Without ceremony, Gov. Bill Richardson signed today a $200 million highway-construction bill approved during the recent special session of the Legislature.
Richardson also signed the health-care funding bill the Legislature sent him, with a partial veto.
The highway bill will help fund 13 projects across the state that are part of Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership (GRIP).
“With this money we can address critical highway projects in rural New Mexico,” Richardson said in a news release. “These rural highways are the lifeline for thousands of our residents who use them everyday to commute, visit families and conduct their daily business.”
The signing of the bill follows the news from late last week that federal investigators are looking into the dealings between the state and a California firm that was paid almost $1 million under a state contract related to the $1.6 billion GRIP program. CDR Financial Products made large campaign contributions to political committees formed by Richardson around the time it won the contract related to GRIP in 2004.
When I asked last week, in light of the probe, if Richardson would sign the GRIP bill, his office had no comment.
Richardson also signed today the health-care bill that makes $22.5 million available to expand existing programs to cover an additional 17,000 children. It also provides $10 million for the Developmentally Disabled Medicaid waiver program, which the release states will help provide services to more than 400 New Mexicans, both children and adults, who have spent years on the waiver waiting list that currently has more than 4,000 people on it.
“I am proud to sign this bill, which gives so many New Mexico families the health care they deserve,” Richardson said in a second release. “This is a big day for our state, and a major first step toward our goal of ensuring every New Mexican has access to quality health care.”
Richardson, according to the release, vetoed language in the health-care bill “that attempted to limit the Human Services Department’s authority to manage and distribute health care funds. The veto also gives HSD the flexibility to provide health care services to New Mexicans in the most efficient manner.”
