AASHTO Journal, 30 January 2015
Gov. Susana Martinez has been touting a plan to raise $180 million over three years for more highway spending, and now a state representative who once ran the highway department is trying to stretch it to $300 million over five years, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
As outlined by Martinez in a Jan. 12 budget proposal, and highlighted again in her Jan. 20 State of the State address, the plan would spend $60 million a year for three years through infrastructure bonds backed by severance taxes on oil and gas production “to leverage federal and other funds in order to complete large-scale, major highway construction projects throughout the state.”
Now, the newspaper says: “A House bill introduced by Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, a former state highways department boss, takes the proposal even further – making it a five-year, $300 million commitment – and has the backing of the governor’s office.”
Larrañaga is chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. His bill would have the Economic Development Department pick projects for each budget year, taken from a list kept by the state Department of Transportation. The Journal reported that the money “would likely be focused on just a few large-scale projects” a year, and spread around the state.
He told the Journal, “We’ve got to look at projects that are going to make a bigger impact. We want to look at which ones would create the most jobs.”
The Journal also reported that Martinez sent the newspaper a statement, saying: “Our highway infrastructure serves as the literal foundation for commerce; when we invest in major highway projects, we are creating jobs and making it easier to develop and grow our economy.”