Senate Republican Caucus Chair Steve Neville

For Immediate Release Wednesday, June 01, 2011 Contact: Sen. Neville 505-320-0771


San Juan County Legislators Drive In Their Points About Critical Paving Needs with DOT Today
“San Juan County is deserving of additional repaving because of its large role
in driving the state’s economy.”

(Santa Fe) The deteriorating state highways in San Juan County that are angering motorist have driven two state legislators to take action. Those legislators told the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) today that San Juan County is deserving of more road funding because it contributes a lot to the state’s economy.

Senate Minority Caucus Chair Steve Neville (R- San Juan) and House Representative Paul Bandy (R-San Juan) met with the Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and explained the critical need to improve state highway conditions in San Juan County and they discussed a possible plan to repave and repair the roads even though the state is facing tight budgets.

As an active advisory member of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), Senator Neville knows there is not enough money in the state road fund budget to better maintain the roads at this time. But he says that won’t deter him in his quest to have the roads repaved. “I know funding is tight and every entity in the state begs their case in front of the LFC for more money for their projects. Today, we went directly to the New Mexico Department of Transportation Cabinet Secretary to present our dire and deserving case in San Juan County. We discussed a plan to try and reroute money from other budgets into San Juan County roads,” Senator Neville said after the meeting with the New Mexico DOT Secretary Alvin Dominguez.

Representative Bandy said they made the valid point that San Juan deserves additional road funding because the industry that helps drive New Mexico’s economy is also hard on New Mexico roads. “The maintenance of San Juan County roads is critical for the state’s economic health,” Bandy said. “We figure more than a fifth of the state’s revenue is generated by the oil and gas industry in San Juan County. We recognize that the heavy oil field traffic is hard on the roads and that it deserves and needs its roads maintained so it can help to drive the state’s economy.”

Senator Neville said, “If conditions deteriorate to the point where trucks can’t roll down the roads, money won’t roll in to the state coffers and everyone will suffer.”

Representative Bandy said they were not given any guarantees other than the guarantee that the DOT will begin to look for a funding solution for San Juan.

Senator Neville said, “Secretary Dominguez told us he would evaluate the transportation needs in San Juan County and determine what efforts DOT can take to address the needs as they prepare for the Fiscal Year 2012 budget which takes affect July 1st.”

Senator Neville and Representative Bandy were told that due to the continuing instability of the national economy and to reduced state revenues, the NMDOT’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget for highway maintenance and paving projects had been reduced by nearly 50% and that has limited DOT’s ability to keep pace with the road maintenance in San Juan and in all other counties in the state. The NMDOT is responsible for maintaining over 400 miles of highways in San Juan County.

“We were told that the outlook for future State and Federal funding does not look very promising either. But we will continue to make our case and will follow up with Secretary Dominguez regarding San Juan Roads,” Rep. Bandy said.

Both Neville and Bandy reiterated to the NMDOT that the Aztec City Commission, the City of Bloomfield and the San Juan County Commission’s all have resolutions requesting that the NMDOT take immediate action to perform maintenance and repairs on the state highways within the Cities of Aztec and Bloomfield and throughout San Juan County.-END-