New Mexico

DALLAS — As New Mexico celebrates its centennial year, lawmakers will gather in Santa Fe next week to consider Gov. Susana Martinez's proposed $5.61 billion budget.

After two years of discussion on plans to build a government “super-complex” south of Santa Fe, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking six more months to decide on the exact location.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez last week signed an $86 million capital outlay bill passed by the Legislature during September’s special session.

Officials of the small town of Mesilla in Dona Ana County, N.M., are considering asking voters to increase the property tax next year to support general obligation bonds for the first time since the municipality was incorporated in 1959.

BNSF Railroad plans to create a multi-modal logistics center at a New Mexico site known as Rancho Cielo that will include distribution, warehousing and manufacturing facilities, BNSF said at a public meeting in Belen last week.

A subcommittee of the New Mexico House Rules Committee has been named to consider impeachment of Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. after the current 30-day special session.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez last week called the Legislature to a special session beginning Sept. 6 to resolve a capital improvement effort that stalled in this year's regular session, and deal with redistricting and other issues.

Gov. Susana Martinez said New Mexico’s unemployment compensation trust fund should remain healthy through 2012, more than 12 months longer than originally projected.

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled last week that Gov. Susana Martinez went beyond her constitutional powers by using her line-item veto authority to reduce appropriations for a housing program to $50,000 from the legislatively approved $150,000.

DALLAS — An alleged pay-to-play scheme in New Mexico involving former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration was similar to one in New York that resulted in criminal penalties, according to lawsuits filed in state and federal court.

DALLAS — Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday upgraded the New Mexico Finance Authority to AAA from AA-plus ahead of a $16 million issue of senior-lien tax-backed bonds.

DALLAS — Construction is expected to begin in June on a $400 million Union Pacific rail hub in Santa Teresa, N.M., financed through a public-private partnership, after New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed four bills related to the project.

New Mexico Gov.-elect Susana Martinez has asked state agencies, boards, and commissions to give her proposals that would cut spending in the state's fiscal 2012 budget by 10% of 2011 expenditures.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $147.5 million of auction-rate securities issued by the New Mexico Hospital Equipment Loan Council on behalf of the nonprofit Presbyterian Healthcare Service in 2004 and refunded in 2008.

The New Mexico State Board of Finance has approved an across-the-board 3.2% budget cut for state agencies proposed by Gov. Bill Richardson to help alleviate a $200 million revenue shortfall in fiscal 2011.

DALLAS — A Hobbs, N.M., apartment complex that defaulted on revenue bonds issued by the Southeastern New Mexico Affordable Housing Corp. will go on the market for a second time after bondholders rejected a short sale last fall, officials said.

DALLAS — The New Mexico Legislature has approved a $5.6 billion budget in a special session that balances spending with the largest tax increase in more than 20 years while cutting spending by $100 million.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred ex-Wachovia Securities LLC broker Guy P. Riordan from associating with any broker or dealer, and ordered him to pay a $500,000 penalty and to disgorge almost $938,354 in ill-gotten gains and interest for securities fraud violations stemming from a pay-to-play scheme involving the former treasurer of New Mexico.

The latest estimate of New Mexico’s revenues predicts a $650 million shortfall for fiscal 2010, up from an estimated $433 million in August.