Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of federal money coming into New Mexico these days, thanks in large part to the infrastructure bill passed in President Biden’s first year in office.
According to the White House, about $5.2 billion has been allocated for around 500 infrastructure projects around the state, including transportation, water and broadband infrastructure.
Mostly the funds will be administered through the state, which is still flush with oil-and-gas revenues (although indicators point to a slowdown in the revenues coming out of the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico).
All this points to a golden opportunity for the Land of Enchantment, which will be lost if we throw it all at today’s problems instead of smartly investing in our children’s future.
Of course, we could throw more money at education, one of the biggest problems we have. It wasn’t so long ago that we spent millions to give our classroom teachers some good raises, and yet we’re still at the bottom of 50-state comparisons in the quality of our schools. The fact that we share the cellar with the poorest states in the union, of which New Mexico is one, suggests that good jobs and good educations (or trainings) go hand-in-hand.
Investing in our economy is a good way to improve our educational institutions, and that’s what the infrastructure money will do.
Biden’s infrastructure bill gives emphasis to the nuts and bolts of our economy. In New Mexico, the state Department of Transportation will spearhead $1.9 billion in federal dollars going into our roads and bridges, while another $182 million has been allocated for public transportation systems run with zero- or low-emission buses. And there’s $38 million set aside to build electric vehicle charging stations around New Mexico, something that’s necessary for EV expansion, especially in a state this spread out.
Plus, there are a slew of clean-energy and efficiency infrastructure projects being funded. Nuclear power, hydrogen power, carbon capture, smaller batteries that store more power, more expansive transmission lines and home weatherization projects are also being funded, with $142 million set aside for New Mexico alone.
Of course, when it comes to infrastructure, you’ve got to consider the present and the future. Since climate change is creating more extreme weather events we must maintain and build an infrastructure that holds up to bigger and hotter wildfires, more dangerous heat waves and droughts, more destructive floods, and other natural and manmade catastrophes.
And then there’s water, always water. Our state’s water needs, which includes both quality and quantity, is getting a $1 billion boost from the feds to provide clean and safe water statewide.
Such water projects are already well underway, as Eastern New Mexico can attest to. That’s where’s a pipeline is being built from Ute Lake to the Clovis-Portales area, with a $160 million federal infrastructure allocation to help put it over the top.
In a small state with a $13 billion budget, $5 billion in federal infrastructure spending over five years is a big, big deal. How we spend it is also a big, big deal — and something to keep our eyes in next year’s state legislative session, when the pork gets served up to communities statewide.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
