20 New Mexico agencies, from health to energy, seek up to $445M for Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The state’s biggest-ever wildfire in 2022 did just not upend the lives of thousands of New Mexicans. In fact, about a third of New Mexico state agencies endured some sort of financial loss when the fire the size of Los Angeles tore through the mountains of northern New Mexico.
In the next couple weeks, the state’s emergency management department will submit an invoice totaling $445 million to the federal Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire claims office, listing a wide range of real or projected losses at 20 state agencies.
Because the federal government started the fire, Congress in late 2022 gave the Federal Emergency Management Agency nearly $4 billion to compensate those affected, including families, businesses, governments and nonprofits. So far, it’s paid about $1.5 billion of it.
The deadline for the state’s initial claim, known as a “notice of loss,” is Dec. 20. That’s the same deadline for everyone else affected by the fire.
The deadline to apply for compensation for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire is Dec. 20.
Ali Rye, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told Source New Mexico that her department spearheaded the calculation of losses across the state. That meant reaching out to 49 of approximately 68 state agencies, holding workshops and coordinating with FEMA officials about the best way to recoup money spent or revitalize the landscape and communities in and around the burn scar, she said.
The result is a spreadsheet with a list of agencies seeking hundreds of millions of dollars. The wide variety on the list, including the Department of Health and the Tourism Department, shows the far-reaching consequences of a disaster like the biggest wildfire in New Mexico history.
One agency makes up the lion’s share of the state’s claim: The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department is seeking about $270 million. The money would go for reforestation in the burn scar, fire mitigation in areas with medium burn severity, and funding to prevent future damage to areas untouched by the far, known as “green islands.”
The energy department’s s request also is for a reforestation center in the burn scar, which state officials estimated in April would include a $69 million ask from the FEMA fund. Officials hope the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center will provide up to 390 million drought-resistant tree seedlings to restore burn-scarred forests throughout the Southwest, including 26 million such seedlings in the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire perimeter.
The second-biggest line item is for the New Mexico Environment Department, which is seeking $120 million to do comprehensive well-water testing in the area for the next 12 years. Post-fire flooding, which often carries contaminants into drinking water, is expected in the area for at least the next several years. Some private wells are also seeing their depths decrease, Rye said.
The smallest ask on the list, for $3,000, is from the New Mexico Livestock Board, which used vehicles to transport animals who lost their grazing fields and bought, stored and distributed additional feed.
The state’s Office of Broadband Access and Expansion is also anticipating payments for lost towers and risk reduction for fiber optic internet, according to the spreadsheet, but it did not have a calculated figure as of this week.
Some unexpected costs for the fire come from the State Personnel Office, which is seeking $25,000, in part, for “benefits, programs, mental health services or reimbursement for state employees who were impacted by the fires.”
The state’s Regulation and Licensing Department is also seeking $2 million to hire dedicated code inspectors to hasten the permitting of newly constructed homes and other structures, plus to crack down on potential contractor fraud.
And the New Mexico Department of Health is seeking $250,000 to, among other things, recoup the fees it waived by providing free birth certificates to fire victims who presumably lost theirs in the fire.
While the total claim is for $445.8 million, Rye stressed that her office, at the direction of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, will be judicious as it pushes FEMA to release the funds. Rye cited the ongoing delays for individual claims, including for those who lost their homes in the fire.
“The biggest thing that the Gov has in mind is not pushing forward with …any of the other notice of losses until she sees the compensation going out and individuals are being made whole,” Rye said. “She doesn’t want to take away from the compensation that’s due to those individuals.”
About one-third of the 272 households that reported total losses of their homes have received final payment offers, according to FEMA.
The only claim the state has really pushed far, so far, is for about $6 million for the New Mexico National Guard, Rye said. The guard really needs that money to continue protecting infrastructure, rebuilding roads and helping get people back into their homes, Rye said. The guard’s total ask is about $61 million.
On a case-by-case basis, Rye said, the state will decide whether to push forward with a “proof of loss,” which is a finalized claim, depending on how quickly money for individual victims is flowing.
