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.
Gov. Bill Richardson today signed a bill that will reform the state’s scandal-plagued affordable housing system.
There was no ceremony to celebrate the signing of Senate Bill 20, sponsored by state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. It was listed in a news release along with a number of other bills the governor signed today.
Among the reforms in the bill are the consolidation of seven regional authorities into three, the designation of an oversight agency to oversee regional operations, the strengthening of conflict-of-interest language, the permanent elimination of the authorities’ ability to issue bonds and the requirement that transactions of over $100,000 be reviewed and approved by the mortgage finance authority.
That builds on reforms approved in 2007 to include temporarily stripping the housing authorities’ bonding authority and give the Department of Finance and Administration and state treasurer roles in administering the agencies’ finances. The bill approved that year also funded audits the state auditor recently completed.
Most of the housing authority system collapsed in 2006 when the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Soon thereafter the State Investment Council released a report that found widespread misuse of the bond money, which was supposed to be spent on houses. In January the state auditor released his office’s long-awaited reports.
Attorney General Gary King is investigating.
