Not to get all nerdy but our state desperately needs a Capital Outlay Commission--like yesterday.

State revenue is exploding as the oil and gas boom in the Permian Basin continues unabated and with no end in sight. So much money is accumulating that Sen. John Arthur Smith, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is already talking about taxpayer rebates. He fears the state can't responsibly spend the revenue.

But it's not that there isn't responsible ways to spend this historic treasure, it's the antiquated system we have for disturbing that money for roads, bridges, school buildings and other "infrastructure" that is the problem. Money gets appropriated for projects of questionable value or simply sits appropriated but unspent--by the hundreds of millions.

It's been repeatedly reported that New Mexico is the only state in the nation that lets its legislators appropriate major amounts of capital outlay for their pet projects. And the proposal to have an appointed commission to rank the importance of capital projects and take the decision making away from our politicos has been before the legislature for years. Nothing has changed. But things are different today.

We're now headed for the second year of a budget surplus well above $1 billion. That has never happened. More such years are likely. And the current budget year that wraps up June 30 has seen additional hundreds of millions of unexpected revenue flooding into the treasury, further inflating the surplus. This is extraordinary but will be sadly ordinary if much of the wealth is squandered on political projects or small, inconsequential tax rebates.

Sometimes the nerds have it right. The time for a capital outlay commission has urgently arrived. The Governor and Chairman Smith can make it happen--if they have the guts to take on the status quo.

COUNCIL CLASH 

Nelson

In crowded races we narrow our coverage to who we consider the leading candidates, like the ABQ City Council District Two contest that may feature six candidates when the final petition signatures are counted at month's end. We have ABQ Councilor Ike Benton and challengers Zach Quintero and Joseph Griego in the top tier. Reader Terry Storch makes a case for another:

You consistently leave out Robert Blanquero Nelson as you discuss serious candidates for District 2. If you look only at the city site for the candidates, he has outpaced Joseph and Zach in the number of qualifying petition signatures to get on the ballot, and outpaced Joseph on qualified contributions and nearly equals Zach in that category. Readers may think he is a non-starter and that is far from the truth. BTW it took you until right up to the election to even mention Charlene Pyskoty, who won her county commission seat.

We did feature Nelson as our lead story not long ago, noting he would be the first Asian ever elected to the nine member council. We'll keep an eye on him.

As for BernCo Commissioner Pytosky, we did not cover the commission much because it was clear that the partisan make up of the panel would not move away from the Democrats and no incumbents were endangered. Pytosky did, however, flip that East Mountain seat, increasing the Dem presence on the commission to 4 to 1.

Speaking of the commission, we had a contest to help them name the Alvarado Square building they are renovating at a cost of nearly $50 million but this week they settled on "Bernalillo County @Alvarado Square. " Yawn. . .

And another city/county note: We had a bit of trouble with the ages of some of the city council candidates this week, including Zach Quintero who is actually 28 not 29. He'll be the big 3-0 soon enough, so we don't want to rush him.

There are also contested city council races in Districts 4, 6 and 8 this year. Two is getting the early coverage here because Benton is the most endangered incumbent (Davis and Jones are the other incumbents running).

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019