Democratic gubernatorial candidate Haaland outraises Hull 2-1 in month following primary election — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland greatly outraised Republican opponent Gregg Hull in the month following the June 2 primary election, according to the latest reports that campaigns provided to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
Haaland’s haul of more than $750,000 in more than 15,000 donations between June 4 and June 27 continues the fundraising dominance she demonstrated during the Democratic primary, during which she raised more than $12 million. That was nearly three times as much as her opponent, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.
Haaland, who was U.S. Interior Department Secretary under then-President Joe Biden, regularly draws donations from across the country as a result of her national name recognition. That continued to be the case even after Haaland bested Bregman by 44 percentage points in June .
Campaign filings show Haaland received at least one donation from every state in the country, as well as from Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C. and from U.S. military members serving abroad. Her largest donations — limited to $12,400 under state law — came from several Indigenous tribes and organizations, as well as Chevron, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Stuart Archer, CEO of a Texas-based behavioral healthcare provider.
If elected in the Nov. 3 general election, Haaland would become the first Indigenous governor of New Mexico and also the first Indigenous woman governor in U.S. history. In an emailed statement Monday, Haaland campaign spokesperson Hannah Menchhoff told Source NM that Haaland’s latest fundraising report reflect the candidate’s message resonating with voters.
“That’s exactly why we’re seeing such strong numbers,” Menchhoff said. “She is incredibly grateful for the grassroots support from across the state, and enters the final four months of the general election in a commanding position.”
Hull has raised roughly $323,000 since he won a three-way Republican gubernatorial primary against opponents Duke Rodriguez, a cannabis mogul and former cabinet secretary, and communications professional Doug Turner.
Hull told Source NM on Monday that he was “pleased” with his campaign’s fundraising efforts in the weeks since the primary, noting that his campaign has focused on courting New Mexico donors. All but nine of the 424 donations he received in recent weeks came from New Mexico, according to the filings, most of which from donors in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Rio Rancho, where he served as mayor for three terms before launching his bid for governor.
Haaland received roughly 3,400 donations from New Mexico, the most of any state, but she also received more than 2,200 donations from California and roughly 700 donations each from donors in Texas, Washington and New York.
Hull said his campaign is gearing up to seek more donations from outside the state in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got fundraisers coming up, but as you can imagine, right now people are on vacation, and we’re also running into a little bit of donor fatigue, because we just came through the primary,” he said. “So everybody’s kind of like, ‘Let me take a deep breath before I write another check.”
Since the primary election, Hull received the maximum, $12,400 donation from several New Mexico business owners, including Tom and Linda Krumland, who own multiple southern New Mexico car dealerships, as well as from Pam Management, which is associated with another car dealership in Albuquerque.
Both campaigns also reported spending nearly as much as they’ve raised during the latest campaign reporting period.
Haaland heads into the general election with roughly $2.3 million on-hand, after spending about $11.6 million of the roughly $13.9 million she’s raised since launching her campaign for governor, according to Secretary of State’s Office records. Her campaign reported spending $770,000 in the last reporting period, between May 27 and June 27.
Hull’s cash on-hand is roughly one-tenth of Haaland’s. He’s spent about $650,000 of the roughly $950,000 he has raised to date, leaving him with about $300,000.
The campaign filings mark the final glimpse into New Mexico candidates’ fundraising and spending during the primary campaign. Candidates will again be required to report those totals by Sept. 14, when the general election season heats up.
New Mexico AG investigation finds Gallup schools more severely discipline Native, Hispanic students — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Department of Justice recently published the results of a yearslong investigation into Gallup-McKinley County Schools and found that the district disproportionately disciplines Native American and Hispanic students, causing them to miss exponentially more instructional time than other students across the state.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s report, published Thursday, found that the district’s students lose “at least twice as many” instructional days as those in other New Mexico districts to out-of-school suspensions. It’s even higher for Native American and Hispanic students, who lose “roughly eight to 10 times” and three to four times as many school days as their white peers, according to the report.
Teachers in the district impose harsher penalties on Native and Hispanic students than on white students, the report says.
Torrez’s office launched this investigation in 2023 following news reports that the district drove New Mexico’s outsized rates of expelling Native students.
