By Hannah Grover
Bernalillo County entities, including the City of Albuquerque, could receive a combined total of $293.6 million of funding for capital outlay projects.
Capital outlay is awarded each year during the legislative session to assist local governments and other entities with projects such as infrastructure and construction.
The local governments and other entities request these capital outlay projects. Not all of the projects requested ultimately receive funding. Sometimes local governments will request capital outlay funding for projects in phases over multiple years.
One example of that is a request for funding to acquire land and rights-of-way to provide balloon landing sites in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. The total project has an estimated price tag of $13 million and has received a total of $3 million in previous years. This year, the capital outlay bill includes $2 million for the balloon landing sites project.
Another example is the North Domingo Baca Aquatic Center, which has an estimated price tag of nearly $66.4 million. The City of Albuquerque has already received more than $46 million for the new aquatic center project and, this year, the capital outlay bill includes $4 million for the long-awaited project. The city first announced plans to build the aquatic center in 2005.
The capital outlay bill does not always provide the amount of money for a project that the local entity requests. For example, a $5 million request for improvements at the Albuquerque Shooting Range Park received $50,000 in the final version of the capital outlay bill.
In another instance, Albuquerque’s $35 million request for funding to acquire affordable housing was reduced to $7.56 million in the final capital outlay bill.
The capital outlay bill included several large price-tag projects for the University of New Mexico, including $40 million for construction of a humanities and social sciences complex and $30 million for a new medical school. But it wasn’t the only higher education institute in Bernalillo County that could benefit from the capital outlay funds.
The bill also includes $10 million for a film school at the Central New Mexico Community College.
The capital outlay bill passed the House of Representatives on a 41-25 vote and the Senate on a 25-16 vote. Some of the Republicans who voted against the bill opposed the inclusion of a reproductive health center in northern New Mexico.
The bill is now awaiting the governor’s signature. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham could sign the capital outlay package as a whole, or she could choose to use line-item vetoes.
The entire package appropriates $1.2 billion of funding for projects statewide, however this is only a fraction of the total requested projects. This year, the capital outlay requests totaled $5.6 billion.
You can contact the governor about capital outlay projects via her website.