Mesa TV of Cortez is asking that Montezuma County begin paying to broadcast its weekly commission meetings on the company’s channel.

For the past year, the broadcast company has been airing the all-day commissioner meeting live on Channel 30.6.

Mesa TV proposed a fee of $800 per month to broadcast the meeting live, then rebroadcast a version edited for length in the evenings.

For $1,000 per month, Mesa TV said it would add broadcasts of the county planning and zoning meetings.

The commissioners said they’d consider it.

To counter shrinking tax revenues because of a downturn in the oil and gas industry, the Montezuma County Commission raised the mill levy for the Law Enforcement Authority back to the voter-approved level of 1.45 mills.

In Dec. 2014, the commissioners dropped the levy to 1.20 mills because they said the fund was robust enough to give taxpayers a break.

The LEA was passed by voters in 2007 to pay for law enforcement services for unincorporated parts of the county. In 2014, the mill generated $870,000.

“We think it is wise to put it back at the voter approved amount to get the fund back in shape,” said commissioner Keenan Ertel.

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