In the agency’s new report, titled “Forced Out: How Exclusionary and Disparate Disciplinary Practices at Gallup-McKinley County Schools Rob Students of Instructional Time,” NMDOJ officials wrote that the district “appears to have made progress” in some areas, including reducing its number of expulsions and referrals to law enforcement agencies.
The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission in March also issued a report that called on district leaders to adopt a new, culturally appropriate disciplinary system in light of these longstanding allegations.
A district spokesperson in a statement to Source NM wrote that under Superintendent Jvanna Hanks’ leadership, district leaders created an Equity Council, which will include positions “designated for members of the Native American community.”
“Gallup-McKinley County Schools is aware of and has been reviewing the New Mexico Department of Justice report and appreciates NMDOJ’s work to help ensure all students are treated fairly, supported appropriately and able to remain engaged in learning,” the statement said.
Broadly, the issue of lost instructional time has been a focus for state lawmakers in recent months. A June Legislative Finance Committee report found that a $2.6 billion investment aimed in large part at complying with the state’s landmark Yazzie/Martinez educational equity lawsuit had done little to rectify the issue of kids missing out on learning time.
Students across the state are required to annually attend a minimum of 1,140 instruction hours. The average absentee student in New Mexico missed about 215 hours in the 2024-25 school year — nearly one-fifth of the total required learning time, according to that report.
However, Kevin Mitchell, president of the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Board of Education, pushed back on the NMDOJ findings. Native American students will comprise the majority of the district’s disciplinary actions because the majority of its students are Native, he said.
The sprawling district sits in the Four Corners region and includes portions of the Navajo Nation. In fact, nearly 54% of Gallup’s population is Indigenous, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest data.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out we’re talking about 89% Native American population throughout the whole district…it could be a little higher,” Mitchell told Source NM. “‘You guys are disciplining Native Americans more than other students.’ Well, of course — it’s all we have.”
Mitchell added that many of his district’s schools serve small, rural communities, meaning a handful of chronic offenders in the classroom can skew overall disciplinary rates.
In a follow-up statement to Source NM, Mitchell wrote that he and his elected colleagues on the Board of Education have “consistently fought for quality education for all students,” citing the new Equity Council and the re-establishment of an Indian Education Committee.
“This work does not end with one report or meeting,” Mitchell wrote.
New Mexico residents push to save nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory as demolition nears — Joshua Bowling, Source NM
A coalition of New Mexico residents are pushing to save the nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo, after the National Science Foundation announced its plans to demolish the site.
The U.S. Air Force in 1947 announced it would fund a solar observatory dedicated to researching solar flares and sunspots — within eyesight of the White Sands Missile Range. The National Science Foundation took over operations in the mid-1970s and a consortium including New Mexico State University has overseen operations of the visitor’s center and Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope since 2017.
For decades, the telescope, in particular, was seen as a major scientific breakthrough. Its 250-ton optical system was suspended in 120 gallons of liquid mercury, which meant the excessively heavy machinery was easy to turn by hand.
In January, though, the National Science Foundation announced that the liquid mercury had spilled into the building housing the telescope. It immediately closed the campus off to the public and kept it that way. By February, the NSF announced plans to demolish the site and return the land to the stewardship of the U.S. Forest Service.
Residents, former employees and even some state lawmakers still see plenty of uses for the campus, though.
“They’re going to destroy something that has scientific history and cultural history,” Dave Dooling, who worked as the education officer at Sunspot for nine years and is now leading the effort to stop demolition, told Source NM. “It’s our own personal Project Hail Mary going on here.”
Dooling’s contributions to the site include the Sunspot Solar System Model. In the attraction he created, Sunspot was, aptly, the sun, and signs installed on the surrounding roads showed visiting motorists relatively how far each of the planets’ orbits were from the center of the solar system.
Dooling and a grassroots coalition known as Friends of Sunspot are pushing to pause the demolition until stakeholders in the area can agree on a plan. He has traveled to local city council meetings to seek the help of elected leaders in his area and spitball ideas for the site, including a mixed-use property that could include educational facilities, camping sites and STEM seminars.
