{"id":3111,"date":"2008-04-17T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/heres-another-only-in-new-mexico-story\/"},"modified":"2008-04-17T13:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T19:22:00","slug":"heres-another-only-in-new-mexico-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/heres-another-only-in-new-mexico-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s another ‘only-in-New-Mexico’ story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Associated Press<\/a> is reporting on a little-noticed bit of funding approved by the Legislature and governor this year to pay a New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> company to clean trash cans in a handful of communities around the state. <\/p>\n

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

Blast-N-Clean<\/a> will get $162,500 after legislators appropriated the money to almost a dozen communities even though many of those communities didn\u2019t ask for money to clear their outdoor garbage containers.<\/p>\n

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

But, as is often the case, the question of why lawmakers would appropriate the funds for this purpose when local communities didn\u2019t ask for it is answered simply: The company hired a former lawmaker to be its lobbyist.<\/p>\n

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

Joe Nestor Chavez is a Democrat who represented Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> from 1997 to 2000 in the Legislature. Click here<\/a> to read the bill that includes the funding, and you\u2019ll notice that it doesn\u2019t mention the company, even though that\u2019s where the money is going.<\/p>\n

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

It isn\u2019t that there\u2019s no sense in cleaning the trash cans. It helps keep parks and other areas sanitary, and it can protect ground water. But I just looked through the list of capital-outlay projects the governor vetoed this year \u2013 worthy projects including $85,000 for a homeless children\u2019s shelter in Las Cruces<\/st1:city>, $75,000 for portable school buildings in Santa Fe<\/st1:city>, $40,000 for library funding in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and road construction throughout the state.<\/p>\n

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

Legislators approved trash-can cleaning in a year when many said repeatedly that there wasn\u2019t money for issues like health-care reform. In such eyebrow-raising instances, why is it that there\u2019s almost always a personal tie like that of Chavez?<\/p>\n

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

Because we live in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. That\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, April 18, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

Gilbert Gallegos, spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>, e-mailed to tell me I should have pointed out that the governor vetoed some of the funding the Legislature approved for trash-can cleaning. In fact, Gallegos said, he has citied those appropriations \u201cas examples of wasteful spending and wrong priorities for the junior budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

I asked how the governor decided which communities\u2019 trash-can-cleaning funding to leave intact and which to veto. Ultimately, the governor left $162,500 for almost a dozen communities intact.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have a lot of time to analyze, given that all the budget bills were sent at once,\u201d Gallegos said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press is reporting on a little-noticed bit of funding approved by the Legislature and governor this year to pay a New Mexico company to clean trash cans in a handful of communities around the state. Blast-N-Clean will get $162,500 after legislators appropriated the money to almost a dozen communities even though many of […]<\/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-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111","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=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}