Gov. Bill Richardson signed today a bill that will reform the state’s scandal-plagued affordable housing system.
There was no ceremony to celebrate the signing of Senate Bill 20, sponsored by Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. It was listed in a news release along with a number of other bills the governor signed today.
Among the reforms in the bill are the consolidation of the seven regional authorities into three, the designation of an oversight agency to oversee regional operations, the strengthening of conflict-of-interest language, the permanent elimination of the authorities’ ability to issue bonds and the requirement that transactions of over $100,000 be reviewed and approved by the mortgage finance authority.
That builds on reforms approved in 2007 that included temporarily stripping the housing authorities’ bonding authority and giving the Department of Finance and Administration and state treasurer roles in administering the agencies’ finances. The bill approved that year also funded audits the state auditor recently completed.
Most of the housing authority system collapsed in 2006 when the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Soon thereafter, the State Investment Council released a report that found widespread misuse of the bond money, which was supposed to be spent on houses. In January, the state auditor released his office’s long-awaited reports.
Attorney General Gary King is investigating.
Update, 4:50 p.m.
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a champion of the reform bill, released this statement:
“I think this legislation will help tremendously with transparency and accountability for our regional affordable housing system,” Denish said. “Now I hope problems with Region 3 are brought to timely closure by the attorney general following this important reform effort on which Sen. Papen and I have worked aggressively.”