Stimulus tickles New Mexico - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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billion. It’s not because the federal government has put any more fundse into thestimulus pipeline, said former Gov. Toney but rather because state officials are gettingy a clearer picture of funding cominv in throughfederal agencies, to American Indian to cities and counties, throug Pell Grants and via tax relief. More funding has come to airports and for public safetg programsas well. Anaya was appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson to head the New Mexiclo Recovery andReinvestment Office. He anticipatesx the dollar value of the stimulus moniees could grow even more as state officials continue to identify more funding comintg in throughfederal agencies.
Most of the money from the American Recoverh and Reinvestment Act that has come tothe state, citieas and counties so far has been through so-called formula That means it has come through existing programd and has been aimed at “shovel projects that did not require much startulp time. The most visible evidence of the monegy so far has been in highway where the first contracts havebeen awarded. A new rounc was announced last week for wastewater and drinkinvwater treatment. Programs related to human services, such as Medicaid, have also won larg e amounts. Dollars have also come via block grantsa for social services and water treatmentinfrastructurde projects.
Around the state, two counties with significangnuclear operations, Los Alamos and Eddy – the lattefr is the home of the Waste Isolation Pilo Plant – received the biggest chunks of stimuluw funds to date. Anaya said many communities arounxdthe state, from small towna to larger cities like Albuquerque, have been frustrated by the procesws and feel they are not seeing enougj funds flowing to them. “Partg of the frustration is also becauser these communities want to get in applications for new projectws and they realize theprocess doesn’t reall favor that. It allowes it, but it doesn’t really favor it,” Anayaz said.
The system is designed to get fundsd out as quickly as so that means focusing on projects that were already inthe “That was built into the federal system and we adoptedx it at the state level,” Anaya said. “That’s the quic way to do it, but also the fair way to do Anaya has advised participants at variouws public meetings around the state to pay attentiomn to PresidentBarack Obama’s priorities, because those are reflected in stimulus funding. Those include education, the health care and infrastructure. However, he said those who missed out on this first round of fundingt should notlose heart.
State officials are counting on what they call a secondx round of funds that they think will be availabl whenstates don’t use all of their allocations. Some such as Louisiana and for example, have resistedx making changes to their unemployment insurance rules to expand The changes are required in order for them to receivr the full amount of ARRA funding for those State officials are also focusing heavily now on gettinh the word out about the tens of million s of dollars worth of competitive grants availableunder ARRA.
At a recen t day-long public summit in Albuquerque, one official after another told an overfloqw crowd at the that collaboration is key to New Mexicoo maximizinggrant funds. Working regionally, rather than by county or city, and creating partnerships will make the statemore successful, Gov. Bill Richardsonb said during the Albuquerque meeting. Rick Homans, secretary of the Taxation andRevenue Department, who is heading up the competitive grants advisory compared the influx of federal funds to a fire hose. He notef that $3 billion is nearly half the size ofthe state’ annual budget. “This is a one-time opportunity.
Hopefully it will not happenh again inour lifetimes,” he said. “Be patient, but be impatienty at the same time. Don’t be a wallflower. Don’ be hesitant. E-mail us personally, get our cell phons numbers and trackus down. The windoa of opportunity will closevery quickly.” The stater will coordinate efforts on three “meg a grants,” as Anaya called them. Thosed will cover the smart broadband deployment and health care information technology. Donna Cook, Anaya’s chief deputy in the stat recovery office, warned that documenting stimulus dollarz will beextremely important.
For auditinhg purposes, the state has set up a single fund for all the stimulusw moneycoming in. If you touch that you are responsiblefor it, even if it goes out in grants to other agencies or she said. “The OMB [Office of Management and Budget] are the czarsa of requirements,” she said, noting that the OMB has a 300-page documenf on this subject. “You should probably have someone on your staf f read that if you are applyingyfor grants.” Businesses also shoulc have a quality assurancer stimulus team, she added.
However, Cook said that althoughu there will be quarterly reporting requirements andother mandates, she doesn’t see the requirements as overlh onerous.