45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2002

REQUESTING THE MIDDLE RIO GRANDE COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS TO CONDUCT A STUDY OF A SPECIAL TAXING DISTRICT IN THE ALBUQUERQUE METROPOLITAN AREA FOR THE PURPOSE OF FUNDING CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS.

WHEREAS, cultural organizations are crucial to the economic and social well-being of New Mexico and greater Albuquerque, the state's largest metropolitan area; and

WHEREAS, these organizations continually struggle from inadequate funding from both government and private sources; and

WHEREAS, other communities have addressed this problem through the establishment of special taxing districts and, with voter approval, the imposition of a sales or real property tax dedicated specifically for the support of cultural institutions; and

WHEREAS, cultural organizations include organizations large and small, government-owned and -run as well as private; nonprofit entities; museums; the library system; the zoo and botanical gardens; the symphony and other musical groups; and dance, theater and literary and visual arts entities; and

WHEREAS, cultural organizations' budgets range in size from the zoo and libraries with budgets near or beyond ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to small, private nonprofits with budgets of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or less; and

WHEREAS, most of the larger cultural organizations are owned by the city, state or federal governments, but in shear numbers, most of them are non-governmental, ranging in size from the New Mexico symphony to small, narrowly focused arts groups; and

WHEREAS, cultural organizations are dependent for their operating budgets principally on the varying nature of government revenues and, hence, on year-to-year economic conditions, and in recent years, the Rio Grande zoo, the Albuquerque museum of art and history, the Albuquerque-Bernalillo county library system and other city and county entities have seen their budgets stagnate and even decline, without regard to any inflation adjustment; and

WHEREAS, private, nonprofit cultural organizations are dependent on earned revenues and donations, and at the same time Albuquerque lacks any major corporate headquarters and its population lacks the wealth found in most urban areas of America, thus resulting in lower ticket revenues and much lesser levels of contributed support to cultural organizations; and

WHEREAS, cultural organizations located in Albuquerque serve not only the city's residents but also those throughout the metropolitan area and the state, and children from the city and well beyond come to the museums, zoo and aquarium; utilize the libraries; attend musical and other performances; and enjoy the city's art, as do many adults from a wide area; and

WHEREAS, cultural organizations contribute substantially in attracting tourists from outside the state and make a major economic contribution to the state's economy; and

WHEREAS, other metropolitan areas such as Denver, Salt Lake City, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, though wealthier than the Albuquerque region, have found a similar concern of inadequate funding of cultural organizations and have addressed this problem through voter-approved specially tailored taxes dedicated exclusively to the support of such organizations; and

WHEREAS, Denver supports the arts with a six-county taxing district, which collects one-tenth of one percent sales tax, Salt Lake county adopted a comparable sales-and-use tax plan and St. Louis uses a real estate tax for a similar purpose, all three special taxing districts having been approved by the voters;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the middle Rio Grande council of governments be requested to conduct a study of the feasibility of establishing a special taxing district for the Albuquerque metropolitan area similar to those in other cities, the study to include:

A. the type of tax;

B. the geographic reach of the tax;

C. the governance structure and allocating authority;

D. the possible size of such a tax;

E. the level of revenues to be achieved;

F. constitutional issues, with special attention to Article 4, Section 31 and Article 9, Section 14 of the constitution of New Mexico; and

G. the mechanisms needed to assure that revenues awarded to government-owned organizations would not simply be offset by reductions in funding from the government's general funds; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the middle Rio Grande council of governments present its final report to the revenue stabilization and tax policy committee by November 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the middle Rio Grande council of governments.