“We’re going to keep pushing until the wrecking ball starts swinging,” he said.
At public meetings, Dooling has often spoken alongside Heidi Sanchez, who ran operations at the facility’s visitor center. Sanchez told Source NM she believes that if they got the ear of the right state leader, they could build “something unique for this state that no other state has.”
Along the way, the pair has made some powerful allies.
Scott McLaughlin, the executive director of Spaceport America, told Source NM he learned of the proposed demolition while he was camping in the area. He stopped into a local bike shop and overheard people talking about the demolition.
McLaughlin, who grew up in the area, recalled many childhood visits to the observatory with his parents.
“I’m hoping enough people can create momentum to get the National Science Foundation to slow down so all these people who are interested can figure something out,” he told Source NM. “I consider it part of the Space Valley ecosystem.”
McLaughlin started researching the matter more, he recalled, and began reaching out to state lawmakers in hopes of finding someone who might be able to take up the issue.
It caught the eye of Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Albuquerque), the New Mexico House majority whip. Hochman-Vigil, a lawyer who practices aviation and space regulatory law, told Source NM that she has had productive conversations with lawmakers who represent the area around Sunspot and hopes the National Science Foundation will pause demolition long enough for folks in the area to figure out an alternative.
“There’s just so much history and so much potential…it would be an absolute shame to totally lose access to those resources,” she said.
The National Science Foundation in a statement to Source NM noted it plans to turn the land back over to the U.S. Forest Service, but will provide public updates along the way.
“NSF’s priority is making sure the mercury contained within the telescope is safely addressed,” spokesperson Cassandra Eichner wrote.
Eichner wrote that the decision followed an environmental review, which included a public comment period. That did not turn up any preservation proposals that “were feasible to pursue,” she wrote.
“We recognize what this site has meant to the community and are grateful for their support and engagement with Sac Peak over the past 50 years,” Eichner wrote. “Through their support, the observatory helped propel the nation’s leadership in solar science and scientific excellence.”
The agency’s plans don’t faze preservation advocates like Dooling, though, who said he will continue to meet with other concerned policymakers, residents and former employees until they can come up with a workable alternative.
“The only guarantee is if we don’t do anything, it will get wrecked,” he said.
Governor's rebate proposal gets tepid response from candidates vying to take her place in 2027 - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
The two candidates vying to be New Mexico’s next governor are taking a cautious approach to outgoing Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s plan for a new round of rebates.
With New Mexico set to get an oil-fueled revenue infusion due to the Iran war, Lujan Grisham recently called on state lawmakers to authorize rebates of $250 per taxpayer.
But neither Democrat Deb Haaland nor Republican Gregg Hull has embraced the $300 million-plus idea, with both candidates saying they prefer more long-lasting approaches to providing financial relief to New Mexicans.
In an interview this week, Hull said he would rather see a gradual elimination of the state’s personal income tax system instead of another round of rebate checks. There are currently nine states that do not have an income tax system, including Texas, Nevada and South Dakota.
“You can have a short-term check that gives you $250, but the reality is what type of long-term impact is that going to have?” Hull told the Journal.
“What I would like to see is a thoughtful approach that would benefit taxpayers long term,” he added.
For her part, Haaland lauded the efforts of the outgoing governor and the Democratic-controlled Legislature to address affordability issues in recent years.
But she also expressed a preference for New Mexico’s projected budgetary surplus to be used to make more systemic changes.
“If I’m elected, I will prioritize lowering costs for New Mexicans by creating long-term investments in more affordable housing, increasing middle-class tax breaks like the working families tax credit and the child tax credit, and healthcare reform that makes it easier and cheaper to see a doctor,” Haaland said in a statement.
New Mexico is the nation’s second-highest oil-producing state — behind only Texas — and the recent spike in oil prices due to the conflict in Iran is projected to mean an additional $825 million flowing into state trust funds. That’s in addition to another $500 million in projected tax and leasing revenue, according to the Governor’s Office.
At the same time, many state residents have struggled with the rising cost of gas — the average cost in New Mexico was $3.79 per gallon as of Wednesday — and stubbornly high inflation rates.
