Growth
'Clean coal' power: Real or imagined?
There is a lot of talk about clean coal, including from Gov. Bill Richardson, as the country tries to find the right energy mix. But can science make coal clean enough?
2000 Gold, Part II
A label that hurts
If you live in one of three ZIP codes in Rio Rancho, expect for it to be harder to sell your house. The three ZIP codes have been hit with an unwanted designation: declining market, which means higher interest rates and loan fees for buyers. And if it's happening in Rio Rancho, Albuquerque may be next, one realtor said.
A very wet bargain
Albuquerque has a lot of water conservation to do in the next few years even after sucessful toilet rebates and educational campaigns. But the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has shown little interest in another conservation method that has worked in Santa Fe, Alamogordo and other arid communities: The more you use, the more you pay.
ABQ helps Unser Crossing with money for roads and other improvements
The Albuquerque City Council voted unanimously last night in favor of a compromise plan to incentivize the Unser Crossing shopping center at the intersection of West Central and Unser. Councilor Ken Sanchez had previously proposed extending the West Central Metropolitan Redevelopment Area (MRA) to the intersection. This would have allowed the developer the benefits of an MRA designation, including the elimination of impact fees on new development as well as access to other public subsidies.
As previously described by the Independent, there is extensive support by area residents for the project, which was voiced at a City Council meeting in April. But a number of councilors objected to the extension, saying that MRA’s are intended for blighted areas and that extending this particular MRA would set a poor precedent since the area in question is not blighted. Instead, it’s located in an undeveloped area on the edge of the current West Central MRA. The compromise plan provides $1.8 million in public funds for infrastructure improvements at the site and on surrounding roads.
Affordable housing in NM hard to find
The average wage of New Mexico’s renters is increasingly lagging behind the “housing wage,” according to a new report. At the same time, other reports give the state poor marks on housing affordability.
Citing two recent reports, the New Mexico Business Weekly reported last Friday that:
According to “Out of Reach 2007-2008,” a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the “housing wage” for New Mexico is $12.66—the hourly rate a family must earn, working 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, to afford a two-bedroom home. That is a 23 percent increase since 2000. The average renter in the state earns $10.86 an hour, a gap of $1.80.
The other report, the “2008 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card,” gave a grade of “D” to two-thirds of New Mexico counties for the affordability of their housing. Housing that demands more than 30 percent of a family’s income is considered unaffordable.
The article also cites a 2007 state housing report that “identified a deficit of 30,000 affordable units in New Mexico” and noted that about a third of Albuquerque’s residents are renters.
AP: Nation's foreclosures break record
Home foreclosures and late payments across the nation set records over the first three months of the year and are expected to keep rising, AP is reporting.
The report says:
The latest snapshot of the mortgage market, released Thursday, showed that the proportion of mortgages that fell into foreclosure soared to 0.99 percent in the January-through-March period. That surpassed the previous high of 0.83 percent over the last three months in 2007. The report by the Mortgage Bankers Association also found that more homeowners slipped behind on their monthly payments. The delinquency rate jumped to 6.35 percent in the first quarter, compared with 5.82 percent for the three months earlier. Payments are considered delinquent if they are 30 or more days past due. Both the rate of new foreclosures and late payments were the highest on record going back to 1979.
APS growth due primarily to "shifting" population
Albuquerque Public Schools announced in a press release yesterday, with the headline “Flat Enrollment, Crowded Schools, Tough Economic Times Challenges for District,” that the district is facing a $20 million shortfall in the coming school year. The press release also noted that:
“Though district enrollment has seen little growth over the past several years, crowded schools have required APS to build additional schools. One of the district’s challenges this coming school year is to figure out how to fund operational costs for nine new schools without an increase in student enrollment.”
Atrisco strikes brackish gold
A company drilling for natural gas on Albuquerque's West Side has struck another valuable commodity — water. Atrisco Oil & Gas drilled into an aquifer believed to be 50 square miles in size and at least 1,000 feet deep. The discovery of a large aquifer could make it easier to accommodate the anticipated growth of another 100,000 homes on the West Side in the next 20 years, said Atrisco CEO Peter Sanchez.
Clarifying incentives for growth
How New Mexico goes about allocating big chunks of state tax revenue to so-called Tax Increment Development Districts (TIDDs) may soon be given some much-needed clarity. The New Mexico Board of Finance will vote on proposed rules Tuesday that would provide more guidelines for evaluation when they consider applications by developers to reserve years worth of future gross receipts tax (GRT) revenue for their projects. The use of TIDDs sometimes generates controversy over the tax revenue that’s lost and the growth they incentivize.
