SANTA FE — Legislation intended to create a permanent funding stream for environmental conservation and outdoor recreation is headed to the full House after advancing through its final legislative committee.
The proposal, Senate Bill 9, would establish two new permanent funds and call for spending $50 million over the next four years to support conservation and other efforts.
The bipartisan bill — sponsored jointly by Republican Sen. Steven Neville of Aztec and Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe — drew support from a broad coalition of environmental, agricultural and outdoor recreation groups.
But the cattle and woolgrowers associations opposed the bill, raising questions about whether some of the money might be used to buy large tracts of land and drive up prices.
Neville said the legislation doesn’t expand authority for land acquisition and is intended to pay for existing programs. It would create an endowment-like system, he said, that would make state cash available to secure federal matching funds.
“We’re leaving millions of dollars on the table,” he said.
Wirth said New Mexico is the only western state without a similar fund for land and water conservation.
“What we’re trying to do here is for all New Mexicans,” he said.
A budget proposal pending in the Legislature would provide about $100 million to support the effort — half of which would be doled out over the next four years.
The funding would go toward forest conservation, watershed restoration, healthy soils, outdoor recreation and the propagation of game and fish, among other programs.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee passed the bill Thursday, sending it to the House floor.
It passed the Senate 33-7 last month.
