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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Politicians sink $13M in closed New Mexico tourist attraction
BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – 'Build it and they will come.' It's not just a memorable line from a movie. Consider a weed-choked vacant lot on Albuquerque's West Mesa. Beginning in 2021, construction crews transformed barren acreage into a multi-million-dollar, two-story architectural masterpiece. And then, a year later, a parade of community leaders and politicians celebrated with a marathon ribbon cutting ceremony complete with music, food, specially designed t-shirts, and a host of political and community leaders. Among the 36 guest speakers, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller. 'This is a celebration bigger than the West Side, bigger than Albuquerque. This is about the Land of Enchantment and about the story of America,' Mayor Keller proclaimed. And, State Senator Michael Padilla. 'You're going to be able to tell your children, your babies, your grandbabies, your great grandbabies, 'I was there the day that they opened the Route 66 Visitor Center'. I'm so excited,' Senator Padilla said. Welcome to Albuquerque's newest government attraction, the Route 66 Visitor Center. But don't be deceived by the enthusiastic ribbon-cutting crowd. Once the hoopla died down and the politicians headed home, reality set in. It has been three years since that ribbon-cutting celebration. However, as a tourist destination, the project has been a bust. Today, the parking lot is empty, the gates are locked, and the building is closed. Over the last decade, city, county, and state politicians have poured more than $13,000,000 into a facility plagued by mismanagement, financial improprieties, and procurement violations. In fact, from the very beginning, the Route 66 Visitor Center had all the tell-tale signs of a pricey government venture gone wrong. 'This was probably not the best use of public funds, but officials pushed forward with it anyway,' said Bernalillo County Commissioner Eric Olivas. The concept was for a revenue-generating complex that included a lowrider museum, amphitheater, banquet hall, commercial kitchen, tap room, and gift shop. But the Visitor Center is not your typical public works project. In this case, millions of public dollars were allocated to a venture that had no master plan, no budget, and no oversight. It was only after funding the visitor center that county officials got around to a feasibility study. And then they ignored glaring red flags and went ahead with the project anyway. 'No one [read] that report. That's really the crux of the problem here. We didn't listen to the facts and ultimately went forward with something without fully understanding the repercussions,' Commissioner Olivas said. Eric Olivas was elected to the Bernalillo County Commission after the Visitor Center had already been constructed. 'We had a series of failures,' Commissioner Olivas said. Once construction was complete, Albuquerque's City Council spearheaded the purchase of equipment and furnishings. Armed with a generous Capital Outlay checkbook courtesy of the State Legislature, the City Council embarked on a grandiose shopping spree at taxpayer expense. But behind the scenes, something was amiss. According to the City Council's new Budget Director, Mark Motsko, the Council's equipment expenditures were not by the book. 'The state has a process with Capital Outlay dollars that requires us as a municipality to ask permission before we actually spend the money. In this case, that permission was never asked. They just did it. That is not by the book,' Motsko said. He added, none of the Route 66 purchases were questioned or justified. For example: $151,000 for an old Route 66 motel sign. The sign was donated to the visitor center, but it cost taxpayers $151,000 to have it moved, transported, refurbished, and installed at the new building. $58,000 for audio visual equipment including microphones, speakers, clamps, lights, mixers, and cables. The electronic gear has been sitting in storage, unused for three years. $5595 for a large-format color printer that's never been plugged in. Today, no one at the Council recalls a justification for the purchase of a commercial printer. $5263 for fixtures from a defunct East Central honky-tonk, the Caravan East. Council staffers purchased at auction dozens of saloon relics, including signs, chandeliers, a shoe shine bench, a gumball machine, and even a $200 claw-foot cast iron bath tub. The material has been stored at the visitor center for nearly a decade. Except for the bathtub tub which has disappeared. $8612 for specially designed visitor center t-shirts given away at the ribbon-cutting. $15,712 for iPads, thermal printers, cash drawers, installation, set-up, and staff training. The equipment was never delivered, and the firm has since gone out of business. The list goes on and on. Add it all up and, since 2022, Albuquerque's City Council has shelled out more than $320,000 to furnish the newly constructed building. 'There was no oversight of these (expenditures). I have not seen any records justifying the purchases.' City Council Budget Director Mark Motsko said. The Council's former Budget Director was responsible for ensuring purchases were compliant with the law. According to Motsko, he screwed up 'big time.' 'Those purchases have been discovered, reversed, and now we're making sure this doesn't happen again,' Motsko said. Albuquerque City Councilor Klarissa Peña supervised the acquisition of the building furnishings, although she said she does not know who authorized the expenditures. Councilor Peña also said she did not know at the time that the equipment purchases failed to comply with state law. 