Westland Development spent a little more than $232,000 on a statewide advertising campaign that was part of its failed attempt to convince the New Mexico Legislature to approve a controversial method of public financing for its Albuquerque development.
The advertising expenditures to promote the SunCal tax increment development district (TIDD) proposal were revealed in a report filed on Tuesday with the Secretary of State’s office.
The biggest expense: $55,000 to Comcast Cable for television ads. The smallest: $320.06 for an ad on this site. Westland blanketed the state in billboards, TV, radio and internet ads and mailers. It also flooded the Roundhouse with a team of high-powered lobbyists, but payments to those lobbyists were not included in the report filed Tuesday.
The report wasn’t required to be made public until after the session ended. I’ve already written that I believe such lobbyist expenditure reports should be made public during the session, when it matters most.
Asked during the session by the Albuquerque Journal about the expenses, a company spokeswoman declined to release numbers, saying doing that before the end of the session is “not part of our strategy” because it would give TIDD opponents “more fuel for their campaign.”
Ultimately, the controversial TIDD proposal, Senate Bill 249, sponsored by Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, passed the Senate but died in the House on the last day of this year’s session on two tie votes.
In 2008, the SunCal TIDD proposal died on a filibuster in the Senate as the session expired.
Gov. Bill Richardson has been asked to allow the TIDD proposal to be considered during a coming special session of the Legislature that will be called to deal with the budget.