Ultimately, the state may choose to “eat the cost” on some claims, Rye said. “But you won’t know until she starts seeing better numbers come out of the claim offices.”
It will be awhile before the state sees any of the compensation it’s seeking. After submitting a notice of loss by Dec. 20, FEMA has up to 180 days to respond with a final payment offer.
The emergency management department calculated the losses without the help of law firms who have solicited governmental individual clients since the fire started.
The New Mexico Department of Justice late last year did hire a law firm, Edelson PC out of Texas, to, “if needed,” represent the state for potential litigation resulting from the fire, according to spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez. So far, as far as Rodriguez is aware, the law firm has not filed any litigation or claims on behalf of the state.
New Mexico's oil income investments now surpass personal income tax revenue — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Efforts by New Mexico to save and invest portions of a financial windfall from local oil production are paying off as state government income on investments surpasses personal income tax collections for the first time, according to a new forecast Monday.
General fund income from the state's two, multibillion-dollar permanent funds and interest on treasury accounts is expected to climb to $2.1 billion for the fiscal year between July 2024 and June 2025, surpassing $2 billion in revenue from personal income taxes.
The investment earnings are designed to ensure critical programs — ranging from childcare subsidies to tuition-free college and trade school education — endure if oil income falters amid a possible transition to new sources of energy.
At the same time, legislators this year revised personal income tax brackets to lower taxes in the nation's No. 2 state for oil production behind Texas.
"We're not a poor state anymore," said Democratic state Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup. "We've got things that we can win on — free education, childcare ... low taxes for working families, for children. And that's all because we've done a lot of the work to set this up for the future."
The comments came at a legislative panel Monday where economists from four government agencies announced an income estimate for the coming year. The figures are the baseline for budget negotiations when the Democratic-led Legislature convenes in January.
State government income, which is closely linked to oil production in New Mexico, continues to grow, though at a slower pace, as legislators discuss new investments in social programs aimed at curbing crime and homelessness.
Economists estimate the state will bring in a record-setting $13.6 billion in general fund income for the fiscal year that runs from July 2025 to June 2026, a 2.6% increase over the current period.
This year's income bump leaves room for an additional $892 million in state spending in the coming fiscal year, a 7% increase, according to the Legislature's accountability and budgeting office. State income is forecast to exceed current bedrock annual spending obligations by $3.4 billion.
New Mexico legislators are pushing to open new savings accounts.
One proposal would set aside as much as $1 billion in a trust to underwrite spending on mental health and addiction treatment in response to public frustration with crime and homelessness. Legislators also are likely to revisit a stalled proposal to create a trust for Native American education that could expand Indigenous language instruction.
State portal for missing Indigenous people needs work, families say — Bella Davis, New Mexico in Depth
There are 194 Indigenous people listed as missing from New Mexico and the Navajo Nation in an online portal run by the New Mexico Department of Justice. The portal provides “a comprehensive database for reporting and searching” cases, the homepage reads.
But click on any of the individual names and, for the most part, all you’ll find is age, sex, and the law enforcement agency the person was reported missing to. There are no photos attached to any of the entries.
“How are you going to help us look for them?” Darlene Gomez, an attorney who represents affected families, asked members of the department’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Task Force on Friday. “How can the community look for these people when they don’t have pictures? This is a shame.”
The department has been working to gain access to federal information systems, communications director Lauren Rodriguez said in an email to New Mexico In Depth, a process that should be done early next year. That’ll allow for more complete entries, including photos.
It’s been nearly nine months since the department launched the portal.
The lack of photos is one of several frustrations advocates and families raised during a virtual, second meeting of the task force, the bulk of which was held in private.
Lawmakers earlier this year called on Attorney General Raúl Torrez to create the group, following the disbanding of a prior task force in 2023 by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration. The new task force’s goals are to update a state response plan published in 2022 and provide recommendations to the Legislature.
Task force chair Stephanie Padilla (Isleta Pueblo) asked community members to share their ideas.
