Task force recommends universal basic income for at-risk families in NM - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A task force created by the New Mexico Legislature to address children’s well-being has a simple suggestion for reducing child poverty: give families money.
The Children’s Code Reform Task Force looked over New Mexico’s child and family welfare law, and came up with 25 different recommendations which represent “an evolving understanding of the field.”
One of the recommendations is for the state to pay for and help local governments create Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot programs for families who are at risk of losing their children due to underlying poverty. The goal, the task force wrote, would be to keep people out of the child welfare system in the first place.
“Studies have shown that even a $100 income support has served to reduce engagement with child welfare agencies,” the report released in June states.
Three members of the task force presented the recommendations detailed in a 74-page report to legislators who are part of the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee on Aug. 13.
“We’re challenging this group to consider the possibility of universal basic income in the state of New Mexico,” said Cristen Conley, an attorney and child welfare law specialist who chairs the task force. “We realize that’s a big, hopeful ask.”
Conley suggested New Mexico follow the example of the Alaska Permanent Fund, which sends every Alaska resident a yearly check based on the state’s oil and gas incomes. New Mexico accounted for 14% of all crude oil production in the U.S. in 2023, second only to Texas, according to the Energy Information Administration.
“Why couldn’t we do that, if we know that we have that wealth in our state?” Conley asked. “Wouldn’t that be a remarkable experiment for us to conduct here in New Mexico?”
The task force report notes there were universal basic income programs in 13 states and the District of Columbia in 2022. It cites proponents for universal basic income who argue these programs reduce poverty rates, improve job prospects, reduce food insecurity, and improve health.
In neighboring Colorado, a study found many homeless people who participated in the Denver Basic Income Project had improved housing outcomes.
A more limited year-long program gave $500 monthly payments to 330 mixed-immigration status households in New Mexico and showed an increase in positive results for children and work opportunities.
That was a guaranteed basic income program, and was meant to supplement the families’ existing income rather than cover all their necessities like a universal basic income could.
The New Mexico Children’s Code Reform Task Force report also cites common criticism of universal basic income programs’ including their cost, and concerns that they can remove the incentive for people to work, shrink the labor force, lead to poor spending habits and risk contributing to inflation.
Rep. Tara Lujan (D-Santa Fe) said she has been interested in looking into a universal basic income program, and she wants to work with Conley on a proposal to bring it to New Mexico.
“We are an energy state, we are one of the richest states,” Lujan said. “We live in poverty, by choice, by our action, by our policies, by all the things that we have in place. We don’t have to. We have the money to do this, just like Alaska does.”
The Wilderness Land Trust acquires 40 acres to add to the Gila - By Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
For about a century, parts of Spring Canyon—about 40 acres of private land—remained tucked away surrounded by the Gila Wilderness. Now, as Hannah Grover reports for New Mexico Political Report, it’s on the path to becoming part of the wilderness area.
The Wilderness Land Trust purchased the property and plans to donate it to the U.S. Forest Service. Upon donation, Spring Canyon will become part of the Gila Wilderness.
The canyon represents what is known as an in-holding, which groups like the Wilderness Land Trust say lack protections, so could lead to development within the wilderness areas.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of private land are isolated as in-holdings and Spring Canyon was one of a handful located in the nation’s oldest wilderness.
Margosia Jadkowski with the Wilderness Land Trust says there are only a few in-holdings left in the Gila Wilderness and Spring Canyon is one of the larger ones. It also represents some important ecological habitats.
She said that while the property is surrounded by wilderness, its proximity to trails and water makes it more likely to have been developed had it not been acquired by her agency.
New sponsorship has ExxonMobil lending its name to Balloon Fiesta - Connor Currier, City Desk ABQ
ExxonMobil will get top billing at next year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, thanks to a five-year sponsorship deal with the oil and gas giant.
City Desk ABQ’s Connor Currier reports the new deal — which includes changing the name of the event to the ExxonMobil Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta — will start next year and last through 2029.
This new partnership will be the first title sponsorship since Kodak had that distinction from 1992 to 2001, according to Balloon Fiesta spokesperson Tom Garrity.
Garrity says the deal was made because of ExxonMobil’s QUOTE- “commitment to ballooning and specifically to the Balloon Fiesta.”
Garrity said ExxonMobil started as “presenting sponsor” in 2022.
City places $744K bet on eyesore at troubled intersection — Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
One of the city’s highest profile eyesores is poised to be energized with $744,332 in tax incentives designed to motivate private developers to invest in areas that are underdeveloped.
Park Central — a boarded-up 10-story office building on the northeast corner of Central Avenue and San Mateo Boulevard — is one of four housing projects that are collectively set to get $2.4 million to develop 300 units.
