Pueblo Council Delays $885,000 Da Vinci Museum Funding Vote

$885,000. That is the amount of Pueblo sales tax revenue the Leonardo da Vinci Museum wants redirected to its operating budget. For a city where every dollar of local tax revenue is scrutinized, that is a massive ask. And on Monday night, the Pueblo City Council let it all out in public.

The question locals are asking right now is simple: Why did the council vote to delay a decision on this money when they already passed the first reading of the ordinance unanimously back in August?

Let’s do the math on the timeline. The museum first requested $1.8 million in April. That initial ask included paying wages for 25 employees and funding capital improvements to the city-owned building it leases. The employment portion was later dropped, leaving the current $885,000 request focused on operations and improvements. On Aug. 10, the council passed the first reading of the ordinance on a consent agenda without any discussion. Then, days later, a local businesswoman publicly challenged the legality of that proposed ordinance.

Monday night’s two-hour discussion was the first public airing of those concerns. The council voted 5-2 to delay a final vote until Sept. 14, with a work session scheduled for Sept. 8 to dig into the museum’s financial projections and the criteria for approving economic development incentives.

Mayor Heather Graham, who has championed the project since it broke ground on the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk, was not pleased with the delay. She told the council that the process has been going on since April and that members have sat in executive sessions with museum representatives.

“We have had multiple executive sessions,” Graham said angrily. “You have all seen the application... For the three of you tonight that said you are not prepared because you have not got your questions answered, that is because you have not asked your questions.”

She specifically called out Councilmember Selena Ruiz-Gomez, accusing her of tabling the ordinance because she didn’t want to vote on it. Ruiz-Gomez pushed back, noting that asking questions is the council’s job regardless of when they arise.

“With all due respect, mayor, we want to hear from Mr. Arrigo,” Ruiz-Gomez said, referring to museum founder and board president Joe Arrigo. “He’s coming to us and asking for taxpayer dollars.”

Arrigo, who was absent from the two closed-door work sessions where the request was discussed, later confirmed he wasn’t there. At Monday’s meeting, City Attorney Carla Sikes presented the ordinance details instead of Arrigo.

The public hearing started three hours into a jam-packed agenda. About 20 people, many of them museum employees or volunteers, spoke in favor of the funding. Only two people opposed giving the museum public money.

For context, this isn’t just a cultural donation; it’s an economic development incentive tied to sales tax. The museum is located on the city-owned building, which it leases. If the council approves the $885,000 on Sept. 14, that money comes directly from the pocket of every person who spends taxable dollars in Pueblo.

The practical bottom line: Your next purchase at a local grocery store or gas station contributes to the pool from which this museum will draw nearly $900,000. The council is currently deciding if that trade-off is worth the museum’s presence on the riverwalk. Until Sept. 14, that decision hangs in the balance, and the tension between the mayor’s support for the project and the council’s desire for more financial transparency is only going to get louder.