Truth or Consequences City Manager Bruce Swingle said it “wasn’t for lack of trying” that the legislative session ended with the governor’s office and legislators ignoring the city’s $20-million request for emergency water-system repairs.
Swingle broke the news at the city commission’s March 22 meeting.
The money was not awarded despite “local, state and national media coverage,” Swingle said, referring to NBC, Searchlight New Mexico and Sentinel reporting.
Swingle emphasized that Senator Crystal Diamond (Republican, District 35, Elephant Butte), “worked very hard” to get the city the money, referring to her two-pronged attack. She sponsored Senate Bill 359 that asked for $20 million and requested Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham fund the emergency repairs through her discretionary funding sources.
Diamond did not respond to the Citizen’s request for comment and information.
Diamond’s bill requested $20 million be sent to the Department of Finance and Administration’s Local Government Division, the agency acting as administrator and bursar, the money to be dispersed over 2024.
The Legislative Finance Committee’s analysis of the bill stated one year was too little time to conduct such a project and that the New Mexico Environment Department should be the administrator/overseer.
The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee heard the bill on February 28, voting “do not pass,” but substituting their own bill with a “do pass” recommendation. It was sent to the Senate Finance Committee but was never heard by that body, the bill dying there.
The SHPAC committee’s substitute bill changed the status of the project to an “emergency,” the administrator/overseer agency to the NMED and the project-funding timeline to July 2023 through July 2027.
The Legislative Finance Committee updated its analysis, seeking the NMED’s input. The NMED said they are terribly short staffed and underfunded and would need 3 percent or $600,000 to fund personnel to oversee the project. The NMED also gave a lecture on how utilities are supposed to be managed. A city sets rates to cover operations, maintenance and capital projects. Other city water systems can thus afford “to take on debt,” the NMED said.
T or C has raised its water rates about 65 percent over the last three years. After an initial nearly 50 percent increase, rate increases have been tied to the consumer price index.
The ongoing rate increases were one of the requirements of receiving two grant/loans from the U. S. Department of Agriculture—the 2019 $9.4-million “MSD” or Main Street District water project downtown and the 2021 $7.5 million “water system performance improvements” project. The USDA is requiring the city to take out expensive “bridge loans” which rates are based on draws to fund the preconstruction costs, making it unknown how much actual debt and interest the city is will pay out. On paper the MSD project is $5,457,000 loan and the WSPI project is $4,811,000 loan.
Despite the water-rate increases, Swingle has stated at several meetings that the city’s water rates cannot cover more debt. At the March 8 city commission meeting Swingle said a water-rate study will be conducted that takes more capital projects into account. The city commission approved the expenditure of $71,000 for the study.
The legislators and governor may not have funded the city’s water-emergency request because of the city’s money management, planning and priority setting or lack thereof.
The city took on the MSD and WSPI and other water projects before addressing emergency repairs to address the loss of 43 percent of the water pumped per year and the 400 water leaks last year, which shows a lack of priority setting and planning.
Emergency repairs also took a back seat to purchasing smart water meters. A vendor stated smart water meters will increase the city’s water-rate revenue by 6 percent, a pittance compared to the money wasted treating and pumping the 43 percent water lost per year due primarily to leaks and breaks. At the March 22 meeting the city commission approved purchasing $750,000 worth of smart water meters with federal Community Development Block Grant money. A second $750,000 CDBG award is in the pipeline that will also be used to purchase smart water meters. At the March 8 meeting, the city commission approved an undisclosed amount of the $750,000 in general-obligation bonds soon to be issued will also go to purchasing water meters.
When will smart water purchases end? The total cost of smart water meters has never been discussed or disclosed by city staff, nor has the city commission asked the price.
Besides bad-priority setting for water projects, the city has shown bad-government management by living beyond its means for many generations, raiding utility-rate cash to balance its budget. Unbeknownst to most citizens who pay their utility bills, much of that cash does not go back into the utilities. At least $2 million a year from utility funds have been used to support the swimming pool, airport, golf course and other hidden government expenditures. Some years over $5 million was siphoned away from utility funds, according to yearly audits.
This practice is ongoing. The current city commission passed a budget last May that transfers over $2 million from utilities to balance the general fund deficit. It’s non-transparent rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul bookkeeping that no doubt has legislators and the Local Government Division of the Department of Finance and Administration stretching its eyes.
An anonymous but long-time legislative-session attendee told the Citizen that when the city was asked how the city’s water system became so bad, its representatives responded, “bad management.” Yet the city had no corrective-action plan to address its bad management, making Diamond’s SB359 and the $20 million emergency fund request to the governor a “Hail Mary pass.” Why would the state give money to a spendthrift with no plans?
Frances Luna, Sentinel publisher, owner and writer, in her March 17 opinion column, said Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham, a Democrat, didn’t fund the $20-million emergency expense because Sierra County is mostly Republican, supposedly the party of personal responsibility and fiscal conservatism. Luna was a city commissioner until January 2022 who often stated “TorC is an electric company that runs a city.”
We need city commissioners who will lead us into good-management practices, which include master planning and assiduous fiscal oversight of utility budgets and capital projects.
A quarter-billion for Spaceport to nowhere, also mismanaged, but nothing for basic human needs. That’s fair. Of course, how many other tiny towns are in the same predicament across the state? None so aptly named, that’s for sure!
Many small towns in NM and across the country have decaying infrastructure of all kinds. This of course mm motivated Biden’s infrastructure bill. It’s pointless to point fingers at past city representatives unless that gives us insight into how to move on. The game isn’t over because of insufficient funds obtained this year.
Didn’t we learn anything from the waste of money the smart electric meters were? We spent just shy of $1 million dollars on electric meters we didn’t need and we were supposed to be able to go online and monitor our electrical usage with the smart electric meters but that never happened. The existing water meters can be rebuilt for a fraction of the cost yet our city leaders want to spend more money we dont have. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results……
2023. How T or C became “the little town that could.” Realizing that the state was not going to assist with sustenance funding, this gritty little town decided to capitalize on its most precious resource — the mineral water baths. Borrowing from wealthy donors at low interest rates, T or C first bought three properties that were already on the market — La Paloma and two of the motels along Date Street. The town then purchased two vans, each dedicated to taking La Paloma guests from the motels to the spa. People learned of T or C’s healing waters through widespread advertising; they also learned that T or C made extended stays possible with budget package deals. These were especially attractive to people who couldn’t ordinarily afford the high rates of most recreational spas. The town once again became a healing mecca for people whose skin or health conditions required more than a dip or two in the pool. Other packages mainly intended for art hopping, river runs, and gem shows were also available. Every weekend intimate storytelling sessions would be hosted in various restaurants or at one of the two city-owned motels. In this way, a little town in trouble became “the little town that could.”