Given that backdrop, Lujan Grisham said in a recent Journal op-ed that rebates would be appropriate as a way to “share what we’ve collected.”
“We can afford it,” the governor also said. “Moreover, it’s just plain good sense to reinvest in the hard-working New Mexicans who fuel this state’s economy.”
However, Lujan Grisham has not indicated she plans to call lawmakers back to Santa Fe before December for a special session to approve the rebates. Such approval would be necessary since the Legislature is the state government branch with general spending authority.
The governor’s spokeswoman, Leah March, said Lujan Grisham is “not attempting to dictate how or when this rebate should be considered,” but added the governor believes the proposal should be seriously debated.
Lujan Grisham’s rebate call has, in fact, already generated responses from some state lawmakers.
House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, questioned why the governor did not push for tax rebates during recent legislative sessions, when the state also had oil-fueled revenue growth.
“Families need permanent tax relief, not another one time rebate that conveniently arrives during campaign season,” Armstrong also said.
Lawmakers last approved taxpayer rebates in 2023, though they did vote during this year’s 30-day legislative session to create new tax breaks for New Mexico physicians, local news organizations and affordable housing projects.
Man charged with trespassing after fire at St. Catherine's Indian School - Karmina Conde, Albuquerque Journal
A homeless man who was seen near St. Catherine’s Indian School in Santa Fe shortly before it went up in flames Thursday afternoon has been jailed for trespassing, police said.
Santa Fe Police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said Anthony Dault, 35, is charged with criminal trespass. Dault has not been charged with starting the fire.
The Santa Fe Police Department took him into custody Thursday afternoon after he was spotted by neighbors walking around naked before the blaze ignited.
Valdez said SFPD obtained a search warrant Friday morning to collect swabs from Dault’s arms and hands to test for accelerants. He said they will also test clothing given to Dault by a neighbor.
“Once we get that information, we will determine if additional charges are warranted,” Valdez said. No charging documents were available Friday.
Court records show that Dault, originally from Alabama, listed a homeless shelter in Santa Fe as his current address.
The fire was reported about 3:45 p.m. Thursday, and dozens of firefighters fought the blaze as neighbors gathered outside their homes to watch.
Firefighters were still in the area Friday as flare-ups were reported and smoke could seen coming from the building.
The former boarding school had been closed since 1998 and is now owned by the city of Santa Fe. The school consists of 19 buildings on the northwest side, adjacent to Rosario Chapel and Cemetery, according to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.
Las Cruces senators organize Project Jupiter community meeting, oppose air permits - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
Four Democratic members of the New Mexico Senate who represent Doña Ana County gathered by the Rio Grande at Las Cruces’ La Llorona Park for a combined news conference and rally Thursday focused on the Oracle/Open AI data center complex known as Project Jupiter.
Sens. Carrie Hamblen, Bill Soules, Joe Cervantes and Jeff Steinborn presented common ground about the development’s transparency and interactions with the public, while Cervantes said he is not categorically opposed to AI infrastructure.
“We share the same concerns that those who live and work in this area, many for generations, have about the future of their livelihoods should this move forward,” Hamblen said before a crowd of about 200.
The lawmakers criticized county leaders for backing out of commitments county leaders had made to hold a listening session in June. The meeting was to have been an opportunity for community members to ask questions and express concerns about environmental impacts and other consequences of a planned campus of four data centers, microgrid power generation facilities and an office complex spanning more than 1,200 acres in Santa Teresa.
Construction on the project began in September and the county says the developers intend to begin initial operations by the end of 2026.
Days before that meeting in June, social media posts promoting the event showed a different date and revealed that instead of a listening session, it would be an open house and job fair promoting the project. Two county commissioners who attended later reported they got varying or unreliable answers to their own questions.
Cervantes was among those disappointed about the lost opportunity to get answers. Meanwhile, he said, “we continue to see example after example where the promoters, including the county government and the state government, are misrepresenting and misleading the public.”
The senators announced they would hold their own public listening session in August at New Mexico State University’s Las Cruces campus, with the hope that state agency representatives would attend. Cervantes said he had invited Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland to be there as well.
Cervantes argued that the project’s location in New Mexico’s southernmost county — with few news organizations, less community organization and a community hungry for jobs — was no coincidence.
