Cote talks state finance
Alamogordo Daily News
By Laura London, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/11/2009
State Rep. Nate Cote conducted a town hall meeting Wednesday at the Sgt. Willie Estrada Memorial Civic Center to
apprise citizens about the state's finances and gather their input as to what might be done about it.
Cote conducted a similar meeting in Chaparral on Monday night and had scheduled another in Las Cruces on Thursday.
Cote didn't have much good news to impart: revenues are down for the state and the Legislature will have another $350 million to cut during the January session to balance the fiscal year 2010 budget, and then they have to create the fiscal 2011 budget.
However, there was some good news shared at the start of the town hall. Mark Roath, Alamogordo's new city manager, thanked Cote for his effort in restoring capital outlay funding for the Oregon Avenue tennis court project.
"That announcement came (Wednesday)," Roath said.
Oct. 27, the governor froze all capital outlay funding for projects that had not been contracted by that date. The same day, the city had put the tennis court project out to bid and had expected to award the bid Nov. 3. Mayor Ron Griggs announced the turn of events during the Oct. 27 regular city commission meeting, and added he had sent letters to Cote and Gov. Bill Richardson asking for their support.
Commissioner Josh Rardin, who Roath said had also worked to keep the tennis court funding, also thanked Cote for his efforts. Rardin mentioned he was at City Hall on Wednesday when the city got the news.
"The staff was almost speechless," Rardin said.
"Thank you, Josh," Cote said. "When I got the word, I was speechless myself."
Cote said he happened to be at the right place at the right time when the issue came up, attending meetings in Santa Fe. He said nearly $500,000 for new tennis courts in Alamogordo was saved from being cut.
Cote said the legislative session in January is going to be tough because the state doesn't have the revenues to meet expenditures. He said he is conducting town hall meetings to gather input from communities he represents as to what to do about it.
"I'm sure that most of you have given some thought as to how we might approach this," Cote said.
Cote said public school funding has been relatively untouched, but federal stimulus money that has helped with that is scheduled to run out in 2011. He said compared with the October 2009 estimate, this October fiscal year 2010 revenue was down $10 million and fiscal year 2011 was down $53 million.
Cote said a task force has been appointed to recommend what tax exemptions on the books might be removed, what revenue enhancements to put back and what services could be cut. He said lawmakers don't want to increase taxes during the economic downfall. They are looking at what might be done on a corporate level, but are not sure yet.
"We'll wait and see what the task force comes up with," Cote said.
Cote said a lot of tax credits need to be analyzed. The credit for movies made in the state, for example, has brought in film business, but lawmakers can't tell how much good it has done for the state.
Cote said he intends to carry a bill, as he did during the special session, to relieve schools of state-mandated testing. He said another idea to help schools operate less expensively is to replace the four-year math requirement with a personal finance course.
One woman in the audience said she supports looking at tax benefits given to big corporations, like with the film industry.
Sue Medina, Alamogordo school board member, noted the state has 89 school districts, and several of those have less than 100 students. She said many have to apply for emergency supplemental funding every year. She suggested combining some of the districts to cut down on administrative costs.
Contact Laura London at llondon@alamogordonews.com.
