Legislators have Less to Divide Up This Session
By Ellen Wedum
Published in Mountain Monthly, February 2008
I have been up here in Santa Fe since January 7, attending the preliminary meetings of the House and Senate “money” committees. They are the Senate Finance Committee and the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. I will be able to keep an eye on our legislators more effectively this year as certain members of the Chaves County Republican delegation strenuously objected to my being hired again (I was House Majority support staff in 2007) because I am a “declared candidate.” Theoretically I am not officially a declared candidate until I have filed my nominating petition signatures on March 18 and been certified by the Secretary of State, but we all know I am going to run for the House District 59 seat again.
Since I fall into the category of ‘independently poor,’ this means I will be skimping on meals and won’t be able to take advantage of the upscale clothes available at the Santa Fe thrift shops—as every thrift shop customer probably knows, the richer the town, the better the quality of castoffs! Meanwhile my opponent will be driving around in her snazzy tomato-red Mercedes (looks like it was custom-painted to match her HD 59 license plate).
So far it seems the outlook for capital outlay projects is pretty grim this year. Last year was plush, especially since the Governor restored all the money for projects that were vetoed in 2006, but this year everyone is warning that there will only be about half as much money available, and it was specifically stated in the Senate Finance Committee hearings the week of January 7 that they would concentrate on funding and ‘finishing up’ projects that have already been partially funded. So the Twin Forks MDWCA may get some more funding, but the improvements needed by the Sixteen Springs VFD, for example, may not get any support.
Besides, the Otero County projects in our area did pretty well in 2007. Of the money available to District 59, nearly 41% went to Otero even though we represent only 20% of the district’s total vote. A big chunk of that ($430,000) went to the Cloudcroft water reuse system, definitely a worthy project and one whose operation will be closely watched by many other New Mexico municipalities.