Richardson whacks local projects
Gallup-specific appropriations fall victim to governor's pen

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — If it doesn't want to wait until the New Mexico Legislature's next regular session in 2007, the city will have to find another pot of money with which to build bathrooms for the downtown courthouse square on the way.

The $150,000 project was one of four Gallup-specific appropriations the Legislature passed in February but fell victim to Gov. Bill Richardson's ax this week.

The governor also vetoed a $145,000 appropriation for the city's small business incubator, $95,000 for Western New Mexico University to build facilities for its information technology program, and $50,000 for the University of New Mexico-Gallup to build archival facilities.

And although the City Council's top capital priorities money for Red Rock Park and for a new building to house its police department survived, they were funded less generously than officials had hoped.

"That is a shame," City Manager Eric Honeyfield said of the governor's decision to scrap the bathrooms. "It's painful to lose that money."

The city had a hard enough time scraping together enough money to build the $2.17 million square due for completion in April without bathrooms. Assuming Gallup MainStreet would have come through with some free architectural designs, Honeyfield said, the state's $150,000 might have come close to paying for their addition.

Portapotties, it seems, are not an option.

"If we're going to be serious about having real events at the courthouse square, we've got to have running water," Honeyfield said.

But the city does not want to wait, either. Honeyfield said he was working with County Commissioner Earnest Becenti in hopes of pooling the city's and county's financial resources to finish the project without the state.

The loss of the incubator appropriation was also a disappointment.

Overseen by the Northwest New Mexico Community Development Corporation, it's designed to help new businesses get off the ground and small businesses expand. The City Council paid $102,000 for an old slaughterhouse on the west end of town where the corporation could put the incubator, knowing it would take much more money to fix up before businesses could start moving in. That's were the $145,000 was supposed to come in.

A month ago, while the Legislature was still in session, Jim Greenwood, a Florida-based consultant conducting a feasibility study for the corporation, said the incubator could possibly accept its first tenant by the end of the year. Honeyfield said the governor's veto would surely delay their efforts.

Neither Greenwood nor Community Development Corporation Director Mike Case could be reached for comment.

If there's a bright side to the governor's vetoes, it's that they take away only $440,000 of the more than $3.6 million worth of Gallup-specific capital projects he could have vetoed.

The governor's red pen also notably passed over the city's two top priories, though the $400,000 for facility improvements to Red Rock Park was of course his own idea.

That hasn't stopped city officials from complaining. It's less than a quarter of the $2 million they hoped the governor would bestow on the park in return for the council's decision to let the state run it. Although the decision could pay off in coming years, Mayor Bob Rosebrough hasn't ruled out the option of having the city take back the park.

Richardson also left untouched the $490,000 the city hopes to use to begin planning a new home for the Gallup Police Department. City officials are even talking with their McKinley County counterparts about using the $175,000 the county received for a new public safety building to plan a combined facility.