Congress passes stopgap oil plan
The U.S. Congress made a rare display of bi-partisan muscle Tuesday when it overwhelmingly voted to suspend shipments of roughly 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The decision by federal lawmakers set aside for a moment the partisan bickering in Washington over how best to respond to rising oil prices. One federal lawmaker, however, doesn't hold out too much hope for a substantive solution to emerge from that ongoing debate. He said what many think: that the ongoing debate is nothing more than a lot of election year speechifying.
Contrary view
Albuquerque city officials are hoping to spur New Mexico's tourism sector in a major way through the development of a downtown event center that would include a 12,000 seat arena and a new hotel. But with a price tag projected at close to $400 million, much of it potentially coming from taxpayers, the project and the process are already coming under strong criticism.
Counties assert control over spaceport
Officials from Doña Ana and Sierra counties are asserting their authority to control a board that oversees tax money from their counties set aside for the construction of Spaceport America.
Under the proposal, each county will appoint two members to the board that oversees the funneling of gross-receipts-tax money to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Both counties have approved a 1/4 percent increase in the gross-receipts tax to help fund the spaceport.
The proposal has been approved by Sierra County commissioners and will be voted on by commissioners in Doña Ana County on July 22. The agreement needs only the approval of Doña Ana County to become official.
It isn’t what the state wanted. The Spaceport Authority originally proposed that the state have majority control of the board. That isn’t allowed by state law, so the Spaceport Authority came up with a second proposal that would have allowed the state to appoint two of four members of the taxing-district board. That proposal would have allowed each county to appoint one member.
Developer, oil and gas company back legislative incumbents
Atrisco Oil and Gas, LLC – the for-profit company created from the sale of the Westland Development Corporation to the SunCal Companies in 2006 -- will host a political rally Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m. at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in support of state legislators Rep. Dan Silva and senators James Taylor and Linda Lopez. All three are trying to fend off challengers in next Tuesday's primary and Atrisco and SunCal want to help.
Does Albuquerque need an arena?
What do you think about the proposed arena for downtown Albuquerque? In official parlance, the "downtown events center" would include an arena, convention center expansion, and a new hotel. And just last month, the City Council allocated $700,000 for an impact study of the idea.
This project would change the landscape of downtown Albuquerque dramatically. We're talking bigger and denser.
Domenici's staffer blames wilderness group for lost opportunity
Steve Bell, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici's chief of staff, had hoped the retiring Republican senator could travel to Las Cruces during his last months in office to celebrate a compromise that had protected hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Doña Ana County. But that won't happen, Bell said in an interview, and he blames the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance for the missed opportunity.
Double ditch: MRGCD ditches ditch trail program
A three-year effort aimed at enhancing the pedestrian trail system on irrigation ditches in Albuquerque's north and south valleys died Monday night after supporters of the status quo galvanized opposition that underscored the plan's potential problems.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board sided with opponents of the Ditches With Trails program and by unanimous vote severed its relationship with the group. Board member Janet Jarratt spoke for many on the board when she said she supported the concept behind the trail program but had strong reservations about a slew of details, including the board's loss of management control over its 300-mile-long network of irrigation ditches in Bernalillo County.
Said board member Jim Roberts of the trail system, "I like it the way it is."
Drilling in the West
Oil production on western lands during the Bush administration is down 12 percent from the average during the Clinton era, according to an article in the New York Times August 3. Average production overall was 97.9 million barrels annually from 2001 to 2006, while production in the 1990's averaged 111.5 million barrels per year.
The Bush administration, though, has issued three times as many permits as Clinton did in the last six years of his administration. As it turns out, companies are going for natural gas instead of oil, with production of that commodity being 34 percent higher, at 2.4 million cubic feet annually, than the 1.8 billion it was during Clinton's administration.
Economic Justice or giving a developer a break?
Residents of the Southwest Mesa have sent a strong message to Albuquerque city officials this week: They want more retail space, even if it means that the city use a designation that will waive impact fees for developers. The case of Unser’s Crossing, a shopping center being developed by Armstrong Development Co. on the southwest corner of West Central and Unser, straddles competing sides of an ongoing battle over development in Albuquerque: when to waive impact fees -- a major tool in the city's kit to curb sprawl -- to help lure retail business to an under-served population.
Flight cancelled
It looks like New Mexico no longer has a "bird in the hand" as far as flights to Mexico. While the state has a couple of prospects for winged transport to Mexico "in the bush", the only airline flying directly out of Albuquerque -- Frontier Airlines -- is discontinuing its Saturday flights to Puerto Vallarta, effective June 14.
Steve Snyder, director of corporate communications for Frontier Airlines in Denver, today confirmed to the New Mexico Independendent that the Puerto Vallarta flights, which started in December, will end next month -- permanently.