Legislators see Mixed Results: Economy Hampers Lawmaker Returns
BY TODD G. DICKSON
The Las Cruces Bulletin
March 27, 2009
Faced with mending a busted budget crisis at the get-go, the New Mexico Legislature still managed to sort through a slew of bills in the 60-day session that ended Saturday, March 21. When the dust cleared, there were bills passed that local lawmakers could crow about, but others that didn’t make it without any discernable reason.
Critical successes included securing the $5.5 million for the New State University Arts Complex and winning final approval for Las Cruces to house a future state veterans museum. Gov. Bill Richardson is scheduled to sign the veterans museum bill at 10 a.m. Friday, March 27, at the Farm and Ranch Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road. After the ceremony, he will grant five-minute meetings with residents about specific legislation between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Farm and Ranch Museum.
Noticeably absent in the passed capital outlay spending was $4.5 million for the regional aquatic center promised by Richardson.
The Legislature also didn’t approve the state’s share of gross receipts and property taxes to a Tax Increment Development District in Downtown Las Cruces. The Downtown TIDD was supposed to have gone up for a vote the last morning in the House of Representatives, but it didn’t happen.
Taken altogether, local lawmakers resemble post-marathon athletes, struggling to find the right metaphors to describe the session. “It was challenging, stressful, chaotic and often times frustrating,” said Rep. Nathan Cote, D-Organ. While he did get a number of bills passed, there were still seven or eight bills of no great controversy that simply didn’t get heard, Cote said. Cote stressed that all of the local delegation worked many long hours to get bills and appropriations passed to benefit southern New Mexico. While acknowledging the challenges, Cote said he is disappointed that more wasn’t accomplished.
On some of the issues, lawmakers may get a second shot. There will likely be a special session this summer to revisit what is being frequently described as a “fragile” budget. Local lawmakers and city officials say they are determined to get the Downtown TIDD on the special session’s agenda. City Manager Terrence Moore said the state’s piece of the TIDD is critical to its success – worth a conservative estimate of $3.6 million over the TIDD’s 25-year life. For that same period, the city’s share is $3.9 million in gross receipts and $2.6 million in property taxes. The county share is $200,000 in gross receipts and $4.9 million in property taxes.
A TIDD commits future growth in gross receipts and property taxes to projects for an area with the expectation that economic development will repay the investment. TIDDs were intended for redevelopment projects such as the Downtown revitalization effort, but it also has been tapped as a tool for funding new development, making TIDDs controversial.
Mayor Ken Miyagishima said he is optimistic that the Downtown TIDD can be put on the special session agenda. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia said the session was historic by acting to repeal the death sentence, which Richardson did sign into law. Garcia also finally got legislation passed to shore up loopholes in the state’s auto theft law. Still, she also is disappointed that the lawmakers couldn’t do more, such as helping save the finances at the historic College of Santa Fe. “We did as well as can be expected considering the financial shortfall,” Garcia said. “We had to do what we had to do.” That meant not being able to reform the state funding formula for public schools, even though there had been much work put into revising the formula.
On the positive side, a fair amount of ethics legislation did get passed, Garcia noted. Besides finally agreeing to open conference committees, the Legislature also approved campaign contribution limits, something Garcia said she wasn’t aware of before because her donations are often far less than the $2,300 cap that was passed.
Given all the challenges, Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said lawmakers can point to the ethics legislation as progress. “These are significant achievements,” Steinborn said. “New Mexico has taken a great step forward.”
Though glad that the Legislature gave its final OK to locating the veterans museum in Las Cruces, Steinborn said he also is concerned that lawmakers couldn’t do more for education and road construction. Still, the budget passed didn’t include layoffs, so the fiscal “pain and sacrifice was spread out.”
