Despite repeated warnings from both Gov. Susana Martinez and state legislators about current and anticipated revenue shortfalls, Española School District officials hired a lobbyist to try and convince state lawmakers to support legislation that will benefit the District.
The Española School Board approved, Sept. 7, a contract that will pay Conectas LLC owner Joseph Torres, $15,000 to lobby lawmakers during the upcoming 90-day 2017 legislative session.
Torres told the Board during a Sept. 6 work session, that having an advocate looking out for the District’s interests is important, especially, since the city of Española is reportedly eligible to receive Capital Outlay funding.
The state barred the city from receiving the funding for the past five years because it was behind on audits.
Securing money to establish a high school to meet the needs of students that don’t do well in the traditional school setting, will be one of Torres’s chief goals during the upcoming legislative session, which starts Jan. 19.
“This Board is in a consensus,” Torres said. “They want to fund an alternative high school for students who don’t excel in the traditional setting.”
He said based on his discussion with former superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez, to establish such an institution would require an annual $230,000 allocation from state legislators.
This isn’t the first time Torres received a contract to advocate for the schools. The District awarded him a $25,000 contract in 2015 and a $25 contract for Fiscal Year 2016.
During the first year Torres lobbied for the District, he was able to get a Gross Receipts Tax bill passed that would have raised some $30 million for Rio Arriba County school districts, but the governor vetoed the bill.
Those contracts were scrutinized by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office as part of an investigation, in March, into both Rio Arriba County’s and the Española School District’s business practices.
Board Vice President Lucas Fresquez said based on Torres’s progress during the 2016 Legislative Session, he believes the District has a pretty good chance of receiving funding for the alternative high school.
However, his colleague, Board member Ruben Archuleta, questioned whether spending money on a lobbyist was a prudent choice, given the state’s current financial climate.
“Has a lobbyist ever secured money for the District?” he asked.
Board President Pablo Lujan acknowledged Torres’s service hasn’t resulted in any funding coming to the District, but said that wasn’t necessarily the lobbyist’s doing.
“Success, in terms of funding, in terms of money received right now, is zero,” Lujan said. “But everything, in my opinion, has landed on the governor’s desk because she is the one who took that money away.”
Board members would also like to secure an approximate $400,000 allocation to beef up security by putting up a new fence and buying surveillance cameras for Española Valley High School, and an undisclosed sum to reestablish the District’s mariachi program.
But the bottom line, Torres said, is the current economic situation points to the need for the District to consider alternative funding sources.
“Why not go and look at Fender (Fender guitar) for funding (to pay for the mariachi program),” he said. “We are burning out our funding sources. We got to think outside the box.”
Torres said he is keeping a sharp eye out for the unannounced start of a special legislative session, to gauge funding prospects. The governor’s office said she would call the session to tackle the state’s budget crisis.
If, after talking to his legislative connections, Torres learns there won’t be any Capital Outlay funding available during the 2017 session, he said he would withdraw his contract as a lobbyist.
“I will tell them (the Board) to keep their money,” he said, “If I can’t be productive for our kids. There is no reason for them to waste their money on me or any lobbyist.”
If that is the case, Torres probably won’t do any lobbying for the District, according to Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties.
Richard Martinez said according to the last budget update he received from the state senate’s democratic caucus, the budget shortfall is an estimated $230 million for Fiscal 2017 and about $300 million for Fiscal Year 2018, for a combined $530 million.
“I doubt there will be Capital Outlay money because we can’t balance the budget,” Richard Martinez said.