The state should fund billboards with photos of missing and murdered Indigenous people, said Vangie Randall-Shorty (Diné), the mother of Zachariah Juwaun Shorty, who was killed in 2020. Flyers get torn down and replacing them is costly, she said.
Gomez, whose friend Melissa Ann Montoya (Jicarilla Apache) has been missing since 2001, called for legislation similar to California’s Feather Alert, which police are meant to use to notify the public of suspicious disappearances of Indigenous people. There’s also a need for more legal advocates, Gomez said, to help families navigate the criminal justice system.
Two task force members addressed some of those concerns.
Bernadine Beyale (Diné), founder of the nonprofit 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue, spoke about helping search for Julius Largo (Diné), who was last seen walking near Morgan Lake outside of Farmington on Nov. 25, according to the Navajo Police Department.
“His sister is so overwhelmed that she called me over the weekend at midnight, just stressed out, needed someone to talk to,” Beyale said. “Are there advocates for these families that’s willing to be available 24/7 to talk to them? Because I get phone calls in the middle of the night from families just not knowing what to do, where to go.”
After public comment, Padilla said the rest of the meeting would be closed. The agenda includes a presentation on last month’s tribal consultation on violence against women and discussion of “interactions with public and media.”
It’s unclear if the task force will continue to meet privately.
The group is accepting nominations for additional members until noon on Wednesday, Dec. 11, Padilla said. The open seats are:
- Indigenous survivors of violence or family members of an indigenous relative who has been a victim of violence; members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and two-spirit plus community; and indigenous youth
- People with experience working as a tribal prosecutor, a tribal criminal investigator, a tribal emergency dispatcher, a tribal police chief or a tribal social worker or program director
Nominations can be submitted using the task force’s “contact us” form or to Assistant Attorney General Michael Kiehne at 505-627-3487
New Mexicans can now use an ID on their phones in some cases - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Consumers are increasingly opening digital wallets rather than getting out a billfold or plastic at the register. Now, New Mexicans can add their drivers’ license or state ID to the list of physical cards they can add to the wallet on their phones.
In its announcement, the state Motor Vehicle Division clarified that the new “mobile driver’s license” is not a replacement for the physical one. Drivers must still carry their physical licenses, and the mobile version can’t be used everywhere people are asked to show ID, either. At the moment, the list is actually pretty short. It includes a handful of U.S. airports, businesses and venues, according to the MVD.
The Albuquerque International Sunport will soon be added to the list, though, “in the coming weeks.” As will the Lea County Regional Airport.
Businesses that check IDs can opt-in to accepting mobile driver’s licenses by downloading an app that verifies them. On iOS, that includes the “NM Verifier” app, which the MVD is partnering with the state’s Regulation and Licensing Department to offer for free.
The state IDs can be added to both Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
New Mexico GOP elects new leadership — Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
The New Mexico Republican Party has new leadership following an internal election over the weekend.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Otero County Commissioner Amy Barela swept the five-way race to become the party’s next chair, receiving more votes than the other four candidates combined.
She replaces former Congressman and state Representative Steve Pearce, who has held the post since 2018 after an unsuccessful run for governor.
Barela told the New Mexican she plans to build on Pearce’s momentum. While Republicans are far outnumbered in both chambers of the New Mexico Legislature, the party did pick up one seat in the House and one in the Senate in last month’s election.
Barela was previously the state GOP’s 1st vice chair. She’ll be replaced in that role by Roswell City Attorney Hessel Yntema.
St. John's to offer free tuition to in-state students with low incomes — Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
The only private liberal arts college in New Mexico is taking a step to make its campus more affordable for residents.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports St. John’s College is offering free tuition to local students from families that make less than $75,000 a year.
The offer does not help with room and board, but can be stacked with other need-based scholarships and grants that do cover those costs.
This opportunity is financed by $326 million the college raised through “Freeing Minds: A Campaign for St. John’s College,” according to Benjamin Baum, the vice president of enrollment, which launched in 2018.
It’s not the college’s first attempt at making its private education more accessible. In 2019, it decreased tuition from $55,000 to $35,000. The next year, it began matching students’ federal Pell Grants and capped tuition at $25,000 for New Mexico residents.
