Santa Fe—Last month, Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) recommended that 122 capital outlay projects (totaling over $13.5 million) located in communities throughout the state not receive state funding, even though those projects were authorized by the 2013 legislature and were not vetoed by the Governor. As of today, the effected entities have not received official notification of the specific projects or the reasons they will not receive the money.
While some of the projects will not receive the money because of potential violations of the anti-donation clause and other issues, the vast majority of projects most likely will not receive funding because the local entities responsible for managing the appropriations are not in compliance with Governor Martinez’s executive order issued on May 2, 2013. The executive order effectively grants DFA the authority to withhold appropriations for projects to entities that have not complied with DFA’s audit and budget requirements.
There is no question that every local and state entity must perform audits and be accountable for their budgets and financial affairs. But, the manner that the Governor is allowing DFA to carry out the requirements will hurt many small rural local communities desperate for jobs and economic boosts that capital outlay projects bring.
Public health and safety are compromised when a primary care clinic in Cimarron isn’t built; emergency generators for fire departments in Valencia County or ambulances in Guadalupe County cannot be purchased; judicial complexes in Union or Lea counties or animal shelters in Carlsbad, T or C, or Los Lunas aren’t built. These are only a handful of examples of projects that won’t move forward in the near future, if at all, because of the Martinez administration’s actions.
Many local entities are run on small and tight budgets with limited resources. Some have reported that their failure to comply with audits are not because of intentional wrongdoing or attempts to cover-up financial irregularities. They are unable to contract with audit firms because they cannot afford to or cannot find audit firms willing to wait several months to be paid.
It is hypocritical for DFA to hold local entities accountable for not having their financial affairs in order when it has twice in the past two years misrepresented the cost of important tax bills by at least $130 million to the legislature. Where is DFA’s accountability?
It would have been helpful and less chaotic if the Martinez administration had worked with or in consultation with local entities and the legislature before it developed the new requirements. It is possible to achieve their goals without destroying communities and any hope of economic prosperity.
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