|
|
|
|
Corrales Asks Legislature for $2.6 Million for Projects |
|
|
|
Written by Jeff Radford
|
|
Sunday, 07 January 2007 |
When the N.M. Legislature convenes later this month, Corrales will be seeking $2.6 million in appropriations.
Thanks again to State revenues from soaring prices for natural gas
produced in New Mexico, legislators will have plenty of money —an extra
$720 million on top of the regular $5.1billion budget— to hand out
during the session which begins January 19.
But in recent years, the governor has vetoed funds for several projects
for which Village officials sought appropriations. Some have said
that’s because Governor Bill Richardson is irked that Corrales has
tended to elect Republicans: all of the legislators representing
Corrales in the Legislature, including State Senators Steve Komadina
and John Ryan and Representatives Jane Powdrell-Culbert and Eric
Youngberg, are Republicans as was long-time Mayor Gary Kanin.
Will it make a difference now that Corrales’ mayor is Democrat Phil Gasteyer?
Last year, in a drawn-out process setting capital improvement project
priorities, the mayor and Village Council decided to seek funds for the
following:
• public safety facilities, specifically a new site for the police department and animal control - $1.4 million;
• Loma Larga road building, final phase from Carey Road out to Corrales Road - $525,000;
• a waste water treatment system - $200,000;
• Acquisition of property and right-of-way for “Access A” onto Highway
528 at Northern Boulevard in Rio Rancho from the Far Northwest Sector;
• Fire Department equipment, including wells, water storage tanks and communications - $250,000; and
• Police Department communications equipment - $100,000.
Corrales’ requests will not necessarily be limited to those items. The
2006-07 Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan (ICIP) that the
governing body approved includes other projects:
• Recreation center sports facilities (skatepark and tennis courts) - $220,000;
• Trails and “safe routes to school” - $30,000;
• Alternative residential waste water treatments - $500,000;
• Salce Park recreational development - $200,000;
• Plan and design a certified food processing kitchen - $20,000;
• Community parking - $500,000;
• Water rights acquisition - $150,000;
• “Governor’s trail, road, street, bridge plan” (referring to the
proposed Belen-to-Bernalillo regional multi-use trail through
Corrales)- $30,000;
• Farmland preservation, land acquisition - $250,000; and
• Casa San Ysidro Museum addition - $300,000.
The list was adopted by the council August 22 by a resolution
preambling as follows. “Whereas the Village of Corrales recognizes that
the financing of public capital projects is a major concern; and
“Whereas systematic capital improvements planning is an effective tool
for communities to define their development needs, establish priorities
and pursue concrete actions and strategies to achieve necessary project
development; and
“Whereas the process continues to local and regional efforts in project
identification and selection in short- and long-range capital planning
efforts.”
During Village officials’ attempts to make such a plan, it had been
explained that projects had to be on such a list submitted to Santa Fe
to have any hope of receiving funding.
Understanding that fact is necessary to figure out why some of the projects listed above are described as they are.
For example, heretofore when Village officials wanted state
appropriations for “Access A” from Rio Rancho’s Highway 528 at Northern
Boulevard down into Corrales’ Far Northwest Sector, the stated purpose
has been to provide access to the Village’s new commercial district,
the “neighborhood commercial, office district” identified in the 2001
Far Northwest Sector Plan.
That future connection was also seen as way to spread out traffic
impacts from Corrales’ last vast undeveloped territory, the
long-isolated tracts between the Montoyas Arroyo, the Dulcelina Curtis
flood control channel and Rio Rancho boundaries.
But now, with public (and official) attention focused on the monsoon
season’s flooding crisis, the “Access A” project is presented as
“emergency services”-related.
Again this year, Corrales will have a lobbyist working the legislature to shake money loose from Santa Fe.
With little discussion, the mayor and council approved a new contract
with lobbyist Charles Marquez to get funding for Corrales projects.
He is being paid the same amount as last year, nearly $24,000, for his work in 2006-07.
Councillors were unanimous in renewing Marquez’s contract. Rising from
the audience, only Bob Borman objected to the idea of hiring a lobbyist.