“They are purposefully treating this community and this project as a guinea pig, because it is a place where there will be less accountability, less scrutiny, and ultimately less oversight,” Cervantes said.
Steinborn called on the state Environment Department to deny an air quality permit sought by the developer under the company name Yucca Growth.
Despite Oracle recently announcing a lower-polluting fuel cell technology by Bloom Energy, public notices still estimated the facility’s air pollution at 10.1 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. He urged Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, an enthusiastic advocate for the project last year, to publicly oppose the air permit.
“It will accelerate climate change. It will hurt air quality. And yes, it will impact people’s public health,” Steinborn said. “Ten million tons a year is equivalent to 75% of our state’s entire electric carbon emissions. It is more than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined.”
Steinborn repeated his call for the developers to make a “massive investment in green power that should be gifted to the state of New Mexico” if it moves forward.
Steinborn and Soules argued that the state’s 2025 microgrid law allowing data centers that generate their own power to duck renewable energy requirements, and said they would press for legislation tightening microgrid regulations and oversight.
Hamblen said the meeting would be free and open to the public from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 at New Mexico State University’s Corbett Center.
Oracle responded Thursday evening to a Source New Mexico report earlier in the week that some New Mexico residents were reporting comments supporting the project were being submitted to environment officials under their names, without their knowledge or consent. The residents said they discovered the comments after providing their information to paid canvassers conducting public outreach for Project Jupiter in New Mexico’s largest cities — Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho.
A spokesperson for Oracle denied the canvassers were involved, stating: “Our outreach teams are supervised, clearly identified as Project Jupiter representatives, and trained to ensure that any public comment is submitted only by residents who voluntarily choose to do so. We do not authorize or condone the submission of public comments without a resident’s knowledge and consent, and residents who are not ready to submit a comment are provided printed educational materials so they can review the information on their own.”
The spokesperson continued, “This outreach is one of the many ways we are listening to community feedback, sharing facts about the project, and supporting a transparent public process.”
New Mexico lawmakers announce proposed statewide moratorium on data centers - Julia Goldberg, Source New Mexico
Several Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday announced they intend to introduce legislation in next year’s legislative session to create a statewide moratorium on “large-scale” data centers.
State Reps. Eleanor Chávez of Albuquerque and Micaela Lara Cadena from Mesilla, along with Rep. Angelica Rubio and Sen. Carrie Hamblen, both of Las Cruces, say the moratorium would “prohibit new large-scale data center projects” while the state developed a “framework” for evaluating such developments’ impact on water, energy, emissions, ratepayers and overall “community benefits related to this industry.”
A news release announcing the legislation said it would be paired with a push to protect residents’ data security and close what some lawmakers and critics describe as a “microgrid loophole” allowing such companies to skirt the requirements of the state’s Energy Transition Act. Lawmakers also introduced a microgrid oversight bill in the session earlier this year that passed the state Senate but failed to make it to a House vote.
Several local governments, most recently Santa Fe County this week, have already passed moratoriums on data centers, proposals for which have been introduced across the state. In Santa Fe, commissioners amended their moratorium to strip it of “large-scale” language so that it would apply to a broader range of developments. Leaders in Socorro County, about an hour south of Albuquerque, also recently adopted a yearlong data center moratorium. Raton leaders, on the other hand, recently postponed a decision on adopting a data center moratorium after previously signing a memorandum of understanding with a data center developer.
“New Mexico cannot keep saying yes before we understand what we are saying yes to,” Rubio said in a statement. “We are watching this industry move faster than our laws, our water systems, and our communities can keep up with. A moratorium gives us the time to get this right, instead of finding out the consequences after the concrete is already poured.”
The lawmakers’ announcement notes the ongoing controversy facing Project Jupiter, a large-scale data center being built in southern New Mexico. Source NM reported this week that residents from three different New Mexico cities reported their names falsely appearing on letters urging state environment officials to approve air quality permits for the project after they were approached by canvassers. Litigation related to the project also remains pending.
