{"id":2858,"date":"2008-02-11T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/whos-right-in-dispute-over-aquatic-center-funding\/"},"modified":"2008-02-11T16:53:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T22:53:00","slug":"whos-right-in-dispute-over-aquatic-center-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/whos-right-in-dispute-over-aquatic-center-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s right in dispute over aquatic center funding?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s quite a dispute brewing over how much money Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> promised in 2006 to help fund the planned aquatic and recreation center in Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore<\/a> wrote in his Friday information letter<\/a> to city councilors that, despite \u201cseemingly universal understanding by all involved, including state legislators, city administration and (city) lobbyist Ray Davenport\u201d that the governor would give the city $10 million for the project, Richardson\u2019s office now says he is only going to give $5 million.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office says Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> gave $5 million from his own capital outlay in 2006 and pledged to help the city secure another $5 million in the form of a low-interest loan from the New Mexico Finance Authority.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I know, starting from the beginning:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This was a project initiated by state Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, not the city or the governor. Cervantes worked hard to get legislators and the governor on board, and they jointly announced, publicly, on Jan. 30, 2006 that they would provide $20 million for the project \u2013 $10 million from Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and another $10 million from the county\u2019s lawmakers \u2013 all of it capital outlay money the city wouldn\u2019t have to repay. I wasn\u2019t at the announcement, but those numbers came from multiple news reports.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Making the $20-million pledge a reality became difficult, as is so often the case in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, as the legislative session dragged on. By the end of the session in mid-February, lawmakers had given a combined $8 million. And Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, when all was said and done, had given $5 million from his share of the capital outlay money.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

My recollection is that, at the time, Richardson, who chairs the state finance authority, promised a low-interest loan to provide another $5 million and bring the total funding to $18 million.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But the city disagrees. Davenport<\/st1:city> wrote in an Aug. 13, 2007 memo to Richardson Chief of Staff James Jimenez that he understood that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> promised $5 million from his capital outlay money and $5 million from a state bond issue, not a loan. To further complicate the situation, the city put out a news release<\/a> on Oct. 2, 2007 stating that $12.7 million was allocated by area lawmakers \u2013 which was an incorrect number \u2013 and only $5 million was provided by Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> reported Sunday that the first time Moore<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> learned that the state thought the city was taking out a $5 million loan was at a meeting on Jan. 28 of this year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But Cervantes said in an interview on Sunday that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is correct.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor is right. I was the one who put together the deal,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty clear all along that that\u2019s the way it was. It was supposed to be a very favorable, low-interest-rate loan.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Like I said, though it\u2019s absolutely true that Richardson originally pledged $10 million and the lawmakers pledged another $10 million, my recollection is that the final deal from the 2006 session \u2013 a deal that\u2019s been in place for about two years \u2013 provided $13 million in state capitol-outlay funding and another $5 million in the form of a low-interest loan. That\u2019s exactly what Richardson and Cervantes now say is correct.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Whatever the case, the city is now facing the possibility of having to scale back the project. It had no plans to take out a loan, and, as I wrote earlier, didn\u2019t even initiate this project, which was conceived by Cervantes\u2019 daughters after they visited the Genoveva<\/st1:placename> Chavez<\/st1:placename> Center<\/st1:placetype> in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. It\u2019s a fabulous facility, and it\u2019s unfortunate that Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> might not be able to build a similarly nice recreation center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s quite a dispute brewing over how much money Gov. Bill Richardson promised in 2006 to help fund the planned aquatic and recreation center in Las Cruces. Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore wrote in his Friday information letter to city councilors that, despite \u201cseemingly universal understanding by all involved, including state legislators, city administration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}