There are several interesting aspects of the takeover, including this little bullet point, one among many in a story by the Santa Fe New Mexican. According to the letter of intent outlining the deal, there is: 

• An agreement for both schools to cooperate in refinancing the college’s debt, which totals about $35 million, $25 million of which is in revenue bond debt. 

Bing! Bing! Bing! Is that ringing any bells for you? In the wake of GRIPgate, refinancing CSF’s debt will likely receive far more scrutiny than it normally would have.

In August, Bloomberg News reported on CSF’s debt:

The College of Santa Fe in New Mexico is stuck with debt that’s threatening to consume a larger share of its $27 million budget. The rate on a $25 million bond sold by the college is now at 10 percent, more than double a year ago. The college has been unable to persuade a bank to put up a letter of credit that would guarantee the bonds from default and help lower rates, said David Rivard, the school’s vice president of finance.

NMHU, which will help refinance that debt, has many of the same connections that are under scrutiny in a federal probe of bond deals involving Gov. Richardson’s GRIP projects and the University of New Mexico. In March 2008, NMHU regents approved a bond purchase agreement with New Mexico Finance Authority that involved RBC Dain Rauscher Capital Marketing, one of the firms involved in UNM bond deals. And RBC Dain Rauscher was a contributor to Richardson’s Si Se Puede political action committee. 

NMHU’s bond counsel is Duane Browne of Modrall, Sperling, the same attorney and the same firm used by the New Mexico Finance Authority to advise on details of the GRIP financing.

An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority. 

State Rep. George Hanosh, a Democrat, died last weekend. According to our very own Heath Haussamen, “Hanosh, who was vice chairman of the House Business and Industry Committee and an automobile dealer, was named the 2008 citizen of the year by the Grants/Cibola Chamber of Commerce, according to the Cibola County Beacon. He had served in the Legislature since 1999.”

Also, the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores was banned last night by the Bernalillo County Commission. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the commission’s vote was unanimous and came after months of consideration. The ban only applies to stores to unincorporated areas outside city limits, however, and there is only one pet store in those areas, Ace of Hearts. The store will be allowed to continue selling the animals because it has a hobby breeder permit, an exception to the ban.

Another person with New Mexico connections appears to be under consideration for a job in Obama’s cabinet: there are whispers that Kevin Gover, who practiced law in Albuquerque for over a decade before becoming the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, is being looked at for Secretary of the Interior.

In other New Mexico news, the mother of two teenage girls who “lay naked” with cult leader Wayne Bent, says (and I’m paraphrasing here) he’s a total perv; also, blood alcohol tests reveal that the lawyer who allegedly killed a man in a hit-and-run outside of WilLee’s was wasted drunk. In less depressing news: cow farts and McGruff the Crime Dog.