The Park Central office-to-residential conversion would create 101 apartments with green features and all-electric amenities, city officials said in a news release. The Albuquerque Development Commission (ADC) approved the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency tax abatement incentive for Silverstone Equity Partners and Equiterra Regenerative Design.
Park Central is in the International District — a crime-ridden area with many people living on the streets who often use illicit drugs openly. The deteriorating environment is one of the reasons the former 206,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter, located on the southwest corner of the intersection, closed its doors 16-months ago. It left many International District residents without a convenient location to buy groceries and fill prescriptions.
All four projects — which officials said would feature a mix of affordable and market-rate units — have been approved by the ADC for seven-year property tax abatements. Before the money starts to flow, the City Council must vote to approve the projects, which it will likely take up at its Aug. 19 meeting.
City officials say the new housing is sorely needed.
“We’re short up to 30,000 housing units in our city — there’s no question about it — we need to build more houses so everyone can find a place to live that they can actually afford,” Mayor Tim Keller said at a news conference at Park Central earlier this week.
The other three projects are:
HIGHLANDS CENTRAL MARKET AND RESIDENCE INN
Developer: Titan Development
Incentive amount: $998,128
This development features a 14,900-square-foot food hall and a 126-unit Residence Inn. The location is just east of I-25 along Central Avenue adjacent to Presbyterian Hospital.
SOMOS
Developer: Sol Housing
Incentive amount: $514,376
This development, located at Central Avenue and Alcazar Street, would transform city-owned land into a 70-unit affordable housing complex with 1,000-square-feet of commercial space. Officials said 84% of the housing units will be income-restricted, meaning monthly rent is based on a percentage of income.
GARFIELD TOWNHOMES
Developer: Sunlight Properties
Incentive amount: $151,209
This 16-unit townhome project would consist of two separate buildings containing two-story, one-bedroom loft-style units. Officials said the development would be LEED platinum-certified and 100% electric.
Watchdogs want US to address extreme plutonium contamination in Los Alamos' Acid Canyon - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Watchdogs are raising new concerns about legacy contamination in Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and home to a renewed effort to manufacture key components for nuclear weapons.
A Northern Arizona University professor emeritus who analyzed soil, water and vegetation samples taken along a popular hiking and biking trail in Acid Canyon said Thursday that there were more extreme concentrations of plutonium found there than at other publicly accessible sites he has researched in his decades-long career.
That includes land around the federal government's former weapons plant at Rocky Flats in Colorado.
While outdoor enthusiasts might not be in immediate danger while traveling through the pine tree-lined canyon, Michael Ketterer — who specializes in tracking the chemical fingerprints of radioactive materials — said state and local officials should be warning people to avoid coming in contact with water in Acid Canyon.
"This is an unrestricted area. I've never seen anything quite like it in the United States," the professor told reporters. "It's just an extreme example of very high concentrations of plutonium in soils and sediments. Really, you know, it's hiding in plain sight."
Ketterer teamed up with the group Nuclear Watch New Mexico to gather the samples in July, a rainy period that often results in isolated downpours and stormwater runoff coursing through canyons and otherwise dry arroyos. Water was flowing through Acid Canyon when the samples were taken.
The work followed mapping done by the group earlier this year that was based on a Los Alamos National Laboratory database including plutonium samples from throughout the area.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office said Thursday said in a statement to The Associated Press that the information presented by Ketterer and Nuclear Watch is consistent with department data that has been publicly available for years and that the canyon remains safe for unrestricted use.
The field office "continues to collect and monitor sediment and water samples in the Acid Canyon area and the results have consistently shown the levels of plutonium remain very low and well within the safe exposure ranges," it said.
Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch, said plutonium contamination in the heart of Los Alamos is a concern, particularly as the lab — under the direction of Congress, the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration — gears up to begin producing the next generation of plutonium pits for the nation's nuclear arsenal.
He pointed to Acid Canyon as a place where more comprehensive cleanup should have happened decades ago.
"Cleanup at Los Alamos is long delayed," Coghlan said, adding that annual spending for the plutonium pit work has neared $2 billion in recent years while the cleanup budget for legacy waste is expected to decrease in the next fiscal year.
From 1943 to 1964, liquid wastes from nuclear research at the lab was piped into the canyon, which is among the tributaries that eventually pass through San Ildefonso Pueblo lands on their way to the Rio Grande.
The federal government began cleaning up Acid Canyon in the late 1960s and eventually transferred the land to Los Alamos County. Officials determined in the 1980s that conditions within the canyon met DOE standards and were protective of human health and the environment.
The environmental management field office pointed to a 2018 DOE study that estimated the radiation dose to a person who might recreate in the canyon is less than 0.1 millirem per year. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the annual average dose per person from all natural and man-made sources is about 620 mrems.
