I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Santa Fe City Council approved a new ordinance allowing red-light cameras in the City Different, The Santa Fe New Mexican reports. A last-minute effort was defeated to amend the ordinance to make it easier for the city to cancel the program. The city can enter into a contract with a private firm to run the program within 90 days.
Declining state revenues have several lawmakers looking at tax increases and reforms to how the state levies taxes on large, out-of-state corporations, the New Mexican also reports.
Meanwhile, The Albuquerque Journal reports that critics of controversial legislation are wondering why a state analysis “provided to lawmakers omitted major concerns about the deal that were described in a similar document last year. The legislation in question would approve bonds for SunCal Companies, a California development firm looking to build a mixed-used community in west Albuquerque.
For those of you who do not subscribe to the Journal, here’s an excerpt of the story:
A 2008 legislative analysis of a so-called TIDD [tax-increment development district] deal for SunCal Cos. said the firm’s planned development on Albuquerque’s West Side might not generate nearly as much tax revenue as SunCal claimed.
Last year’s analysis also said that according to one of SunCal’s own studies, most of the demand for industrial space in the giant new development would come from firms already doing business in the Albuquerque area rather than new, out-of-state firms — a top concern of critics who warn the tax break amounts to “cannibalism.”
The issue could have a “potentially huge impact for the state,” the 2008 analysis said.
Neither of those criticisms was detailed in this year’s Legislative Finance Committee analysis given to lawmakers considering the controversial deal, which was approved by the Senate in late February and is pending in the House.
“I absolutely think it (this year’s analysis) does not tell the whole story,” said Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, a TIDD critic who questioned whether the [Legislative Finance Committee (LFC)] was pressured on the new analysis.
LFC director David Abbey told the Journal on Tuesday that he was indeed pressured on the TIDD issue.
He declined to say who applied pressure and insisted it had no impact.
“We absolutely didn’t bow to pressure,” Abbey said. “We prize our objectivity.”
While he defended the objectivity of both the 2008 and 2009 analyses, he said this year’s report should have detailed the cannibalism concern. And the LFC analysis was amended for lawmakers Wednesday morning after the Journal’s inquiry.
