State of New Mexico

Office of the Governor Susana Martinez Governor July 9, 2015 Dear San Juan County Senators and Representatives: I want to thank you and your fellow legislators from San Juan County for the way you utilize the capital outlay dollars that are allocated to you during each legislative session. As you know, we recently concluded a successful special legislative session, and enacted a much-needed jobs package and capital outlay legislation that will spend roughly $295 million on various infrastructure projects in communities all over the state. It has always been my belief that our capital outlay funding can create immediate jobs across New Mexico and lay a firm foundation for economic growth in the long run. But, as I have said before, this funding must be utilized correctly to accomplish these goals. Our capital outlay bill should be a jobs bill. It should be an infrastructure bill. It should provide funding to address critical, prioritized needs that are often regional in scope, or have a price tag that is larger than local governments can afford themselves. Year after year, I have watched how your delegation pools its capital dollars behind a limited number of carefully selected, major infrastructure projects. The projects are well-prioritized, reflecting the desires of the communities you represent. They often solve regional problems and are large in scope. You work together with one another to ensure that you provide enough funding to finish a critical phase of each project, or in most cases, the entire project. And you work with local entities ahead of each session to determine whether there are other funding sources that can be used in concert with capital outlay funds to complete important projects. This approach serves the residents of San Juan County well, and it is a good example for others to follow. Unfortunately, this pooling of resources is not the norm in the legislature. Capital outlay funds are often doled out in small chunks to projects that have not been vetted or prioritized, and in amounts so small that the money often cannot be used. The focus is too often on sprinkling the funding around, which dilutes its impact and does not make

San Juan County Senators and Representatives Page 2 July 9, 2015 meaningful progress in solving some of our pressing local and regional infrastructure needs. Furthermore, these infrastructure dollars are too often spent on non-infrastructure items, like dance mats, football helmets, musical instruments, and dumbbells. We should not be bonding for items like these, and again, our infrastructure funding should build infrastructure, so that we can create jobs now and lay a stronger foundation for commerce and a better way of life. In San Juan County, I can point to several projects that have benefited from your approach to pooling capital outlay dollars as a way to maximize their impact. For example, your approach allowed for the completion of a much-needed regional animal shelter and led to vital improvements to the Kirtland Valley Acres Wastewater System. You are providing millions of dollars in critical funding for work on the East Aztec Arterial Route road construction project and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a recycled water storage pond in Bloomfield. Equally important, your delegation worked closely with my administration on the plans for the School of Energy at San Juan College in Farmington, and we were able to secure together a little over $5 million for that important project in 2013. Roads, public buildings, water systems you have invested in regional priorities, and in infrastructure projects that create jobs. It is my firm belief that if legislators from other communities used the same approach to allocate capital outlay funding, it would go a long way to reforming our process for allocating infrastructure dollars and dramatically improve the state of our waterways, highways, and public buildings across the state. Thank you for your leadership on this issue. Undoubtedly, the residents of San Juan County appreciate the pragmatic approach you are taking on their behalf to improve their way of life. Sincerely,

Susana Martinez Governor

State Capitol Room 400 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505- 476-2200 fax: 505-476-2207