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The City of Las Cruces’ Telshor Facility Fund (TFF) has allocated millions of dollars to benefit local nonprofits, help with the community’s emergency response to Covid-19 and provide humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers who were brought to Las Cruces in 2019.
As a special revenue fund, TFF allocations are restricted to “health-related public services for the benefit of city residents,” according to city documents. The city created the Health and Human Services Advisory Committee to evaluate proposals for funding. Committee recommendations go to the Las Cruces City Council, which makes final spending decisions. TFF is not part of the city’s general fund.
TFF was created by the city council in October 2004 after the city and Doña Ana County entered into a 40-year lease agreement with Providence Healthcare Company for the lease of Memorial Medical Center (MMC), which the city and county jointly owned.
The original fund corpus was $30 million, including $4 million held in an escrow account until 2019, city Chief Administrative Officer Barbara DeLeon said at the city council’s June 13 work session. The fund’s May 2022 market value was $37 million.
City Treasurer Erica Jacquez said her office manages 40 percent of TFF proceeds. The State Investment Council manages the other 60 percent, she said. Investment income has been about $8 million a year since 2007, which does not decrease the corpus.
“While special revenue funds are not unusual for a city to have, the source of this fund – revenue from the long-term lease of MMC – is certainly exceptional since not every community has this kind of asset or lease agreement,” DeLeon said. “The restriction that council placed upon the fund – for health-related programs and capital projects – is also particular to the priorities of council and the community. Municipalities typically do not have health departments since that is generally the purview of states and counties, so the Telshor Fund allows the city to address health needs in the community while preserving general fund expenditures for traditional city operations and services. As defined by council, the fund also provides for safety and housing needs as part of the overall initiative to address the physical, mental, developmental, emotional and social well-being of City of Las Cruces residents,” DeLeon said.
Here are some of the allocations from TFF:
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