Lawmakers question who covers wildfire costs
Sen. Muñoz suggests suing federal government to receive aid
With the historic Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire well into its third month, anxious legislators are demanding to know how much the disaster is going to cost, who is going to bear that cost and how state and federal officials plan to make communities devastated by the blaze whole again.
Lawmakers on the Legislative Finance Committee hammered away on the topic during a hearing Tuesday in
Silver City. They did not get many clear answers, and their frustration and concern was palatable. Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, suggested the state launch a lawsuit against the federal government to get needed financial aid.
“We’re going to have to show a little bit of leadership and a lot of determination and tell the [federal] government this is the way the cow is going to eat the cabbage today, and if you don’t like it, we’ll see you in court,” Muñoz said during an update of the impact from the fire presented by Kelly Hamilton, deputy secretary for the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department.
“They’re going to have to ante up and take care of it,” Muñoz said.
The discussion came as the 342,000acre fire, which started April 6, continued to burn, though it is no longer moving and much of the work is in suppression repair. The blaze is 93 percent contained.
During a visit to Santa Fe in June, President Joe Biden vowed the federal government would assume the costs of fighting the blaze, including firefighting, debris removal and protective measures. But the uncertainties of how the money will come through — and whether a federal bill will fund the losses suffered by individual homeowners and landowners will pass Congress — gnaws at lawmakers.
Late last week, the U.S. House voted to pass a bill that includes a provision ensuring residents in the fire zone receive full compensation for their losses. But the Senate also must vote to pass the Hermits Peak Fire Assistance Act, included in the $839 billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023.
State Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup, and chairwoman of the influential House Finance and Appropriations Committee, asked Hamilton whether the Legislature should expect to see a bill requesting funding for the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon recovery efforts in the next legislative session, scheduled to begin in January.
“I assume that’s the case,” she said. “I want to know if we are going to have some state responsibility here.”
The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire did not take any lives, but it left an unforgettable swath of destruction in communities throughout rural San
Miguel and Mora counties, said Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas.
He spoke of livestock washed away by floods, of people suffering heart attacks in the wake of personal and property losses, and of a generation of young New Mexicans who may decide to abandon their communities if they do not see state leaders taking action to make things right.
“The enormity of this situation is going to take us years to overcome,” Campos said.
Campos and other lawmakers on the committee expressed concern there is still no concrete plan to rebuild. When Hamilton said state and federal leaders meet every day to discuss how to respond to
the events of the day and night before, Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, asked: “Is there anybody asking about beyond last night? ... We have an obligation to look further ahead than what happened last night.”
Hamilton said one challenge is getting federal agencies on the same page when it comes to defining infrastructure descriptions and needs as the state seeks federal aid.
He said he could not begin to estimate what the cost of fighting the fires and rebuilding will be, but noted the state should not expect Biden, who vowed to have the federal government cover the costs when he visited New Mexico in mid-June, to “sit down and write a check.”
Nora Meyers Sackett, spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, wrote in an email Tuesday
that “making the assessment of the total cost is a very big undertaking, and those efforts are ongoing.”
“Each one of our requests be approved or it be denied … we might be fighting it for years,” Hamilton said.
Some legislators seemed up to the battle.
Rep. Jack Chatfield, R-Mosquero, said, “It’s going to be a fight and we need to start fighting it now.”
Muñoz pressed Hamilton and other state leaders to hold the federal government’s “feet to the fire.”
He said the state should make it clear to the federal government that New Mexico is “driving the boat. You guys [the feds] just need to load the money in the back so we can get it distributed and replaced.”