'Unbeknownst to me, I didn't know that that was occurring. It's concerning. I think that there was probably a level of errors throughout all our procurement within City Council,' Councilor Peña said. Bernalillo County Commissioners hired the non-profit West Central Community Development Group to manage the facility. The first visitor center appropriation came in 2015. $13,000,000 later, the building opened for business. That was in 2023. Fully equipped and furnished, the visitor center had everything it needed to be a successful tourist destination, everything except tourists, employees, revenue, a brew pub, banquets, weddings, catering, concerts, or a gift shop. Rather than generating self-supporting income and boosting the local economy, the visitor center has turned into a significant drain on taxpayer dollars. What went wrong? For starters, Bernalillo County's lack of planning is a factor. And then there's the location. The county built the visitor center a good half mile from the nearest interstate exit, well off the beaten path. And then last year, the county terminated its contract with the West Central Community Development Group, citing mismanagement and financial improprieties. The building was closed shortly after it opened. Last year, Bernalillo County walked away from the project and donated the entire Route 66 Visitor Center building to the City of Albuquerque. 'Today, the benefit (of the Route 66 Visitor Center) to the taxpayer right now is nothing,' said State Senator Pete Campos. Senator Campos has long been an advocate for reform of the Legislative Capital Outlay process. He said, 'very clearly it's not responsible at all' to fund a project that doesn't have an operational budget, feasibility study, or master plan. 'The failures were a lack of planning. As legislators, it's up to us to ensure that that particular project be best utilized for the people of that region, for the people of New Mexico,' Senator Campos said. 'If you build something without a plan, it's almost impossible to make that thing functional and having it succeed,' Legislative Finance Committee Chair Senator George Muñoz said. 'It's the cart before the horse. How do you know you're going to really need something before you have a study or a plan? It's like building a house with no plan,' Senator Muñoz said. He said, in his opinion, legislators who appropriated Capital Outlay money towards the Route 66 Visitor Center 'did not do their homework.' 'Having something in this realm is a luxury. (State Legislators) had better do their homework and make sure that they want their name on the Capital Outlay sheet when it fails,' LFC Chair Senator Muñoz said. The City of Albuquerque has appointed a Route 66 Visitor Center Commission to determine how the center can best serve the community. While the Commission contemplates a future usage of the building, city work crews have spent some $600,000 performing repairs and upgrades to the three-year-old structure. Albuquerque officials hope to reopen the building later this year. Until then, the Route 66 Visitor Center remains closed to the public. 'As policymakers, it's not our money, it's public money. We have an obligation to make sure that we review all the facts and all the information that we can possibly get our hands on, and then make an informed decision,' Bernalillo County Commissioner Eric Olivas said. 'This is a big deal. It's (your) tax dollars. You need to know that your dollars are spent on things that you need: water, infrastructure, roads, streets, parks, things that add quality of life,' State Senator George Muñoz said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Solvency questions swirl around paid leave proposal as session nears homestretch
Mar. 12—SANTA FE — As a hotly debated New Mexico paid leave proposal nears the finish line at the Roundhouse, questions are swirling about the plan's financial viability. A House-approved bill creating a state-run paid leave program and authorizing $9,000 baby rebates for working parents — spread out over three months after birth — is awaiting a key vote in the Senate Finance Committee with just over one week left in the 60-day session. Several committee members expressed misgivings Wednesday during a legislative analysis of the proposal, pointing out the bill does not specify where an estimated $193 million per year to pay for baby rebates would come from. "I don't think I've ever seen where we didn't say how we were going to pay for something when we put it on the books," said Senate Majority Whip Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque. He also expressed concern the funding could end up being funneled out of an early childhood trust fund created in 2020 that will have an estimated $9.6 billion balance by the end of this year. Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, one of the bill's sponsors, told reporters later Wednesday that lawmakers could appropriate money from the Early Childhood Education and Care Department's budget — not the trust fund — down the line. "Is it funded? Not really. But does it need to be funded? That's the question," she said. "Well, just recall that (baby rebates) do not start until Jan. 1, 2028, so frankly, I would think it would be inappropriate to have the cost of the program in this year's budget when, in fact, it is at least one or two budget cycles out." But even some advocates of creating a New Mexico paid family leave program have expressed solvency concerns. Tracy McDaniel, policy director of the Southwest Women's Law Center, said members of a coalition of more than 50 groups are still trying to understand the implications of changes made to the bill before it was approved by the House on a 38-31 vote. "We just want to make sure this is a fiscally sustainable program from year to year," McDaniel told the Journal. She also said backers are trying to convince senators to expand the bill by extending the amount of paid time off workers could take off annually to care for family members or recover from medical procedures. Paid leave bill's evolution Supporters of a New Mexico paid leave program have tried for years to win approval at the Roundhouse. This year's bill, House Bill 11, marks the furthest such legislation has advanced, but the proposal has also changed significantly since it was first introduced. During Wednesday's hearing in the Senate Finance Committee, lawmakers also questioned the solvency of the wellness fund, a part of the bill that would require employees and employers to make contributions into a state-run medical leave fund. Employees would pay 0.2% of their wages into the fund and employers with five or more workers would pay 0.15% of wages, allowing workers to take up to six weeks of paid leave for medical, bereavement, fostering, military exigency or sexual abuse safety purposes. But New Mexico would be the lowest-income state to adopt the paid leave program, resulting in a lower amount of dollars making it to the fund but possibly a higher uptake rate, according to a legislative analysis of the bill. The only situation in which the fund would remain solvent at the currently proposed premium rates is if only 4.5% of workers utilize the paid leave, per scenarios provided by the analysts. The other hypotheticals with 6-8% of eligible New Mexicans using the leave would put the fund in a $227-870 million deficit, according to the report. The average of utilization in other states with similar programs is 6%, though analysts note that uptake rates are extremely difficult to predict. Other states since policy adoption have increased employee- and employer-paid premiums to ensure solvency. Senate Finance Committee analyst John Kreienkamp said New Mexico legislators could also later inject a one-time cash infusion to build the fund balance. But the funding uncertainty for both portions of the bill prompted criticism from Democrats and Republicans. "I'm concerned because we certainly do not have room currently in the budget," said Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque. "I don't know where this magic pot of money is sitting." But Chandler said she feels confident the bill is on solid financial ground. She pointed out the bill requires an actuarial study for its wellness fund before premiums are enforced. For her part, Tobiassen also questioned whether remote out-of-state workers could get the baby rebates and whether estranged parents could split the $9,000 when only one parent is the main caregiver. Analysts could not fully answer those questions. Vote on bill could come down to the wire Despite hearing an analysis of the bill, the Senate Finance Committee did not vote on it Wednesday. Such a vote will likely not happen until this weekend as analysts work to research senators' questions, a top committee staffer said. Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, the committee's chairman, said this week the paid leave bill is part of what he described as $3 billion in "unfunded mandates" approved by the House. But House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, called the legislation overdue. "No one should have to choose between taking care of a sick child or a sick parent or showing up to work and putting food on the table," Martínez said this week. Meanwhile, the bill's sponsors were not present at Wednesday's committee hearing, something some lawmakers objected to. "We're almost wasting our time here today," said Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces. Chandler later said she found out about the bill presentation Monday evening through the committee's posted agenda. She called it an unusual process but said it doesn't raise any red flags in terms of the bill's chance for winning final approval. "If we're in a search for knowledge, I'm looking forward to when the (committee) chairman ... actually schedules our bill so that we can speak to him about where we're going with it and what we've learned through the process of, actually, several years of working on this bill," she said.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Topeka Mayor Padilla says he won't run for reelection
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Topeka Mayor Michael Padilla announced at a monthly press conference on Tuesday that he won't be running for reelection in Topeka. Padilla said his stepping down is an opportunity for those seeking office to step up on Feb. 25. He said he would continue to work throughout the rest of the year. 'This will be my formal announcement… I want to thank everyone who supported me as a councilmember and as mayor,' Padilla said. Haskell students protest layoffs at the Kansas Statehouse Padilla said it has been a privilege and honor to serve the city in his capacity as mayor. Padilla retired from the Topeka Police Department in 2011 after 34 years and took a position with the State of Kansas as the new Chief of Enforcement for the Department of Revenue Alcoholic Beverage Control. He also served on the Governor's Committee to study racial profiling. Following his career in law enforcement, he served as the District 5 Council member starting in 2018 and then served as interim mayor during the second half of 2021. He was elected mayor during the 2021 elections. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
