A bill has been introduced in the New Mexico State Legislature that may be the first step in the eventual construction of a high-speed rail link running north to south through New Mexico. Senator Bill Soules has introduced legislation proposing a feasibility study to be undertaken by the state’s Department of Transportation for a train that would run between 150 and 200 miles per hour. As envisioned, the train would connect Denver with Chihuahua, Mexico, and could ultimately cost as much as $1 billion to build. The proposed feasibility study is significantly less fiscally formidable, with a price tag of $500,000. Soules has presented two bills in the Roundhouse: one for the feasibility study and another to fund the entire project. He has told reporters that he regards it as extremely unlikely that lawmakers will support full funding of a high-speed rail line, but he hopes, with the feasibility study, to at least stimulate conversation regarding its eventual construction. Soules had introduced similar legislation in the early 2022 session of the legislature, only to see it die for lack of action. By Garry Boulard
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The United States government is on course to smash into the debt ceiling on Thursday, January 19, triggering a possible government shut down if members of Congress are not able to agree upon a solution. In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declared that “failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability.” The debt ceiling is the total amount of money Washington is authorized to borrow to meet its existing obligations. When the government hits the ceiling, it can no longer borrow money to pay its bills. Such obligations include Medicare and Social Security benefits, not to mention military salaries and interest on the national debt. According to the site GO Banking Rates, a government shutdown would mean that the Federal Housing Administration will be forced to no longer approve home loan applications, while veterans may not be able to access Veterans Administration call centers. The current debt ceiling, set at $31.4 trillion by President Biden in December of 2021, has been raised three times in the last decade: 2014, 2015, and 2017. In 2019, President Trump put his signature to the Bipartisan Budget Act, which was designed to lift spending caps on a variety of federal agencies, eliminating the risk of default for another two years. Economists have said that the concept of a debt ceiling is good because it theoretically puts controls on federal government spending. But critics of the ceiling have questioned its constitutionality, while arguing that it can easily be raised via a majority vote in Congress and the approval of the President. Speaker McCarthy has pointed to the 2019 agreement between President Trump and Congress which simply suspended the debt limit entirely for two years in order to keep the government running as a possible model to follow in this time around. Speaking with reporters, McCarthy said he has spoken with President Biden on the matter. “I told him I’d like to sit down with them early and work through these challenges,” McCarthy said of the President and White House staff. By Garry Boulard One of the most architecturally unique commercial buildings in northern Colorado has been purchased for $14.9 million, with plans to repurpose it as an innovation center. The 55,000 square foot structure, located at 101 S. Taylor Avenue in Louisville, is a custom-built building, made up of both sustainable and locally sourced materials. It was erected in 2013 on nearly 8 acres, and subsequently praised by the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Those sourced materials were designed to integrate the structure into the natural surroundings of the Rocky Mountains. The building was designed by the Denver-based firm of Arch11 and AGF Architects of Portland, Oregon. Sports apparel company Pearl Izumi built the facility, which includes a fitness room, collaboration space, employee living room, and men and women’s locker rooms, in the fall of 2013. Now the company Specialized Bicycle Components, which is based in Morgan Hills, California, has announced its purchase of the structure. In a statement from the company sent to the publication Bicycle Retailer, it was noted that acquisition of the Louisville building was spirited by a desire to produce bikes in a “functional, inspiring, and collaborative” workspace. New owner Specialized Bicycle Components is one of the largest bike manufacturers in the world. Founded in 1974, the company enjoys revenues in excess of $400 million. By Garry Boulard After several years of planning, a project that will see the construction of new state administration offices in Santa Fe appears may soon be significantly moving forward. As planned, the project would see the building of a three-story, roughly 192,000 square foot structure near the New Mexico State Capitol. Originally pegged as an $85 million project, state sources now say an additional $100 million in state funding may be needed to complete the project. State officials have long wanted to build one central facility for a variety of government department offices, with the goal of eliminating the cost of leasing out various spaces around the city for those departments. According to state documents, New Mexico spends around $158 million a year on upkeep and utilities in maintaining all the buildings it currently owns and leases. The additional funds to launch the project are expected to be approved by state lawmakers in the weeks to come. In 2009, the legislature approved authorizing the New Mexico Finance Authority to issue up to $115 million in bonds for the project. In early 2022, lawmakers gave the green light to another $70 million. Late last year, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee issued a report contending that a possible $221 million price tag for the new buildings was too high and failed to factor in the large number of state employees who are now working remotely, reducing the need for more office space. By Garry Boulard The Cincinnati-based data firm ConstructConnect is reporting that construction starts from December of 2021 to December of 2022 were up by an historic 27%. Says the ConstructConnect analysis: “The story of construction starts was the proliferation of mega projects.” Those projects brought with them dollar values in excess of $1 billion. “Many of them originated in the manufacturing sector,” continues the analysis, pointing to the new Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing chipmaking production facility work in Arizona. One of the most public of the mega projects is the laying of an underground electric power cable stretching from Canada to New York. The Champlain Hudson Power Express, comprising 339 miles of transmission line, is being developed by Transmission Developers Incorporated, and has a price tag of around $2.2 billion. The new ConstructConnect report also shows nonresidential building up by 71% over 2021, and institutional starts seeing an increase of 19%. The largest sector increase, in the industrial/manufacturing sector, saw an unprecedented 1097% increase last year. The survey additionally reveals a 94% increase in civil engineering projects, with road projects up by 15% and water/sewage work increasing by 63%. Bridge project starts were up by 76%, while dam and marine project