Economic Development
- Government programs, such as Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) grants/loans to businesses with good growth prospects, can play a role in economic development. They are no substitute for the economic fundamentals of a healthy, educated workforce, rational, fair taxation, and well-planned and maintained public infrastructure. That is why I will work to improve education, health care and infrastructure, as well as our tax system and specific economic development programs.
- Democratic Governor candidate Jeff Apodaca has proposed investing some of the state’s $22 billion Permanent Funds in low-interest loans to growing New Mexico businesses, instead of sending funds out of the state to Wall Street or other investments. I think this is a good idea. Businesses that grow in New Mexico provide jobs, income and tax revenues here, so the benefits to the state are far greater than whatever earnings we would get from out-of-state investments.
- The role of Los Alamos National Laboratory in our national security is not going to disappear, so it should remain a solid economic engine for the region. But Lab budgets go up and down, sometimes severely. There is a lot of scientific and engineering talent there, and some of them do come up with creative new businesses, but they have often taken their growing companies to other locations. We can make it possible for those entrepreneurs to grow their businesses here with well-funded LEDA collaborations. Then the regional economy will become less dependent on the single budget of the national laboratory.
- I was part of the successful lobbying effort to get the federal government to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and transfer the Valles Caldera to National Park Service management. This is providing a needed boost to local businesses. I will work to get the last few miles of scenic highway 126 paved from Cuba to Jemez Springs and the Valles Caldera, which will make it easier to get around our District, and help our local tourist economy. State Road 4 between Los Alamos and Jemez Springs, which is important to tourism and LANL commuters, needs a significant amount of maintenance. These are examples of why a modest increase in the gasoline tax, to pay for neglected road building and maintenance, could benefit the state by growing our economy.
High-capacity community broadband throughout the District is a vital step into a 21st century economy, but it’s an expensive technology. We have been taking steps toward more broadband capacity in Los Alamos: every time our utility department opens up a large trench for other utility work, we lay down some conduit so that we'll build up over time the network we need to offer broadband. When private industry is ready to use that conduit, we can negotiate a fair price for their use of our investment. Los Alamos County, as a partner in the REDI Net local government/tribal consortium, is also negotiating to get higher capacity data lines connected. In general, we should aim at the public contribution being "seed money" to get projects started, and avoid as much as possible long-term public subsidies, when private investment should step in.