We are coming together to oppose metro rule

In response to John Feins (“Get capital cities involved to save our metropolis,” My View, April 4), I would like to inform readers of the actions that elected officials are taking to oppose the rule proposal to change the standards for delineating metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas that could result in a decrease in federal funding provided to the city of Santa Fe.

I was informed of this proposed rule change on March 10. And, as chairwoman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and one of the vice chairs of the National Association of Counties’ Environment, Energy and Land Use Committee, I immediately went to work and reached out to other county commissioners and United States legislators. Together we have made a strong effort to lobby against this rule change.

I contacted U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s office first, and then I suggested to my colleagues at the association of counties that they do the same. Through that effort, we engaged over 55 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and asked them to write letters of opposition, including our own Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández. Then I connected with a colleague in upstate New York and asked her to reach out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office. As a result, another 23 U.S. senators wrote letters opposing the proposed change, including our own Sens. Martin Heinrich and Luján.

During this time, I was working with our Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization officer, Erick Aune, as he reached out to other MPOs across the West and drafted a letter on behalf of Santa Fe MPO. I called a special meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization to review and approve the letter. Both the city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County wrote individual letters expressing opposition.

This is a bad rule that was filed in the Federal Register on Jan. 19, just one day before our 46th president took office. This status change does not only affect capital cities, but many cities that have been growing and hoping to reach the metropolitan status. There are two main cities in New Mexico that would be affected by this rule change: Farmington and Santa Fe, both of which have well-established MPOs that provide substantive transportation planning and funding services and are under the New Mexico Department of Transportation District 5 engineer, Paul Brasher. The Department of Transportation also wrote a letter of opposition. One other New Mexico city that will be affected is Roswell. At the last census count in 2010, Roswell was just under 50,000, and in 10 years it has grown to over 50,000.

I agree with Mr. Feins. We need to ban together, but not just for capital cities — for many smaller municipalities.

Anna Hansen is a Santa Fe County commissioner, District 2, and chairwoman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for Santa Fe city and county