By Katherine Miller
Secretary of Finance & Administration
SANTA FE— The Journal's March 23 banner headline accused Gov. Bill Richardson of "Robbing Marty to Pay Big Al."
The headline was perhaps too clever, incorrectly concluding that the governor was playing political favorites by reauthorizing money that the mayor and the city asked for, but wasn't using.
If that were the case, the Journal could have also accused the Legislature of "Robbing Little Leaguers to Pay Marty." After all, legislators took away money they originally planned to spend on North Valley Little League, and they gave it to the city of Albuquerque to help purchase a landing site for hot-air balloons.
Obviously, Mayor Martin Chávez has more political clout than a bunch of rag-tag Little League players, right? As usual, there's more to the story.
The money for the Little League wasn't being spent because of a dispute with the owners of the land, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Legislators reluctantly reauthorized that money so it could be used for other projects.
Likewise, the mayor found a friend in the governor last year when he asked Richardson for funding to help build an extreme sports park at the Big-I and a new Downtown arena. The problem is the City Council has resisted the sports park and the Downtown arena continues to drag along without a firm land-acquisition plan.
So, Richardson did the same thing that legislators did with their stalled Little League fields. Rather than leave the money sitting unused, he reauthorized it to pay for other projects, including a project at the Unser Museum that should help boost attendance and benefit children from across the state.
You would think that Chávez would be thankful and loyal to the governor for fighting on behalf of the Duke City and spearheading much of the nearly $600 million in capital funding that has flowed from Santa Fe to the greater Albuquerque Metro area since 2003. The governor has fought for this money to help pay for West Side schools, roads and infrastructure to lure high-wage jobs.
Instead, the mayor carps and whines at every opportunity to the most pro-Albuquerque and pro-West Side governor in state history.
With the state approaching almost $1 billion in unspent capital outlay projects— more than $300 million of that in the Metro Albuquerque area— the governor continues to push to reform the process to increase efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars.
The bottom line is that the City of Albuquerque receives an enormous amount of capital outlay funding from the state for local projects and has benefited from the support and backing of Gov. Richardson for many years. Furthermore, the governor makes fiscally sound reauthorization decisions based on relative positive-economic impact and how projects will benefit the citizens of the New Mexico.
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