Some lawmakers go outside district boundaries with capital outlay funding
May 4—SANTA FE — It's a long haul from Albuquerque to Angel Fire, but that didn't stop several metro-area lawmakers from allocating some of their capital outlay dollars this year for construction of a new veterans' wellness center in the high mountain village.
In all, more than 25 Republican legislators chipped in a combined total of $1.2 million for the facility during the 60-day legislative session, even though most of them live far from Angel Fire.
"I thought it was worthwhile," said Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, a first-term senator and U.S. Air Force veteran who said other veterans in his district could benefit from the new facility.
Meanwhile, five lawmakers — a mix of Democrats and Republicans — allocated a total of $355,000 for the Fort Sill Apache Tribe to build a new fire station in Luna County between Deming and Las Cruces.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, said he's made it a point to support tribal projects in southern New Mexico, even if they're not located within the boundaries of his Senate District 37 seat.
"I've always provided some funding for whatever project they've got going on," Soules told the Journal, referring to the Fort Sill Apache, who won a 2011 court order to establish a reservation in New Mexico.
"They're the ones who were in this area historically," he added.
While New Mexico lawmakers generally tend to bring home the "pork," or capital outlay dollars, for road construction, water projects, sports fields and other projects in their districts, it's not uncommon for them to also fund outside projects.
Some funded projects are located far from legislators' districts, such as the $500,000 allocation for a new high school football field in Texico made this year by Sen. Joshua Sanchez, R-Bosque.
There are no rules that funded projects must be located within a legislator's district boundaries, and until recently, it was difficult to tell how most lawmakers divvied up their available capital outlay funds.
While attempts to overhaul the state's capital outlay system have been unsuccessful at the Roundhouse, lawmakers agreed in 2021 to disclose how each legislator divvies up their funding.
But that disclosure — in the form of a published list — is not made by the Legislative Council Service, the Legislature's administrative arm, until 30 days after the session's end.
How the capital outlay system works
Under the state's system for funding public works projects, each lawmaker gets a certain amount of funding during every regular legislative session to distribute for projects. The governor also receives a share.
This year's bill, House Bill 450, provided each House member with $2.5 million in available funding. Senators got a slightly larger share of nearly $4.2 million each.
In all, the bill appropriates about $1.2 billion for roughly 1,400 projects around New Mexico, though Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed a number of smaller projects from it last month.
Money appropriated under the capital outlay bill generally has to be spent within three years, though lawmakers can extend that deadline by reauthorizing approved projects.
'Everybody asks for money'
A review of this year's capital outlay allocations shows top-ranking senators from both political parties gave money to projects outside their districts.
Senate Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farmington, allocated $50,000 for the veterans' wellness center project in Angel Fire and another $50,000 to bolster efforts to build a New Mexico Sports and Cultural Museum in Albuquerque.
For her part, Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, gave money to several projects outside her district, including $100,000 for a student-led green initiative at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas and $200,000 for improvements to the Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington.
She said those funding decisions stemmed from meetings at the state Capitol and friendships she made with students at the schools.
"I try to limit the funding that goes outside my district — I think we all do," Stewart said in an interview, while emphasizing the vast majority of the 31 projects she funded are located within her district.
But Stewart also said this isn't the first year she's supported projects outside her district, saying she's also done so in past years.
Lawmakers say the volume of requests they get for proposed infrastructure projects around the state is higher than ever, even as the state's cash-flush budget situation has allowed for more money to be spent on capital outlay projects in recent years.
"Everybody asks for money," said Stewart. "It's unbelievable."
As for the project in Angel Fire, the National Veterans Wellness and Healing Center plans to use the $1.2 million it secured to build eight cabins for veterans who travel to northern New Mexico to take part in weeklong retreats, said Markus Podell, the group's president and post-traumatic stress disorder program director.
Podell said he went "office to office" during the legislative session asking lawmakers to support the project, which he said will allow the group to avoid having to rent out an entire condominium complex to house retreat participants.
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