Ketterer and Coghlan said the concerns now are the continued downstream migration of plutonium, absorption by plants and the creation of contaminated ash following wildfires.
Ketterer described it as a problem that cannot be fixed but said residents and visitors would appreciate knowing that it's there.
"It really can't be undone," he said. "I suppose we could go into Acid Canyon and start scooping out a lot more contaminated stuff and keep doing that. It's kind of like trying to pick up salt that's been thrown into a shag carpet. It's crazy to think you're going to get it all."
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will lose same amount of Colorado River water next year as in 2024 - By Suman Naishadham, Associated Press
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will continue to live with less water next year from the Colorado River after the U.S. government on Thursday announced water cuts that preserve the status quo. Long-term challenges remain for the 40 million people reliant on the imperiled river.
The 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river is a lifeline for the U.S. West and supplies water to cities and farms in northern Mexico, too. It supports seven Western states, more than two dozen Native American tribes and irrigates millions of acres of farmland in the American West. It also produces hydropower used across the region.
Years of overuse combined with rising temperatures and drought have meant less water flows in the Colorado today than in decades past.
The Interior Department announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so that cities, farmers and others can plan. Officials do so based on water levels at Lake Mead, one of the river's two main reservoirs that act as barometers of its health.
Based on those levels, Arizona will again lose 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico's goes down 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%.
The cuts announced Thursday are in the same "Tier 1" category that were in effect this year and in 2022, when the first federal cutbacks on the Colorado River took effect and magnified the crisis on the river. Even deeper cuts followed in 2023. Farmers in Arizona were hit hardest by those cuts.
Heavier rains and other water-saving efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada somewhat improved the short-term outlook for Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which is upstream of Mead on the Utah-Arizona border.
Officials on Thursday said the two reservoirs were at 37% capacity.
They lauded the ongoing efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada to save more water, which are in effect until 2026. The federal government is paying water users in those states for much of that conservation. Meanwhile, states, tribes and others are negotiating how they will share water from the river after 2026, when many current guidelines governing the river expire.
Tom Buschatzke, director of Arizona's Department of Water Resources and the state's lead negotiator in those talks, said Thursday that Arizonans had "committed to incredible conservation ... to protect the Colorado River system."
"Future conditions," he added, "are likely to continue to force hard decisions."
New Mexico's red flag gun law being utilized more, but could be retooled - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Four years ago, New Mexico approved a red flag gun law that allows firearms to temporarily be taken away from those deemed a danger to themselves or others.
For two years, it was used infrequently. But that is steadily changing as law enforcement officers have received training and grown more familiar with its workings.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that in 2020 the law was used to seek the seizure of a weapon only four times, but so far this year, there have been 51 petitions.
Almost all petitions have been granted by a judge.
According to a task force report presented to the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee Wednesday, more than half those petitions were in Bernalillo County.
The Albuquerque Police Department has a crisis intervention unit that’s used the law as a tool for removing guns from individuals with mental health issues who have made violent threats.
In one case, APD officers successfully used the law after a student at an Albuquerque school threatened another student and posted photos on social media of himself with a semi-automatic handgun.
The task force also identified several possible changes to the law. Those include allowing law enforcement officers to directly initiate a court petition — instead of waiting for someone else to contact them — and requiring firearms to be relinquished immediately upon a judge’s order, instead of within 48 hours.
Supreme Court resolves dispute over “zombie debt” from defaulted car loans - Alice Fordham, KUNM News
The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a four-year time limit on suing to recover a debt on a repossessed vehicle applies even if the borrower repays some of the debt in the meantime.
In a unanimous opinion on so-called "zombie debt", the Court rejected arguments by a debt-purchasing company called Autovest that a four-year statute of limitations restarts whenever a borrower pays any amount towards an outstanding balance.
The Court writes in an opinion by Chief Justice David K. Thomson that "reviving the limitation period would allow a debt collector to file a lawsuit regardless of how many years have passed since default".
The opinion continues, “This would sanction the eternal revival of claims such that the specter of zombie debt rising from the grave would forever haunt consumers. There would be no end to the under informed debtor’s financial anguish.”
The justices affirmed a state Court of Appeals decision involving two cases that Autovest filed in district court in Doña Ana County against borrowers who defaulted on high-interest auto loan contracts.
A bank sold the repossessed cars at auctions but the proceeds failed to cover the balance of the loans. The lender sold its interest in the loan deficiencies to Autovest, who later sued the consumers for the remaining amount.
The Court of Appeals determined that the lawsuits were prohibited because they were filed more than four years after the borrowers first breached their loan contracts.