Tuesday morning, the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments hosted COG directors of the New Mexico Association of Regional Councils from around New Mexico at their quarterly meeting.

As part of the proceedings, Sen. Howie Morales sat in to ask questions and answer some.

Hubert Quintana, executive director of the Southern New Mexico COG in Roswell, said he and others had written a white paper on capital outlay.

"We are trying to educate legislators to take a different approach on how they allocate capital outlay," Quintana said. "The COGs would vet the projects in their area and rank them from E to A. The As would have their preliminary engineering reports and studies done, so they would be ready to start Monday morning."

Jeffrey Kiely, Northwest New Mexico COG executive director, drew a diagram showing the developmental process from idea stage E to stage D, which has a bit more development and a location to stage C, with plans, cost information and a bit of engineering. B plans would be more fleshed out progressing to A, the most ready for funding.

"It's like a triage process," Kiely said. "Right now the legislators and the executive administration get projects all the way from E to A and give them the same rank. They are spending time on ones that will not get done, even if they receive funding.

"When you get to grade B, the projects have specs, the PER and are well thought out, but perhaps they don't have the matching funds," he continued. "The grade A ones are implementable immediately. The COGs have to help move the projects from E to A."

Priscilla Lucero, SWNMCOG executive director, said she redirects project planners to other funding, rather than capital outlay.

Kiely said projects should put other funding opportunities together, and "then if needed, they can ask for capital outlay."

"If we can help everyone in the system to know what stage they are and what they need to do to get to B or A, it would be much more cost effective," Kiely said.

"Then when we get the final list of projects submitted, we at the COGs keep track of every project," Quintana said.   

He drew a grid with the projects listed down the left side, and the names of the area legislators across the top. "We put all the representatives in each county together and they know how much they can spend," Quintana said. "They decide how much money goes into each project. Then we have hearings with the proposers who present their proposals, so the legislators can ask questions."

He said the legislators pool their money to finish a project. "When the legislators make the decision together, they know where the money will go and why."

"If we know the proposal has an application into the USDA, for example, we take that into account," Quintana continued. "If it's capital outlay, the funding can be a match for $67,000 to let loose $700,000 from the federal government. The Colonias funding works the same way. We take ready projects that will make an impact right now. We put the dollars where they are needed."

"I appreciate the COGs taking the initiative on this," Morales said. "You guys get results. There is a lot of discussion about capital outlay reform. I appreciate this."

Morales than asked how the E to A system would work for smaller communities with little funding.

"We will help them find planning money for Phase I, to get ready for construction," Kiely said.

"As a result of the Colonias Fund, we realized we needed planning funding," Quintana said. "The New Mexico Finance Authority had loans, but some communities could not qualify for loans. We told NMFA to do grants for planning. Beginning this year, NMFA is making up to $50,000 grants."

'Two months ago, at an NMFA Oversight Committee meeting, there was concern that grants don't move a project forward," Morales said.

"That is one of the roles the COGs play." Quintana said. "We follow up and make sure the project keeps moving. We also help look for more money. We can work with the community ahead of time to raise water rates to make sure they can pay off a loan and keep enough for maintenance."

"If you come to us first and apply for preliminary engineering reports funding from NMFA, we can make sure you are following guidelines from all funders," Lucero said. "The entities won't know all the regulations, but we can help, so they don't have to backtrack and do studies over again."

Dewey Cave, Mid-Region COG executive director, said at that point, it is also possible to discover the idea is not a feasible project, but you have to go through the process to find out.

"A well-planned project will have an operations and maintenance plan," Kiely said.

"We don't fund things; it's taxpayer dollars," Morales said. "But that's not the way we've been doing capital outlay."

Cave said the process is one all entities, large and small can work with. "For transportation dollars, we do a similar process.  Capital outlay has been a legislator-controlled process. This will give opportunities to smaller communities and opportunities to look at a more regional process.  We in Albuquerque have communities almost running into each other. It's different from say Roswell or Clovis, which are separate communities."

"We may have to have a separate process for rural and urban," Cave said. "We also need to build confidence in COGs. We need the capacity to maintain staff and not be constantly looking for funding. Local stipends are not really enough. We are looking at permanent funding."

Quintana suggested allocating a specific percentage, 1 or 2 percent of the general fund capital outlay monies, to the COGs for technical assistance to local governments to facilitate planning. The white paper also states it is critical to strengthen the tie between the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan and Capital Outlay.
Morales suggested that some legislators might be resistant to the plan, because he or she might be unhappy if the "pet" project is an E and does not get funded.

"I believe it can be cost-saving," Morales said.

"We are here and know our communities," Sandy Chancey, Eastern Plains COG executive director said.

Quintana concurred and said the COGs, because they do know their communities can send information to the legislators.

"It's still a challenge, because we have to convince them capital outlay will be more efficient," Morales said.

Jay Armijo, South Central COG executive director, said if the process goes regional, "we're your watchdogs."

Quintana said Rep. Lucky Varela supports the plan and will carry a bill to that effect.

"I will support whoever carries it," Morales said. "It needs to start in the House where appropriations are done." He invited the COG directors to make presentations at the upcoming NMFA meeting Aug. 20 and 21, as well as to the Legislative Finance Committee.

"We're ready to go with it," Quintana said. "We'll present anywhere."

"It won't work unless you're funded," Morales said. "We've got to figure out a way to fund the COGs." He encouraged the directors to educate within legislative committees. He also said it was mandatory to get the funding within House Bill 2, so it's there from the start.