Baum says the college is working to reach New Mexico high school students to let them know that St. John’s is not only a local option with small class sizes, but an affordable one.
Biden adds to the nation's list of national monuments during his term. There's an appetite for more - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt did in 1906 what Congress was unwilling to do through legislation: He used his new authority under the Antiquities Act to designate Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument.
Then came Antiquities Act protections for the Petrified Forest in Arizona, Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley in California, and what are now Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks in Utah.
The list goes on, as all but three presidents have used the act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources.
President Joe Biden has created six monuments and either restored, enlarged or modified boundaries for a handful of others. Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more designations before he leaves office.
The proposals range from an area dotted with palm trees and petroglyphs in Southern California to a site sacred to Native Americans in Nevada's high desert, a historic Black neighborhood in Oklahoma and a homestead in Maine that belonged to the family of Frances Perkins, the nation's first female cabinet member.
LOOTING AND DESTRUCTION
Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after a generation of lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from commercial artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.
For Roosevelt and others, science was behind safeguarding Devils Tower. Scientists have long theorized about how once-molten lava cooled and formed the massive columns that make up the geologic wonder. Narratives among Native American tribes, who still conduct ceremonies there, detail its formation.
Biden cited the spiritual, cultural and prehistoric legacy of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante areas in southern Utah when he restored their boundaries and protections through his first use of the Antiquities Act in 2021.
The two monuments were among 29 that President Barack Obama created while in office. Amid concerns that Obama overstepped his authority and limited energy development, President Donald Trump rolled back their size, while adding a previously unprotected portion to Bears Ears.
Biden called Bears Ears — the first national monument to be established at the request of federally recognized tribes — a "place of healing."
SAVING SACRED PLACES
Early designations often pushed tribes from their ancestral homelands.
In one of his final acts as president in 1933, Herbert Hoover used the Antiquities Act to set aside Death Valley as a national monument. It's now one of the largest national parks — not to mention the hottest, driest and lowest.
While establishing the monument brought an end to prospecting and the filing of new mining claims in the area, it also meant the Timbisha Shoshone were forced from the last bit of their traditional territory. It took several decades for the tribe to regain a fraction of the land.
Biden's administration has made strides in working with some tribes on managing public lands and incorporating more Indigenous knowledge into planning and policymaking.
Avi Kwa Ame National Monument was Biden's second designation. The site outside of Las Vegas is central to the creation stories of tribes with ties to the area.
Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said at the time that the White House didn't consult his administration before making the designation in 2023 — and in effect blocked clean energy projects and other development in the state.
Similar opposition bubbled up when Biden designated Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni National Monument in Arizona just months later. This time it wasn't the prospect of clean energy projects sprouting up across the desert, but rather uranium mining near the Grand Canyon that had tribes and environmentalists pushing for protections.
CREATING CONSERVATION CORRIDORS
Biden certainly didn't break any records with the number of monuments he designated or the amount of land set aside. But conservationists say more strategic use of the authority under the Antiquities Act will be valuable going forward as developers look to build more solar and wind farms and mine for lithium and other minerals required for a green energy transition.
They are pushing for Biden in his final weeks to expand California's Joshua Tree National Park and establish a new monument that would stretch from the Joshua Tree border to the Colorado River where it divides California and Arizona. The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument has the support of several tribes.
Such a designation would add a significant piece to one of the largest contiguous protected corridors in the U.S. — spanning thousands of square miles along the Colorado River from Canyonlands in Utah, through the monuments already designated by Obama and Biden to the desert oases of Southern California.
"The concern out there is that so much land is getting used for renewable energy and it just kills the desert completely. And so if we're not more proactive about protecting these places in the desert, we could lose them forever," said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association.
MORE THAN SWEEPING LANDSCAPES
Biden's designations have gone beyond the canyons and mesas of the West.
In May, he designated a national monument at the site of the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois. That designation came as he tried to retain relevance in his final months in office and boost Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign while Trump cut into Democrats' historic edge with Black voters.