starts were marginally off by 2.1%. Airport work nationally also proved lucrative, with project starts up over 2021 by 56%. Only on the residential side did the numbers go in a different direction, with overall residential starts tanking by 26%, and single-family work down by 24%. Although the apartment construction segment remains buoyant nationally, it, too, was off by 20% when compared with 2021. By Garry Boulard In her first initiative as Arizona’s chief executive, Governor Katie Hobbs has unveiled a series of budget priorities that include an ambitious variety of infrastructure and water projects to be voted on by state lawmakers in the coming weeks. In announcing those priorities, Hobbs remarked that Arizona has an “opportunity to make a significant change in the lives of the families and communities of this state.” Continued the Governor: “We are committed to facing our challenges head on to build a resilient, innovating, and prosperous Arizona for everyone.” Among the priorities: a one-time General Fund deposit of $333 million in state funding to go to the Long-Term Water Augmentation Fund, which is tasked with water supply infrastructure and conservation. Some $15 million is being proposed by Hobbs to fund a grant program that will assist Indigenous, Latino, and rural communities in securing well drillers to access safe drinking water. Exactly $10 million is slated to go to the State Parks Heritage Fund, which is used for a variety of park development, preservation, and trail projects; while $7.5 million is slated for restoring interstation passenger service to the city Phoenix, which has been without that service now for nearly three decades. A smaller $5 million will go to the state’s Department of Water Resources in its ongoing effort to provide water resource management planning for local governments. The Arizona legislature, convening on January 19, is scheduled to wrap up its 2023 session on April 18. By Garry Boulard Exactly $5.8 million has been secured in federal funding for three long-planned water infrastructure projects in New Mexico. The funding is coming out of the historic $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Agreement approved by members of Congress in late December and is seeing $3 million going to the East Pecos Mutual Domestic Water Consumer’s Association to connect homes to both sewer lines and centralized treatment. Some $1.5 million is slated for the Pueblo of Santo Domingo in the north central part of the state. Finally, $1.3 million has been approved for the construction of a new water well in the city of Gallup. Altogether, New Mexico is receiving $273 million in funding for nearly 150 projects of varying sizes and purposes. In a statement announcing the funding, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan said money coming out of Washington will “uplift New Mexico communities by restoring and maintaining our acequias, expanding access to affordable housing, modernizing transportation, creating opportunities for our kids and strengthening health care.” By Garry Boulard The West continues to lead the nation in new home building, with the state of Utah coming in first at 11.7 new builds per 1,000 people. Idaho was close behind with 11.4 new builds. Such statistics, compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, placed Colorado in the top five states nationally, with Texas coming in at number six. Two other states, both in the South - Florida and South Carolina - also made it to the top five. New Mexico was near the lower middle half of the list, coming in 32nd, while a handful of states in the East, including Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, saw the least activity, with new builds ranging between 1.2 and 2.0 per 1,000 people. The Census figures also pegged building permits in November at 1.4 million, an 11.2% decline over the previous month and 22.4% drop from November of 2021. The Census figures come as the publication Kiplinger is reporting that housing starts in general nationally tumbled toward the end of last year, especially when it comes to single-family homes. The publication adds that builders may be expected to delay projects in the months ahead “amid soaring mortgage rates and elevated costs for building materials.” Overall, residential construction is down 32% since last February when national mortgage rates first began to rise, with the biggest declines recoded in the single-family sector. By Garry Boulard A project that would see the construction of an 8,000-seat amphitheater in Colorado Springs has cleared an important hurdle. The company Notes Live, which is also based in Colorado Springs, last year proposed the building of the facility on an 18-acre site on the northern side of the city at the southeast corner of Voyager Parkway and the Spectrum Loop intersection. Promising to be, according to the company’s website, the “most luxurious and hospitality-focused music venue in the country,” the amphitheater will be built to offer views of the sun setting over Pikes Peak. Although the project secured the approval last November of the city’s planning commission, it has been consistently opposed by nearby residents citing noise concerns. Subsequently, a group called the Greyhawk at Northgate Homeowners Association filed an appeal to the commission’s decision. According to city records, the appeal additionally argued that the project will “have an adverse impact on local businesses by clogging parking lots, preventing clients from using on-street parking, and making access difficult through increased traffic before and after performances.” In response, Notes Live reported that it has decided to build acoustical walls to hold down the noise, while also saying that it has secured up to 3,000 parking spaces from area businesses to be used on concert nights. Ultimately, members of the Colorado Springs City Council, in reviewing the objections to the building of the amphitheater, voted 8 to 1 to proceed with the project. Sources say the unique outdoor music venue is expected to see completion in 2024. By Garry Boulard A move to build a new multi-use structure at the site of the annual San Juan County Fair may get a significant boost later this spring, depending upon the generosity of state lawmakers. For some time now, San Juan County officials have wanted to build a modern multi-use structure at McGee Park, located at 41 Road 5568. As proposed, the new structure would come after demolition of a nearly 4,500 square foot poultry barn at the site that was built in 1977 and a rabbit barn, built 5 years later, that measures just over 3,100 square feet. Both of those structures, built below grade, have been subject to repeated flooding and are thought to not be up to the standards of the rest of the park. The multipurpose replacement building is expected to measure around 10,600 square feet and would provide barn and other space. County officials say it will cost at least $1.5 million to level the two existing structures and build a new replacement building and are now asking for a capital outlay request via the New Mexico State Legislature for the project. The winter 2023 session of the legislature is scheduled to begin on January 17. The always-popular San Juan County Fair is traditionally held during the late summer and features everything from livestock shows to duck races and gospel music. By Garry Boulard |
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