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.
New Mexico’s House of Representatives failed to pass a bill late Friday night allowing SunCal Corporation to tap future state tax receipts to pay for a development it will build now on the west side of Albuquerque.
SB 249 died on a 33 to 33 vote.
The House then tried to reconsider the bill moments after the legislation failed, which is a way to resurrect a dead piece of legislation. But that attempt failed as well on a 33-33 tie, leaving veteran legislative watchers speechless.
The House Clerk’s office said that legislation is dead if a motion and a motion to reconsider fail. There is a House version of the SunCal TIDD legislation.
It was unclear Friday night whether the House would take up the legislation again in the waning hours of the 2009 legislation session, which ends at noon Saturday. But it could happen according to legislative procedure.
The failure of the SunCal legislation was a dramatic turn of events for the legislation that had proven controversial all session long.
The legislation would have allowed SunCal to issue public bonds to reimburse themselves for infrastructure they will build for a multi-use development that includes industrial and residential uses. The infrastructure includes roads, water and sewer lines.
They’d then be allowed to use 50 percent of the tax revenue generated in the district to pay off the bonds, including interest and financing fees.
The SunCal legislation provoked more than two hours of debate, with several lawmakers dueling over the merits of the development and the wisdom of dedicating future tax proceeds to pay for a private development that might not live up to its billing.
This is the second year that the SunCal legislation has failed to pass the Legislature. Supporters still have 12 hours to try to change that track record.
SunCal’s proposed project stretches from the Rio Grande to the Rio Puerco, on 4000 acres of the 55,000 acre Atrisco land grant, which the company bought in 2006.
That acreage has been carved into nine tax districts by Bernalillo County, which has already agreed that the company can divert 30.77 percent of county gross receipts tax and 10 percent of its property tax to pay off TIDD bonds. The state districts would have formed four of those nine districts.
The company would have been able to issue $408 million in bonds, to be reimbursed by the total of both the county and state tax revenue streams.
The idea is that in order to have enough tax revenue to pay for the infrastructure, SunCal would recruit businesses to the development, with the majority being new to the state.
“The developer will spend [his] own money to build the infrastructure, and then recruit businesses,” Rep. Edward Sandoval explained. “If it fails to recruit enough businesses, the developer will not be reimbursed. The developer only benefits by producing businesses…and the taxpayers are protected because the upfront costs are paid by the developer.”
But one of the primary issues opponents of the bill pointed out is that there’s nothing in the legislation that prevents businesses from moving to the development from other places in the state.
Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, noted that the state may see the “shifting of wealth rather than new wealth” and the tax revenue produced, therefore, won’t really be new to the state.
Garcia went on to argue that the drain on the state’s general fund would make it hard to meet the needs of families.
Dona Ana County lawmakers played a significant role in the legislation’s demise. Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, did not vote on the SunCal bill, but voted yes to reconsider. Rep. Nate Cote, D-Las Cruces, voted against the bill, but was absent for the motion to reconsider; immediately after the first vote he had left the Roundhouse to drive to El Paso, where he teaches a class.
The House wasn’t opposed to all TIDD bills, however. Minutes after the SunCal drama, a separate bill to create a TIDD for the redevelopment of the Winrock mall site in Albuquerque passed 46 to 14 with no debate.
UPDATE: You can hear the entire debate online, courtesy of KUNM.