In 2023, Biden created a national monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi in honor of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Emmett Till was the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.
A petition still is on the table for designating the Greenwood area of North Tulsa, Oklahoma — the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — as a national monument. So is a proposal to establish a monument along the Maah Daah Hey Trail in the North Dakota Badlands, where tribes want to shift the narrative to include stories about the land's original inhabitants.
New Mexico seeks record $47.8M fine for excess air pollution by natural gas processor - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
New Mexico environmental regulators on Friday issued a $47.8 million fine on allegations of excess air pollution at a natural gas processing facility in a prolific oil production region near the Texas state line.
The state Environment Department issued the sanctions including a cease and desist order against Houston-based Targa Resources at its processing plant near Jal, New Mexico, alleging permit violations and excess emissions of gases known to cause respiratory issues or contribute to climate change including ozone-producing pollutants.
Representatives for Targa could not immediately be reached for comment. Regulators say Targa has 30 days to respond and comply or request a hearing with the agency secretary.
Regulators also have ordered a series of corrective actions and improvements to the facilities that process gas for transmission by pipeline.
The sanctions are based on allegations of two permit violations, late reporting of emissions and an incomplete requirement for a root cause analysis of excess pollution.
The proposed air-pollution fine against Targa would be the largest in state history by the Environment Department, if upheld. The case also was referred to federal regulators.
Separately, the New Mexico Court of Appeals last month upheld regulations aimed at cracking down on air pollution in one of the nation's top-producing oil and gas states.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration has advanced new restrictions on ozone-precursor pollutants along with regulations to limit methane emissions in its efforts to combat climate change and meet federal clean air standards.
NM Health Department asks lawmakers for a raise - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
‘Tis the season for budget requests at the state capitol. And the New Mexico Department of Health is aiming high as the state boasts another year of strong income.
DOH is requesting nearly $43 million over its existing budget for the next fiscal year — around a 20% increase.
According to the guidelines for this round of budget requests, the state brought in about $3 billion more than it spent on recurring costs this fiscal year. But one-time spending was significant and, factoring that in, the state has more like $660 million in new money.
DOH officials are asking lawmakers to share some of that with their agency to spend internally on staffing and operations, but also with the public through programs and services.
The biggest chunk would go to salaries. Around $13 million would help cover previously mandated raises while also upping wages to be more competitive, according to the department.
The agency is also looking to spend about $4 million to expand drug and alcohol treatment in northeastern New Mexico. It’s aiming to stand up a 28-bed facility with San Miguel County in Las Vegas by next April.
Other plans for the money include building up its farmer’s market nutrition program, tribal engagement, disease intervention and STI clinical services, according to the proposal.
DOH is scheduled to present its budget request to lawmakers Monday afternoon.
Unemployment overpayments to be forgiven - By Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
New Mexicans who mistakenly received more unemployment insurance money than they should have are off the hook for returning those erroneous overpayments.
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS) announced Friday it has received approval from federal authorities to issue a blanket waiver, allowing the department to forgive the overpayments, which were part of an economic stimulus effort during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Labor for granting this blanket waiver, which allows the department to continue reevaluating overpayments for claimants who were paid incorrectly due to the unprecedented expansion of benefits and rapidly changing rules of that time,” NMDWS Cabinet Secretary Sarita Nair said. “This waiver provides much-needed relief to individuals who were overpaid pandemic benefits through no fault of their own.”
The blanket waiver applies to eligible individuals who received Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits.
The NMDWS paid some benefits in error, which established an overpayment that some claimants were required to pay back. The state later petitioned the Labor Department for permission to waive those amounts.
The waiver doesn’t cover pandemic-aid overpayments related to fraud; those must be repaid in full.
NMDWS will send out information regarding the blanket waiver via claimants’ preferred correspondence methods.
“The FPUC waiver is the latest effort by NMDWS to address the challenges stemming from the pandemic,”a press release announcing the waiver read. “The department is also reevaluating other overpayment waivers, as well as collaborating with the Office of the Inspector General in the ongoing pursuit of fraudsters who proliferated during the pandemic.”