There are currently more than 4,000 active capital outlay projects underway across New Mexico, according to a new legislative report, with that number likely to increase to some 5,000 in the next several months.
The complete number of projects to be enacted is one of the key points made in a report released by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, revealing that the state’s outstanding capital outlay funds as of this spring had a total dollar worth of $3.1 billion.
That $3.1 billion figure includes $1.8 billion in projects earlier authorized by members of the legislature and signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham; as well as some $258 million in what are known as earmark projects; and another $463 million in supplemental severance tax bonds for public schools.
Sometimes a source of controversy among lawmakers and public policy advocates who have argued that such a process is both cumbersome and wasteful, capital outlay funds can be used for everything from building and upgrading schools, hospitals, playgrounds, museums, and broadband infrastructure, to purchasing land for construction projects.
Bolstered in part by a continuing rise in oil and gas revenue, the dollar value of capital outlay projects statewide has increased from $47 million in 2019 to just over $314.2 million in 2022.
Similarly, local projects have seen a dollar increase from $108 million in 2019 to $375 million last year. Somewhat more uneven has been high education capital outlay funding which went from $11.9 million in 2019 to $132 million in 2020, before dropping to $36.8 million in the following year.
Capital outlay funding for higher education projects rebounded to a new high of $246 million in 2022.
The Senate Finance Committee report additionally notes that the “2023 capital package was the largest in the state’s history.” Even so, “capital outlay requests from state and local entities continued to exceed available funding.”
Reflecting some of the criticism of the capital outlay process, the report adds that a “significant gap between need and available funds, along with the practice of earmarking funding for individual legislators and the governor, undermines the state’s ability to use surging revenues to efficiently complete projects that represent the greatest needs or would produce the most public benefits.”
By Garry Boulard
