Bingaman to seek funds for local projects

New Mexico U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman talks with Dialysis patient Augstine Mazon of Gallup at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital Dialysis Center on Monday morning. The Senator was in town and toured several other buildings including the Gallup Police Department in an effort to raise funds for the different public services. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman Monday pledged to seek funding for the Gallup Dialysis Center and for the proposed new building for the city and county police departments.

Bingaman was in town for most of Monday talking to local law enforcement officials and management at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital about their needed federal funding.

He said his office is trying to find more funding to expand the dialysis center and build a new public safety complex. His office had already helped in getting $1 million in funding for the dialysis center and another $200,000 for the public safety building.

"We're trying to seek funding for next year," he said.

He's also working with New Mexico's other senator, Pete Domenici, to get the long-delayed Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline funded.

"We're now in the process of drafting legislation which may go to Congress next year," he said.

Because of the cost of the program some $700 million at the present time he said he expected that funding would come over a 15 to 20 year period.

"I'm optimistic about the project," he said, although admitting that right now most members of Congress are still unaware that the project even exists. "This is still mainly a New Mexico project," he said.

There is some concern that even if the project is approved, it will go the way of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, which was given a firm 10 year period of funding by Congress in 1972.

That funding was supposed to complete the project by 1982, but because of cutbacks in funding, the project some 34 years later is still only 75 percent complete and the cost has risen to more than $200 million.

Because of the way Congress works, Bingaman said, there's no guarantee that a 15- or 20-year funding cycle really means that because funding priorities are considered on a year-by-year basis, things like wars or overseas conflicts may disrupt spending for domestic projects.

He said he was also committed to continue efforts to get the minimum wage increased, but although he has voted for it every year for the past nine years, the Republican majority in Congress has voted it down.

At the same time, he said, the Republican majority has been trying to cut estate taxes for the very wealthy and there has been talk of a deal being made which would give the Democrats their minimum wage increase for their support of lower estate taxes.