Federal stimulus funds will be directed to needs
As the elected officials closest to people, after years of hearing from New Mexicans on what they want and need and after extensive study of what works and doesn’t work, legislative budget drafters have a strong sense of how to spend the more than a billion dollars in remaining federal stimulus funds now the state Supreme Court has made it clear that responsibility belongs to the Legislature.
More than a shiny, big public project, the people of New Mexico want to turn the spigot and get clean water. They want roads that can safely get them from their homes to the store and the doctor. They want clean air and clean environments and to visit beautiful, well-maintained state parks. They want their children to grow up healthy and happy, to be able to participate fully in school and the world through broadband connections and to graduate from high school ready for college or a career.
These are the things that transform lives. Big public projects make a splash, but we need to cover the basics first.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee’s $504 million plan for spending about half of the remaining stimulus and separate federal capital outlay funds, now being considered during the special legislative session, is a solid, responsible plan that can be expanded during the regular legislative session in January. In the plan:
$133 million for broadband infrastructure. Too many New Mexicans fell on the wrong side of the digital divide when the world went remote during the coronavirus pandemic. Broadband access will only get more important as the world progresses and throws open the door to alternative economic development in rural New Mexico.
$20 million for state park repairs and improvements,
$10 million for outdoor recreation grants to local communities and $10 million for surface water quality and river habitats. New Mexico has abundant natural beauty, treasured by locals and out-of-state visitors alike. Outdoor recreation is a barely tapped economic resource for the state. Similarly, state parks are important to the communities that rely on the economic activity they generate and valued by families and other users, but they have been long neglected.
$15 million for tourism marketing. The tourism industry is critical in New Mexico, and no industry was hit harder by the pandemic closures.
$142 million for roads and $30 million for airports, electric vehicle charging stations and roadway cleanup. State resources have been inadequate to maintain safe roads and improve substandard roads, and while that can be an irritating inconvenience in the state’s urban areas, it’s more complicated in rural New Mexico, which relies on functional roads for routine tasks, like grocery shopping, going to work or school and getting heating and cooking fuel to homes. Just like bad roads can cut off rural New Mexico from the rest of the state, inadequate air transport can cut off New Mexico from the world.
$25 million for housing assistance for the homeless and affordable housing and $5 million for food banks. With one of the highest poverty rates in the United States, too many New Mexicans live with housing and food insecurity.
$50 million for a rural hospital. Health care is a basic need, but most rural areas of New Mexico have poor access. Residents of several counties have no access to any obstetricians, and the situation is worse than it was just a few years ago.
This is what transformational spending looks like. These are the investments that will improve the quality of life for all New Mexicans and make the state a place where people want to live and work.
State Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, executive director of the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corporation, has served in the New Mexico Legislature representing McKinley and San Juan counties since January 2001. She is chairwoman of the Legislative Finance Committee and House Appropriations and Finance Committee. She is also a member of the House Transportation, Public Works and Capital Improvements Committee.