“Maybe I’m overly idealistic or naive, but it really does bother me
that we should to do this. This is the antithesis of representative
government.
“We should not be engaged in this game,” Borman argued, to no vail.
This is Marquez’s third contract to represent the Village.
At their November 9, 2004 meeting, councillors approved the selection
of Marquez, a former Corrales planning and zoning commissioner under
Mayor Laura Warren, as Corrales’ lobbyist for 2005. That included pre-
and post- legislative session maneuvering on appropriations such as
funding for Loma Larga, “Access A” into the Far Northwest Sector, and
several other proposals.
Marquez was paid about $20,000 for a lobbying effort on Corrales’
behalf for 2005; that included work before and after the legislative
session that began in January 2005.
State Senator Steve Komadina spoke at the November 2004 council
meeting recommending Marquez highly to the mayor and councillors. “I
realize I was the one that brought all of this up after my comments at
the end of the last session of the legislature,” the senator noted. “I
said it would be good for us to have a lobbyist.
“I don’t think you could make a better decision [selection]. Charlie
Marquez is well-respected. There are a lot of lobbyists in Santa Fe;
there are those who are honest. They will tell you both sides of the
story. The legislators are very dependent on lobbyists to know how to
vote,” Komadina said.
“The reason I wanted you to think about hiring a lobbyist is from my
experience with Rio Rancho. They have Scott Scanland as their lobbyist,
and he has been incredibly helpful. He’s able to work other people who
are not necessarily in our district but will have voting capacity over
some of the things that were requested.
“He’s also able to get funding for projects out of capital outlay and
into other bills, because of the connections he has to people on the
Finance Committee.
“The other thing about a lobbyist is that he needs to have several
clients. As you know, the lobbyist will work with the executive branch
as well as the legislative branch. The executive branch can veto
things. But the executive branch needs things from the lobbyist. So in
order not to cross a lobbyist, often he [the governor] will not veto
something that is for a client of that lobbyist. Does that make sense?”
he ask the mayor and council.
“And so that’s why we need someone like Charlie Marquez. As I told you
before, we lost $325,000 in capital outlay funds for things that we
needed that were on the capital outlay list.”
Remember, he pointed out, “there are only about 4,000 to 5,000 votes in
Corrales, which is pretty insignificant when you have 1.8 million
people in the state.
“We really got stiffed,” Komadina said in November 2004. “We lost more
per capita than any other community in the entire state.
“So by having a lobbyist who the executive branch needs to do things
for them, they will think twice before they cross that lobbyist, or
that lobbyist’s clients.”
In this case, Komadina pointed out, Marquez’s client list included
Qwest “which is a very powerful organization in this state, and the
executive branch needs Qwest. So by having a lobbyist who has Quest as
a client, it brings great power to what we can do.”
Komadina said he realized that it might seem strange to put scarce
municipal funds into hiring a lobbyist when that money could have gone
to a local project. But he said he was confident that the investment
will pay off for Corrales.
“I am amazed that we’re getting somebody of the quality of Charlie
Marquez,” the senator concluded. “He doesn’t have enemies and he knows
how to work with people.”
Attending the September 27, 2005 council meeting to urge Village
officials to sign up for his services again, Marquez baited his offer
with suggestions the Legislature would be flush with revenue to
dispense and will have just 30 days to hand out money.
The lobbyist touted his success during the Village’s first contract
with him; the mayor and councillors seemed to agree his efforts had
paid off the first time around.
In his presentation to the council, Marquez was persuasive in arguing
that, especially in a 30-day legislative session, it takes a Capitol
insider to snag cash in the final hectic days of a session.
“Basically what happens is that right at the end of a session, money
starts moving from one pocket to another. It’s an advantage for any
entity to have someone up there representing them.
“I understand that all of you [the mayor and councillors] have
represented Corrales at the sessions, but I live up there during the
sessions. I’m in the Capitol every minute of the day that the
legislators are in the Capitol. So as things change, I’m there to make
sure that, when $200,000 more pops up at the very end, I’m going to be
there to grab that.” |
|
|
|
|
