{"id":12913,"date":"2010-02-12T11:45:43","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T18:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=12913"},"modified":"2010-02-12T11:46:35","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T18:46:35","slug":"support-legislation-validating-utility-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/02\/support-legislation-validating-utility-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"Support legislation validating utility agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12915\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12915\" title=\"Butler, Oscar\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Butler-Oscar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oscar V\u00e1squez Butler<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners unanimously <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/dona_ana_news\/ci_14379304?source=rss\">passed a resolution<\/a> Tuesday supporting legislation pending in the\u00a0New Mexico Legislature\u00a0that would validate existing agreements with utilities such as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epelectric.com\/\">El Paso Electric Company<\/a>. A similar resolution was passed Wednesday by the Otero County Board\u00a0of Commissioners.<\/p>\n<p>Passage of the legislation is necessary to protect and preserve a significant\u00a0revenue stream\u00a0for the uninterrupted provision of services throughout Do\u00f1a Ana County.<\/p>\n<p>Each of us on the board strongly supports <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=269&amp;year=10\">House Bill 269<\/a> and its identical companion, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=256&amp;year=10\">Senate Bill 256<\/a>. We are hopeful this legislation will move quickly to the desk of\u00a0Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\">Bill Richardson <\/a>for his signature.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9812\" title=\"Guest column\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Guest-column.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At risk is almost $1.2 million, the loss of which would adversely impact Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s budget, which already has been approved by the state\u2019s Department of Finance and Administration. Without this funding, Do\u00f1a Ana County will have to immediately scale back road maintenance and other vital services.<\/p>\n<p>The companion bills \u2013 sponsored by Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=HGUTI\">Joni Gutierrez<\/a> and Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=SFISC\">Steve Fischmann<\/a>, respectively \u2013 will allow Do\u00f1a Ana County to continue to collect fees from El Paso Electric Company for access to county rights of way. The utility routinely uses the rights of way to maintain its infrastructure, and Do\u00f1a Ana County uses the resulting revenue to support service provision throughout the county\u2019s unincorporated areas.<\/p>\n<p>The long-standing agreements through which the fee revenue was collected and distributed were ruled invalid last week in a surprise move by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. The proposed legislation would revalidate those contracts. The legislation also would protect funds distributed annually to the\u00a0City of Las Cruces, the City of\u00a0Sunland Park, the Town of\u00a0Mesilla\u00a0and the Village of Hatch.<\/p>\n<p>I encourage my constituents to support this legislation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donaanacounty.org\/commissioners\/district1\/\"><em>Butler<\/em><\/a><em> is chairman of the Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners and past president of the New Mexico Association of Counties.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday supporting legislation pending in the New Mexico Legislature that would validate existing agreements with utilities such as El Paso Electric Company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[115,107],"class_list":["post-12913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}