Legislator visits Alamo: Rep. Nate Coté talks to transportation committee about road projects, special session
Alamogordo Daily News
By Laura London, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/31/2009
Rep. Nate Coté talked to the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee on Friday about road maintenance
and the special legislative session conducted recently to address the state's budget shortfall.
Coté said he would begin with transportation and answer questions, then talk about the special session.
"And if I go into some kind of a PTSD, an emotional reaction, it's because of the special session," Coté said. "It's because it was that rough."
Transportation
Coté read part of a recent Associated Press article about transportation that said the state Department of Transportation is struggling to pay for its operations and highway projects due to a drop in tax revenues. The DOT is trying to cut spending, and highway maintenance may be postponed.
The article said state revenues from taxes on gasoline and diesel have been falling because people are cutting back on travel due to higher fuel costs and the state of the economy, and also because vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient. The department originally expected to receive $400 million in state road fund money this year, but the estimate has since been pared back to $360 million and may yet drop to $340 million.
"That is the bad news on road maintenance funds," Coté said.
Coté said an increase in gas taxes was not discussed during the special session, but in the January session there will be talk of revenue enhancements but hopefully nothing that will affect the average person.
Coté said although the DOT is having cash flow problems, the agency has refocused efforts to work on the section of U.S. Highway 54 between Tularosa and Carrizozo as soon as possible because of the road's deteriorating condition. The DOT also allocated $200,000 in federal funds for fiscal year 2010 to work on sidewalks along White Sands Boulevard.
Coté said the DOT also allocated $360,000 in federal funds to work on sidewalks in Tularosa; $6 million for U.S. Highway 54 between Alamogordo and Tularosa; and $500,000 for drainage structures under U.S. Highway 70 near Holloman Air Force Base.
Coté said the DOT does not have money in the 2010 budget to repair the railroad crossing on the relief route. He said the agency also cannot afford to solve the settling problem at the White Sands Boulevard bridge over the relief route within the next year.
Coté said the motor vehicle code will have a rewrite and the Tax and Revenue Department also has plans to fix the Motor Vehicle Division. Plans include enabling drivers to renew their driver's licenses with the MVD on the Internet.
Special legislative session
Coté said the latest bad news in agency cutback proposals is a reduction in hours for state parks, and possibly temporary closings for some parks. He did not have specific information about Oliver Lee Memorial State Park.
Coté said any capital outlay projects that had not been bid out by Oct. 23 were going to be looked at as possible cuts. He said it would take until January to find which projects were not moving forward, and those may be cut. He noted that local DOT projects he mentioned earlier were probably safe from cuts.
Coté said the state's reserve fund is shrinking and more reserves may yet have to be used. He said the state can't close the books on fiscal year 2009 because, although the Legislature passed a bill to use reserve funds to close the budget gap, the bill didn't pass with an emergency clause. It required two-thirds of the vote to be put into effect immediately and it didn't have that amount of votes so it will go into effect 90 days after the special session, which is January 2010.
Coté said until the tax base picks up, the Legislature may be forced to go in different directions and put revenue enhancements into effect.
"I hope any revenue enhancement bill would include sunset clauses," he said.
Coté said a revenue enhancement probably will not mean a personal income tax for residents.
"We're going to be as creative as possible," Coté said.
Coté said there is a projected $650 million shortfall for 2010.
"It may approach a billion dollars," Coté said. "We're going to have to find the money to pay the bills somehow."
Coté noted if the Legislature starts cutting capital outlay projects, that will mean cutting jobs which will make economic problems worse.
Coté said legislators do not want to put a tax back on food, but they did discuss a possible tax on junk food items. He said the junk food tax could raise several million dollars for the state.
"I'm talking about donuts, or potato chips, or soda pop," Coté said.
"You're taking the donuts away from us?" Sam Trujillo, director of the Alamogordo Department of Safety, asked.
"We won't take the donuts away, chief, but we may charge you a tax on them," Coté responded.
Coté said it would be a choice tax, not applied to nutritional foods. He said sin taxes are being somewhat discussed, but lawmakers must be careful. He noted statistics for smoking, for instance, indicate most smokers are lower income people and cigarettes are already very expensive. The federal government just raised taxes on cigarettes. However, he said he would not be surprised if lawmakers increased taxes on alcohol.
Coté said he felt like he was going back into combat when he went to the special session.
"I felt like I was going back on the aircraft carrier," he said. "... I felt like I was going back into dangerous territory, and when we got there it certainly was."
Coté said there was a negotiating team working with an executive team on where cuts could happen. There were cuts in state agencies, public education, higher education, salaries and the college affordability fund, which took a big hit. He said one thing advantageous to Alamogordo and other districts around the state is that legislators were able to take some capital outlay projects funded by the general fund and move those into severance tax bonds.
Coté said he sponsored a bill to cut 180 exempt positions under the governor, out of an estimated 500 positions.
"We didn't know the exact number, but around 500 exempt positions," he said.
Coté said they are well-paid positions, some up to nearly $200,000 per year, with a lot of salary increases. He said the bill eventually passed with 102 exempt positions cut, but noted legislators expect a line item veto on that one from Gov. Bill Richardson.
Coté provided several documents for those at the meeting to review, including the governor's proclamation issued at the beginning of the special session that limited where spending cuts could happen. He also made available a list of capital outlay projects that were safe from cuts.
One local project on the safe list was a city road project from Desert Lakes to Martin Luther King Boulevard for $400,000. Another project, for Otero County, was $247,500 for the Otero County Emergency Response Center. Those appear to be the only two local capital outlay projects on the safe list.
Contact Laura London at llondon@alamogordonews.com.
