Doña Ana County commissioners consider sunsetting spaceport GRT as schools and projects face uncertainty

Doña Ana County commissioners spent much of their April 7 work session weighing whether to pursue sunsetting the county’s spaceport gross‑receipts tax (GRT), an excise levied originally by voters in 2007 that currently directs three‑quarters of receipts to Spaceport America capital and bond payments and 25% to local STEM programs for area school districts.

Interim Deputy County Manager Lucille Latr told the commission the county began collecting the 0.25% spaceport GRT in January 2009 after Ordinance 227‑07 and a companion special election. “FY25 net collections were $14.98 million,” Latr said, and of that total roughly $11.24 million (75%) supported spaceport‑related activities while about $3.75 million (25%) went to school‑directed programs. She said an interception of $4.4 million of the 75% share was being paid to the New Mexico Finance Authority to meet bond obligations and that cumulative collections since 2009 total about $160 million; projected receipts through fiscal 2029 (not including an anticipated one‑time bump tied to a private project called Project Jupiter) raise the expected total toward roughly $233 million.

Why it matters: the GRT has been the primary local capital funding source for Spaceport…