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ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Bill Richardson is saying he is “seriously considering” making two failed proposals to leverage future taxes against future development a part of his agenda for a proposed special session this fall.
During this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers embraced such a plan to rescue Albuquerque’s moribund Winrock Mall, which has slipped into a state of quiet shopping irrelevance.
By approving bonding authority for developers who want to help pay for a plan to convert Winrock into a place where people live, work and play, lawmakers may have given the mall a new lease on life.
But two other proposals — one in Albuquerque, the other in Las Cruces — with a similar funding mechanism suffered a much different fate during this year’s legislative session. Both died.
Now Richardson says he is even considering whether to put the two measures in the same bill.
“I haven’t finally decided to do it,” the governor said Wednesday after a bill signing ceremony at Winrock Mall in Albuquerque. “But I am considering it.”
That possibility has some opponents of the Albuquerque proposal – nicknamed SunCal for the California developer seeking the authority to issue bonds — asking if it is a deliberate attempt to pass the controversial project on the back of the less-controversial Las Cruces one.
“Why else would you combine them other than to get a better result,” said Sandy Buffett of the Conservation Voters of New Mexico. Her group vigorously opposed the SunCal legislation, which would help pave the way for a sprawling mixed-used development of industrial, commercial and residential growth on Albuquerque’s West Mesa.
Supporters of the SunCal proposal have not been able to push it through the Legislature despite two years of trying. The SunCal TIDD is mammoth in size compared to the Winrock and Las Cruces requests. It also calls for development, instead of re-development of a blighted or run-down area, as Winrock and Las Cruces propose.
This year the SunCal legislation died in the House when lawmakers rebuffed the bill in dramatic back-to-back tie votes on the last night of this year’s session.
Las Cruces area lawmakers played a significant role in the defeat of the SunCal bill. Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, did not vote on the Sun Cal 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.
Four of the Las Cruces area’s other five House members voted against the SunCal proposal.
Wrapping the SunCal and Las Cruces proposals into a single bill during the special session could put Las Cruces-area lawmakers in an uncomfortable position. They would have to decide whether to support SunCal to ensure the passage of the Las Cruces proposal or to vote against it, Buffett said.
Like Winrock, the SunCal and Las Cruces bills, had they passed, would have granted authority to newly created Tax Increment Development Districts (TIDDs) to issue bonds to help pay for development.
Issuing bonds that are backed by the promise of future tax proceeds is a quick way to raise a lot of money in a short time to pay for improvements, such as roads, water and sewer lines.
But the two proposals also differ in important ways.
The Las Cruces proposal, which area lawmakers have asked to be included on the special session agenda, would call for committing more than $14 million in future city, county and state tax proceeds to help revitalize a part of downtown. In effect, new development would cover land already in use.
The proposal unanimously cleared the Senate but never came up for a vote on the House floor.
The SunCal proposal, on the other hand, is much larger than the Las Cruces one. It would call for issuing $400 million in bonds based on future tax proceeds to help the company pay for infrastructure for the planned mixed-use development it has in mind.
It is that idea — of paving the way for growth across undeveloped land — that stoked opposition to the SunCal proposal from conservationists, among others.
Opponents argued that the state would be gambling hundreds of millions of dollars in future tax proceeds on a proposal that might not live up to its billing. Also of concern was that a TIDD would capture a chunk of future state tax revenues for one area at the expense of the rest of the state. A large, mixed-use development so far from Albuquerque’s core would also increase traffic and create more demand for water, they added.
Supporters of the legislation countered that the SunCal proposal would mean thousands of jobs created by industrial and commercial employers.
SunCal wasn’t shy about lobbying state lawmakers, or the public, on behalf of the proposal.
It launched a major advertising campaign that included billboards, radio and television ads and direct mail that encouraged people to go to the company’s Web site. That website then encouraged its readers to call, write or email their legislators in support of the TIDD legislation.
In all, the company spent $232,540 — detailed on its report to the Secretary of State.
The idea that SunCal represented economic growth for New Mexico was an argument that Richardson and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez made Wednesday at an event in which the governor signed a bill that gives bond-issuing authority to developers looking to convert Winrock Mall into a vibrant area that will attract jobs.
“I believe the TIDDs in the other areas, in Las Cruces, in Albuquerque, they’re good, they’re good for the economy,” Richardson said to a small crowd gathered at the Winrock mall for the bill signing. “They are good for producing jobs.”
Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez echoed those sentiments, if in stronger terms.
“There’s an interesting conversation, if you will, that goes on in Albuquerque,” Chavez said.
“We see it in Las Cruces as well and in other parts of the state. We have some folks under the aegis of smart or planned growth who really aspire to no growth. We are in the midst of a recession. Clearly we are doing better than most of the rest of the country. For the no-growthers, I would suggest that they walk to that end of the mall because they got what they asked for: No growth.”
