Cibola enjoys profuse funds for this year
Legislators review local funds

Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The local state legislators told the Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday about how much capital improvement money they brought home from the recent legislative session.

State Sen. Joseph Fidel and State Representatives George Hanosh and W. Ken Martinez indicated they were awed by how much money the New Mexico state treasury has accumulated, mostly because of high oil and gas prices. The piggy bank in Santa Fe allowed $4 million for each senators' district and $2.4 million for each representative.

"I remember when we thought $800,000 or $600,000 was a lot," said Fidel, who has been going to the state capital for the district for 34 years.

What all three liked about the second session of the 47th Legislature was that they could more easily handle their share of the $6 billion in capital improvement requests.

The two-page list for Cibola County the money comes from both the general fund and the severance tax bond fund includes almost every community in the county.

By far the two largest allocations, of $400,000 each, will go toward the more than $5 million needed for a new city-college library at the New Mexico State University-Grants campus and improvements on Interstate 40 near the Laguna Pueblo. The library money will be part of the statewide general obligation bond issue.

All three repeated a theme often expressed in the past, that they work very well together.

Martinez also noted the difference in atmospheres between the upper and lower chambers of the legislature, with representatives required to push their green or red buttons within 30 seconds of the vote call, along with rare explanations of votes just the opposite of the more robust debate in the senate, he said.

They rely on each other, Martinez said, for it is "important to understand if they (the bills) do what they should do."

He said 1,750 bills were introduced, about 900 in the house and 800 in the senate.

To Martinez, some of the more important bills included reducing access to the over-the-counter drugs used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Detailed regulations were left to the state Pharmacy Board.

The regulations will go to the retail stores, which are required to keep a log of the purchases and to stock those drugs like a pharmacy does, making them "behind-the-counter" medications.

Martinez said education allocations increased 8 percent. Pre-natal care will pay what he called "big dividends" as "we either pay now or pay later," with higher health and social service bills.

He also talked about the new gambling addiction bill for a compulsive gaming study, seeking voter approval to install in the New Mexico Constitution a Permanent Water Trust Fund and seeking a fifth 4-year term in June and November.

Hanosh pointed out that less than 10 percent of the bills, about 140, actually passed both houses.

He noted he opposed the increase of the minimum wage to an immediate $7.50 per hour because of the way the bill was structured. He said so many amendments were attached it became "a convoluted bill." It did pass the house, but not the senate. Hanosh and Fidel chair powerful finance committees in their respective chambers.

Hanosh said he is happy the governor signed the bed tax repeal and strongly supports Gallup Representative Patty Lundstrom's payday loan limitation bill. "It's a good bill, but it didn't pass," he lamented. It would prevent that industry from charging usurious 600 percent interest on short-term loans.

He explained the governor vetoed about $265 million of the $6 billion in requests, because the governor wanted each legislator to have a certain amount. In turn, the governor got about 4/5ths of what he requested.

"I confess that I voted for a tax increase," Hanosh told the audience, for 2 more cents a gallon on vehicle fuel to pay for improving school bus routes. The bill didn't get out of the senate, he added.

Fidel explained that Gov. Bill Richardson wanted to allow $140 million for capital improvements."We decided to do $168 million, but he tried to get the balance back down," the senator said, by using his line-item veto.

The senator explained he lost through the vetoes only $165,000 of the allocations for his district all of Cibola County, plus one-third of Valencia County and one-half of Socorro County.

Fidel called having $4 million to distribute as "amazing."

He also revealed that the $5.5 billion state budget is an increase in spending of almost 10 percent.

New Grants mayor, Joe Murrietta, attended along with newly elected councilors Walter Jaramillo and Modey Hicks. City Manager Bob Horacek, City Clerk Radawn Narramore and City Police Chief Marty Vigil were also present.

The monthly general membership luncheon program at La Ventana Steak House was produced by the Association of Commerce and Industry, which is the statewide chamber coupled with the statewide industrial lobbying group. ACI representative Sayuri Yamada said the Grants program was one of 25 stops in a two-month tour of New Mexico. The April 16 luncheon will be moved to the Best Western Inn & Suites at Exit 85 on Interstate 40.