An anonymous donor has given payments totaling more than $600,000 to ease the unexpected financial crisis that beset the Route 66 town of Santa Rosa, N.M., according to the current print edition of the Guadalupe County Communicator.
Earlier this summer, an unidentified business was awarded a $1.4 million refund of its gross receipts tax funds. (Records indicate the business was The GEO Group, which operates a private prison in Santa Rosa.) The unexpected refund was described as “catastrophic” to the city’s finances, and mass layoffs and cutbacks in even basic services appeared likely.
But in July, city officials “began giving vague assurances” the crisis had been resolved, but few details about it.
An open-records request by The Communicator revealed:
[A]ccording to e-mails between Santa Rosa officials and the Department of Finance and Administration, an “anonymous donor” or donors made contributions totaling $615,000 to the city — $190,000 in late July and $425,000 in late September.
The sources still have not been identified, but those contributions (combined with a long-term payback plan negotiated with the Taxation and Revenue Department) allowed Santa Rosa to avoid the types of doomsday scenarios officials were contemplating right up until the day the first donation arrived by wire transfer in an obscure Ilfeld Warehouse bank account. […]
The name of the donor was redacted, or blacked-out, in the records that the city sent to the New Mexico Department of Finance and subsequently obtained under The Communicator’s public records request.
[Brenda L.] Suazo-Giles [of the state Department of Finance and Administration], who was in charge of reviewing the city’s proposed budget, said on Monday that she still does not know the identity of the donor. […]
The contributions received so far cover just a portion of the $1,445,791.59 that the city is required to pay the Taxation and Revenue Department over the next seven years to cover the tax refund. The city has agreed to have its monthly gross receipts tax revenues reduced by $17,211.81 each month for 83 months, through September 2019.
City Administrator Ian John Serrano said he expects a long-term financial relationship with the anonymous donor. In the meantime, the state urged the city to “pursue new economic development projects” to stabilize the city’s finances.
Presumably, the economic development projects would include a proposed Route 66 museum in the historic Ilfeld Warehouse. Earlier this year, the state awarded a $325,000 grant to rehab the warehouse. But with the city becoming suddenly cash-strapped, the museum project looked doubtful.
Regardless, Santa Rosa is very fortunate. The Communicator’s report revealed how dire the city’s money situation became before the donation arrived. The city was forced to pay day-to-day bills from its reserve fund, and then from a money-market fund to meet payroll. Layoffs and deep service cuts were imminent.
Sixty miles to the east, Tucumcari recently announced a lease with a volunteer group to build a New Mexico Route 66 Museum in the convention center. The museum is scheduled to open in June.
1st of all, if a donation was given to the city (government) in any way, shape or form, the source MUST be made public record and is not allowed to be anonymous. 2nd of all Tucumcari is building “THE” New Mexico Route 66 Museum, not just a museum, and they’re actually doing it, not just talking about it!
There was also a recent article in the same paper about turning the Ilfeld Warehouse into a National Museum of Southwest Culture, so which is it, who’s got their story straight and what kind of games are being played? Both towns will ultimately have to work together to provide representation of the road, so why does everyone keep trying to pit them against each other? There’s no reason why the two can’t work together, compliment each other and provide the best of both worlds for everyone…
According to the report, the lawyers checked the statutes, and determined the donor can remain anonymous. I suppose this anonymity can be challenged in court, and it’ll be interesting to see whether it is.
I saw that article about the Ilfeld. Who knows whether that project — or the Route 66 Museum — will come together? It’s hard to get any sort of concrete plan in place until the warehouse actually is renovated.
As for Tucumcari and Santa Rosa “working together,” I don’t see that happening. Both sides have been at least a little adversarial. That’s OK; competition between towns isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Okay – read the rules! They could redact for someone donating items of a historical nature or otherwise to a museum or similarly related, but they can’t simply redact anything they want, and there is no evidence redacting includes a cash donor of any kind. On the contrary, a cash donor should easily be included under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act. I guess it will depend on how bad someone really wants to know, and how far they’re willing to go?
I’m not saying it’s the case, but it seems awful dubious to try and hide any cash donation to a government organization…