Barela: I fought for Belen’s 600 solar jobs
October 30, 2009
Rep. Elias Barela said yesterday he spent time during last week’s special legislative session saving Rancho Cielo from the chopping block, at the same time protecting 600 jobs that could be created during the first phase of that industrial, commercial and housing development.
Somehow improvements to the North Belen interchange totaling almost $6 million got onto a list showing projects that could have their funding cut by the legislature. The improvements will provide access to the west side of Interstate 25, where Rancho Cielo will be located.
Barela said he worked with Rep. Don Tripp, who represents Rancho Cielo’s legislative district, and Rep. Andrew Barreras to save the project.
Barela met with Gov. Bill Richardson, the head of the New Mexico Economic Development Department and the head of the Department of Transportation, taking them information showing Rancho Cielo remains viable even though the project was postponed earlier this year.
While Rancho Cielo’s interchange improvements spent the better part of last week on the list to be cut, by Friday morning the project’s funding had been removed from the list.
Barela said he doesn’t understand how one of the Rancho Cielo appropriations — a 2009 appropriation — could be slated for a cut since it’s so new. He said many legislators were equally perplexed by other projects on the list, part of the reason why legislators became defensive about capital outlay project cuts and ended up not cutting any projects during the special session, only swapping the funding sources for some.
Had the North Belen interchange money been cut, Barela explained, it would have set back efforts to construct Signet Solar, a solar manufacturing facility that could bring up to 600 jobs to Belen.
“You’re talking 600 jobs. And I’m not being overly dramatic when I say we’re in a jobless recovery,” he said, adding, “We’re doing extraordinarily bad right now, as is most of the country. This is about working families trying to make a living. A job like this in an industry like this is all about the future.”
He said efforts to cut Rancho Cielo’s funding are misguided.
“This is wrong,” he said, a tinge of exasperation in his words. “It concerns me because it really is about working families, as was the whole session for me.”
He said he spent the special session keeping in mind the best interest of working families, which is why he voted against the final budget-cutting bill. He didn’t want to cut the state’s workforce or any positions during the session.
“The rank and file, if you will, are hardworking people. What concerns me, when you’re in any kind of crisis and you’re facing it, the leader has to set the example. Gov. Richardson has many, many exempt employees, many who are in this county. I’m not saying they’re not doing a good job, but he needs to pick and choose who he can actually afford now,” he said. “In flush times maybe he needs them all, but in lean times he can’t afford them all.”
The legislature approved a 7.6-percent cut to the budgets of state departments and agencies. While the governor’s office has released some information about the effect the bill could have on state government, it’s unclear how many, if any, state employees will lose their jobs. Richardson hasn’t signed the bill and has almost two more weeks to decide if he will.
Barela said early on that he was opposed to education cuts. He said the legislature protected education, cutting districts’ budgets less than one percent.
He said teachers and other local school employees called him with concerns that major cuts could mean job losses and impact their students.
“I got a lot of calls from teachers,” he said. “A lot of calls. Some of them were concerned that there was nepotism and cronyism at the administrator level of schools. Quite a bit. These are teachers saying to me, ‘We realize we may have to take a bit of a cut, but whatever you do, please don’t cut the classroom. But we realize that school boards and superintendents,’ in their view, ‘have some things that they can do.’”
He said it was most important to look at the legislature’s bills from a perspective that “values the workforce.”
“You don’t have the 10 major schools in Belen not making AYP because of the buildings they’re in,” he said of the district’s Adequate Yearly Progress numbers recently published in the Valencia County News-Bulletin. “You have it because they need more educational resources, smaller class sizes and special programs to catch people up and training.”
He said cutting faculty and staff won’t contribute to helping schools meet state and national education standards.
Barela said the legislature got through the special session, but January’s regular session will be tough, as the legislature considers more cuts and possible tax increases.
He wants the legislature to take back its capital outlay project appropriations.
“I think we should have swept some of this billions dollars of capital outlay that’s out there, and we should do it by year,” he said. “There’s stuff out there from 2000, 2001, 2003.”
He wants the legislature to look at cost-saving alternatives to job cuts, by prioritizing services, closing tax loopholes, stopping double dipping, which is when a government employee gets both a retirement check and a salary, and doing other things.
“There are a lot of ways we can save money and not cut jobs on the rank and file, as I like to say ‘the working families,’” he said.
Posted in: Economy Rancho Cielo