Monday.
Councilor Gabe Vasquez says he would like to see a portion of ARPA dollars go toward projects that foster a long-term economic recovery plan, pointing to a previously proposed business incubator as one example.
“I think this is where we could really have some robust community input as to what capital projects might serve the community in a long-term capacity,” Vasquez said. “Things like that business incubator…come to the top of my mind in terms of what can we use this money to reinvest in a way that has a return on investment, longer than just the recovery period after COVID.”
Areas of focus include 2 million for public safety programs like mobile integrated health, 10.4 million dollars toward community and economic development initiatives and 3.5 million for water and sewer infrastructure needs. The majority of the council indicated they would support the proposed distribution of funds, though expressed a need to see a more in-depth breakdown of how the money will be used.
Councilor Yvonne Flores specifically stressed a need for more information regarding community and economic development initiatives.
“We don't know exactly what areas we can focus on to access that 10.4 because that's community and economic development initiatives. That to me is very vague,” Flores said. “Rome wasn't built in a day, and I don't think that we have sufficient information.”
The proposed plan also designates funding to help the city recover from pandemic-related revenue loss. According to Grants Administrator Amy Johnson Bassford, almost 6.9 million dollars in city revenue was lost due to COVID.
“The decision was made to take the revenue loss that was calculated and reinvest it in public projects that would benefit the community,” Johnson Bassford said. “This will lead to additional employment for those in the construction sector, and provide, of course, gross receipts tax coming back into our community to benefit the overall community.”
Councilor Johana Bencomo says the city must implement an out-of-the-box funding approach to ensure an equitable distribution of funds. She cited the creation of a guaranteed basic income program as one way to help residents most in need.
“This is not money that we thought we were going to get. So why would we allocate this money in a business-as-usual approach?” Bencomo said. “A guaranteed basic income program funded at $250,000 will not go as far as one that is funded up 2 million dollars, to actually get at a large number of people in our communities and actually make a giant impact in the way that we begin addressing poverty, and legislating around poverty, as a city, and as a state frankly.”
Councilor Tessa Abeyta-Stuve says she is pleased many of the funding priorities are projects already on the city’s radar, noting the ARPA money will help with project efficiency.
“I like to see completion of projects, as well, because once we can do that we can move on to other new things,” Abeyta-Stuve said. “And so, we're giving, creating a service or giving something to our constituents, and the community that is necessary, and then we're able to look at bold, new items.”
The council will further discuss the city’s ARPA funding priorities on July 12.
