NM communities could lose block grant dollars
Trump wants to eliminate community development program
Communities in every corner of the state rely on federal Community Development Block Grant dollars to fund everything from road, water and wastewater projects to senior citizen centers and community center renovations.
So President Donald Trump’s proposal to do away with the program has many community leaders in New Mexico worried.
“Without these types of funding sources, small communities like ours are going to struggle with our infrastructure needs,” said Alex Brown, Silver City’s town manager.
On average, nearly $16 million in federal CDBG funds flow to New Mexico each year, according to Julia Ruetten, communications director for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
And it’s not just small communities that would be affected.
Albuquerque receives about $3 million a year in CDBG funding, a city spokeswoman said.
In recent years, the grants
for Albuquerque have been used for park improvements in low-income areas, a partial roof replacement of the Road Runner Food Bank, expansion of the kitchen and dining area at St. Martin’s homeless shelter and improvements to the All Nations Wellness and Healing Center, where food is distributed to homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless.
CDBG dollars also are being used for the Dennis Chavez Community Center renovation, which is scheduled for completion late this year.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said local governments like the CDBG program because of its agility — it allows community leaders to decide what projects will have a significant impact on their communities.
“It would be a big loss to the community to lose that discretionary spending,” Berry said. “I’m a fan of a strong military. I’m a fan of supporting the men and women who serve our country, but I also think this particular spending cut would hit main streets across the country, including Albuquerque.”
Trump announced his plan to do away with the CDBG program in the budget blueprint he released last week. Eliminating the program would save the federal government $3 billion, the budget plan says.
“The federal government has spent over $150 billion on this block grant since its inception in 1974, but the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results,” the Trump administration said. “The budget devolves community and economic development activities to the state and local level, and redirects federal resources to other activities.”
Eliminating the CDBG program would require approval from Congress, and that could be a tough sell given how popular the program is with local governments.
The president’s budget proposal already is garnering stiff opposition from a number of lawmakers, including Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.
“His cuts to affordable housing and his complete elimination of heating assistance and community development block grants would literally leave New Mexico families in the cold,” Udall said in a news release.
Brown estimates that Silver City has received close to $8 million from the CDBG program over the past 20 years. “Communities such as Silver City, we’ve got limited avenues to get grants like this for infrastructure,” he said. “This is one very important funding source we’ve relied on for many years to help replace our aging infrastructure.”
He said Silver City has used CDBG funds to complete water and street projects, to build a senior center and to install infrastructure for an affordable housing subdivision. One year, Brown said, Silver City used CDBG funds to help county residents. He said the place where they had been taking septic tank waste stopped accepting it, and county residents were faced with having to haul it 100 miles to Las Cruces or Animas.
“We used CDBG funding to install infrastructure at our treatment plant so we could accept septage from county residents,” he said.
Rio Rancho receives more than $400,000 a year from the program, which it uses to provide neighborhood and public services to low- to moderate-income residents.
Las Vegas City Manager Richard Trujillo, meanwhile, said his city has received $844,000 in CDBG funds since 2010 for road projects and for senior citizen center upgrades.
“It’s a huge impact,” Trujillo said. “A community our size … we have to rely on programs like this to help us with road projects, drainage and to provide services to senior citizens.”
Timothy Dodge, the city manager in Santa Rosa, said 43 communities around New Mexico are getting ready to apply for CDBG funds.
“It’s ironic that Trump is talking about putting more money into infrastructure, but then wanting to do away with (CDBG funds),” he said.
He said Santa Rosa typically gets about $500,000 every other year and uses the money for things like street and wastewater projects.
He added that CDBG funds have historically gone to disadvantaged communities.
“The national objective is reducing slum and blight,” he said. “It’s always been a good project that has helped lower-income populations. Without that funding, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with the infrastructure that’s serving those populations.”