Carlos Cisneros Archives - New Mexico In Depth

2017 Legislative Session

Lawmakers won’t get cut of infrastructure funding pie in 2017

By Sandra Fish, New Mexico In Depth | February 28, 2017

There won’t be any local road repairs, senior center vehicles or shade structures at schools coming from New Mexico lawmakers this year. There’s simply not enough money to sell more than about $63 million in severance tax bonds this year because of the decline in oil and gas revenue nationwide. That’s according to the sponsor of the annual capital outlay bill, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa. “It would be a frivolous attempt for us to try to distribute that among 112 members,” Cisneros said. “If anything, right now we’re looking at using it for statewide needs.”

And the amount available won’t go far on statewide requests, which total $359 million.

Politics

House committee kills capital outlay overhaul

By Sandra Fish, New Mexico In Depth | February 12, 2016

Business and labor support doesn’t sway lawmakers in efforts to reform infrastructure by taking away their pork-barrel allocations.

Politics

Slow movement on capital outlay allocations, reform

By Sandra Fish, New Mexico In Depth | February 3, 2016

With the 2016 Legislature at the halfway point, infrastructure funding and reform of that funding has yet to see much action. Gov. Susana Martinez called for reforming how New Mexico allocates money for infrastructure projects in her state of the state address. Yet only one bill has had a committee hearing.