New Mexico

New Mexico has $4.5 billion in state funding sitting untouched

Published

2 years ago

April 19, 2024

New Mexico has .5 billion in state funding sitting untouched

$4.5 billion has been allocated for hundreds of projects throughout New Mexico, but it’s just sitting unspent. That’s the total state lawmakers discovered in their latest capital outlay quarterly report.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — $4.5 billion has been allocated for hundreds of projects throughout New Mexico, but it’s just sitting unspent. That’s the total state lawmakers discovered in their latest capital outlay quarterly report.

There are six pages of what’s called red-rated projects – plans with state money already set aside that have made almost no progress.

For example, in 2022, lawmakers approved $10 million for pedestrian improvements in Old Town and the Sawmill District in Albuquerque. None of that money has been spent.

Over at UNM, $2 million was dedicated to health care lab improvements in 2021. Only around half a million has been spent.

Lawmakers awarded $1 million to renovate Santa Fe’s Midtown Campus in 2021. Officials haven’t spent a dime. So what’s the problem?

“It’s 112 different people making 112 different decisions without a lot of planning or coordination,” said Kristina Fisher, the associate director of Think New Mexico.

Fisher says the state’s capital outlay process is unique and outdated.

“Big projects don’t get fully funded and so a lot of the time there is money sitting on the sidelines because it is for a project that needs $10 million and a legislator was able to give them $2 million,” Fisher said.

Fisher said paying for projects in layers adds up because construction costs grow every year, so they’re perpetually underfunded. On top of that, communication is another problem.

“Sometimes funding will go to projects that the local government didn’t know about, didn’t request, doesn’t want, so that can slow that down,” Fisher said.

Think New Mexico is one of the groups calling for changes to the way the state handles capital outlay. Instead of allocating money for each lawmaker to spend on projects in their districts, Fisher believes the state should pool the money together and then distribute it more evenly and efficiently.

“So you would have local governments and agencies saying, this is what we need for higher ed construction, this is what we need for roads, for water systems, and figure out, gosh, we have a high priority need for pipelines over here and over there, and let’s make sure those get fully funded and are on track to go right now,” Fisher said.

This past legislative session, the governor signed a bill ensuring there’s better tracking of those capital outlay funds being spent.

To see the capital outlay quarterly report and all of the red-rated projects, click here.

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

14 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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