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Thursday, December 18, 2008

It's Time To Fork Over All that Unspent Pork



          Consider it a treasure hunt.
        There's nearly $1.8 billion in unspent cash for capital projects hiding around the state, hoarded like so many tens and twenties wadded up and buried in myriad coffee cans. No detectable work has been done on the majority of the 7,685 projects since 2002.
        And while having those coffee cans buried around your district can give you a sense of security with your constituents, the state's looming $454 million shortfall means it's time for state lawmakers to cut the territoriality and sentimentality and get out the shovels.
        Some of the projects are undoubtedly underfunded, victims of the piecemeal handouts that make up New Mexico's legislative pork process. That system may get some welcome tightening up in the coming session. Some are clearly no longer needed, like the $8 million that was earmarked for a Tesla Motors plant in Bernalillo County before the company floored it for California. And some are in flux, like the $22.3 million state-of-the-art equestrian facility planned for Mesa del Sol that may gallop over to the state fairgrounds.
        At least 130 of them worth $173 million are ripe for reallocating to more urgent expenses, according to the Legislative Finance Committee.
        As New Mexico faces declining oil and gas revenues and joins the rest of the nation in a deepening recession, members of Gov. Bill Richardson's administration say recouping unspent infrastructure appropriations, along with minor budget cuts, a hiring freeze and a little help from cash reserves, will allow for a balanced budget for the current fiscal year.
        This current economic crisis means each lawmaker — and the governor — need to step up and set his or her capital stash on the table and allow it to be sorted by what's vital, what's important, what's marginal and what's clearly never going to happen.
        Rep. Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, is a member of the Capital Outlay Subcommittee. He's right that when lawmakers start to reallocate all that cash they have "got to be careful how we do this. Capital outlay in essence drives the economy."
        But it doesn't do that buried in a coffee can.