County Councilor David Izraelevitz
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) might get a new role to play in the region with Los Alamos County Council’s help.
During the Feb. 18 council work session, Councilor David Izraelevitz presented an idea to create a fund for supporting regional capital project development through the County’s “Progress Through Partnering” Program.
In a paper about the fund, it is stated, “This effort would be funded by yearly contributions from the LAC (Los Alamos County) General Fund, most of which would be managed with a long-term investment strategy, and income from this fund would be allocated to members of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) for local capital projects as determined and reviewed by the RCLC Board of Directors.”
During an interview Friday with the Los Alamos Daily Post, Izraelevitz said some examples of capital projects this fund could support would be facilities or infrastructure. He added the fund also could help complete a project as well as assist with project design or match funds.
According to the paper, the fund will be given a yearly budget set-aside of $500,000-$1 million from the County’s General Fund. The income, it is explained, would be used for regional capital projects. It is further reported that the investment and spending policy of this fund would be modeled after the County’s capital projects permanent fund. Just how much would be allocated to the fund would be determined by the Council as part of its yearly budget discussions.
In the long-term, according to the paper, this fund is predicted to generate substantial resources, but until that happens investment income will need to be supplemented to achieve near-term impact.
Therefore, it is reported in the paper, it is proposed to allocate an additional $100,000 a year supplement to be available for immediate distribution from the General Fund over the first five years, with a subsequent two-year ramp-down of these supplemental contributions.
The benefactors of this fund would be the whole region, Izraelevitz said. He added, Los Alamos would be the sole contributor to the fund because it receives the bulk of the local gross receipt taxes from Los Alamos National Laboratory activities.
“Although … Los Alamos doesn’t benefit financially … I think it will promote interaction in the communities and benefit the RCLC in other areas (such as) advocating for issues and projects that are of common interest and other economic development actions the RCLC might engage in,” he said.
Izraelevitz added, “I think we’ve done other programs through Progress Through Partnering … (and) we certainly understand the interest in the region of how the economic development of the laboratory has a wider impact … and this impact drives the local economy.”
The next step for the proposed fund is to present it to the RCLC board. Izraelevitz said he hopes a memorandum of agreement will be developed between the County and RCLC and that this will be included in the April budget discussions.
Discussions about the new fund started last year, Council Chair Sara Scott said during the Feb. 18 work session.
“During the budget hearing last year council approved an addition to Progress Through Partnering funds as part of our commitment to regional partnering,” she said. “One of the needs the original regional partners expressed … is a fund that would help them with capital outlay for projects that would have significant and long-term impacts for our neighbors.”
County Manager Harry Burgess added that Progress Through Partnering originated in 2008 when it became apparent that the County would get an increase in gross receipt taxes from the laboratory. He said that there was discussion on how to give some of these funds to Los Alamos’ neighbors.
Progress and Partnering was founded, Burgess said to spread the wealth in a targeted manner. There were four initial programs: the Espanola Basic Regional Infrastructure Fund, which has been discontinued due to a lack of interest in the region, the Jim West Transit Center for the Regional Transit District and the Regional Economic Development Initiative.
During last year’s budget hearings Burgess said additional money was put into the fund with the focus of addressing more current concerns. He added other municipalities have expressed interest for a capital project fund and the need for base funding to get leverage.
In the current fiscal year, Burgess said, $1.5 million is allocated to Progress Through Partnering fund and of that amount, $635,000 was budgeted for various programs. Having an active role in the region, through programs such as Partnering Through Progress, is valuable, Izraelevitz said.
“Certainly, the lab is the economic engine for Los Alamos County, but we also understand Los Alamos County doesn’t have all the resources to provide all the support that the Lab needs,” he said. “So many people commute … and having a regional economy will help the lab and in turn help Los Alamos itself.”