“Project Jupiter moved so quickly that the same county officials who approved the tax break worth billions and took ownership of this project still can’t provide details or information for constituents seeking accountability on water use and emissions,” Lara Cadena said in a statement. “That’s exactly what happens when speed replaces scrutiny, and when deals are made with dishonesty and deception. A statewide moratorium is necessary so that we can ensure all industries meet our clean energy standards and operate within our scarce water realities.”
Source senior reporter Joshua Bowling contributed reporting to this story.
Los Lunas Schools settles with parents over Facebook discussion page - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Los Lunas Schools has settled a lengthy legal battle with two parents who created a Facebook page to discuss district happenings.
The “Los Lunas School District Parents Discussion Page” prompted several cease-and-desist letters from the district since its launch in 2011. Co-founders Rowena Tachias and Monique Dereta sued the Los Lunas Schools Board of Education and former Superintendent Dana Sanders in 2021, alleging the attempts to shut the group down were a violation of their First Amendment rights.
The court sided with Tachias and Dereta. The district appealed the ruling, and a judge again sided with the plaintiffs.
Sanders was granted a trademark for the name “Los Lunas Schools” in 2019, and pursued legal action against Dereta and Tachias on the basis that they were unauthorized to use the name and were providing false information about the district on the Facebook page. The two sued the district after an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the trademark dispute.
“Regardless of what is on the Facebook page, this lawsuit was fundamentally about free speech,” said Jacques Chouinard, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “What the Los Lunas school board did was attempt to discriminate against them on the basis of the content of their speech, and that is flatly unconstitutional.”
Tachias and Dereta were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Chouinard and attorney Matthew Beck. Beck and Chouinard are employed at Peifer, Hanson, Mullins and Baker, an Albuquerque firm which handles, among other things, cases of First Amendment law for clients including the Albuquerque Journal.
In a statement from Los Lunas Superintendent Susan Chavez, district officials said they never attempted to shut down the online forum. Los Lunas Schools officials said they took issue with the use of its name in the title of the Facebook page, claiming members of the public incorrectly believed the page was affiliated with the district.
“Los Lunas Schools neither then nor now or any time in between tried to suppress, stifle or impede speech protected by the first amendment,” the statement said.
A settlement of $145,000 will be paid to the plaintiffs by the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority. Tachias and Dereta will each receive $3,750 and their attorneys will receive $137,000.
Dereta and Tachias both said the small settlement amount was the district’s attempt to “make an example” of the two.
“We look at it more as a moral victory,” Dereta said.
Tachias said the district avoided negotiations for years, stretching the legal battle out for nearly a decade.
“Unfortunately, this could have been solved seven years ago with a simple across-the-table conversation,” Tachias said.
Santa Fe County commissioners shoot down controversial housing plan by La Tierra trails - Santa Fe New Mexican
Santa Fe County commissioners have rejected a plan for a residential development near the La Tierra trails system.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports at a June 30 meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to reject the project. The vote followed hours of debate about the proposed Camino Verde subdivision.
The 158-home proposal would have been built just north of N.M. State Road 599. Some of the lots in the project would be smaller than an acre.
The New Mexican reports some nearby residents oppose the project, in part because they say it would change the character of their neighborhoods.
Commissioners expressed concerns related to roadway and wastewater infrastructure.
After commissioners emerged from a closed session in which the project was discussed, Commissioners Cacari Stone, Justin Greene and Hank Hughes supported a motion from Hughes to deny the project. Commissioners Adam Johnson and Camilla Bustamante voted against the motion.
State claws back $22.5M from primary care clinic project - Taos News
In Taos, Holy Cross Medical Center’s plans for new facilities are in doubt, because of questions about state funding.
The Taos News reports that Taos County failed to meet a deadline related to state funding. As a result, the State of New Mexico is now clawing back millions of dollars that had been anticipated for the hospital’s new urgent care and primary care clinic.
The Taos News reports June 30 was the deadline by which Taos County was to have spent $22.5 million in state infrastructure funds for the design, engineering and construction of the new clinic.
Because that money was not spent by the deadline, the $22.5 million will now “revert to the general fund.” Taos County Commissioner Bob Romero told the Taos news he hopes the county will “regain some of the lost funds in the next two legislative sessions.
