Governor axes more than 20 capital projects in Santa Fe

Gov. Susana Martinez

From the Santa Fe New Mexican - by Steve Terrell  - The new district courthouse currently under construction, a planned botanical garden on Museum Hill, the Santa Fe Farmers Market, La Familia Medical Center, Women's Health Services, El Museo Cultural and Santa Fe Public Schools were among the local entities hit Wednesday by Gov. Susana Martinez's vetoes.  Martinez cut almost $23 million from a capital outlay bill by using her line-item veto power to ax nearly 200 projects statewide. Those included more than 20 projects in Santa Fe County.  The executive director of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, near the state museum complex on Museum Hill, said the veto of $201,000 for the project was "very disappointing," but it won't stop the garden from being built on the land it leases from the state.  The 280 projects left standing in the bill amount to $107 million in 10-year severance tax bond proceeds -- nearly a third of which will go to an Interstate 25 interchange at Paseo del Norte in Albuquerque.  Martinez also signed a separate bill authorizing $139 million in projects for colleges, senior citizen centers and libraries, but the property-tax-supported bonds require voter approval. No projects were vetoed in the general obligation bond measure.  Martinez explained in a statement that her vetoes were because the Legislature took a "grab bag" approach to capital outlay.  "Legislators divided up the funding among themselves and doled the dollars out to various projects within their districts -- regardless of whether the local community identified the project as useful or necessary, regardless of whether the project was adequately funded (or a plan existed to adequately fund it), regardless of whether the project was an appropriate use of severance tax bonds, and regardless of whether a better alternative funding mechanism existed for the project," she said. Read more

Governor axes more than 20 capital projects in Santa Fe