NM Wildfires Drive Surge in Emergency Funding Orders

(TNS) – As much of New Mexico was burning this year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued dozens of executive orders authorizing nearly $60 million in emergency funds for firefighting efforts in seven different counties.

While much of the spending is expected to be matched or ultimately refunded by the federal government, an increase in emergency spending by executive order has caught lawmakers’ attention and reignited discussion about whether a law enacted in the 1950s should be updated.

During a Tuesday meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee in Silver City, Sen. George Muñoz, D- Gallup, did not criticize Lujan Grisham’s actions but said he’s concerned about the trend possibly leading to “slush funds” for governors to use to their liking.

He also expressed concern about some authorized emergency funding sitting idle, as a legislative analyst said there is $13 million in emergency funding authorized at least two years ago that went unspent.

“We should put a timeline here so that the money reverts if it’s not expended,” Muñoz said.

But a Lujan Grisham spokeswoman defended the governor’s handling of this year’s wildfire season, saying she followed state law and helped fund vital firefighting, forest management and reforestation work.

“While we have every confidence that the state will be fully reimbursed by the federal government due to the governor’s successful effort to secure 100% federal reimbursement, it was essential that state firefighting efforts be funded in order to continue, and I assure you that New Mexicans affected by wildfires would agree with that need,” Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett told the Journal.

With much of New Mexico facing drought conditions, the two largest fires in state history — the Black Fire in the Gila National Forest and the Calf Canyon /Hermits Peak Fire near Las Vegas — ignited this year and, combined, have burned about 660,000 acres, or more than 1,000 square miles.

Fires also scorched other parts of New Mexico , including the McBride Fire in Ruidoso that destroyed more than 200 homes in April and left two people dead.

The wildfire season was a driving factor behind the 139 executive orders issued by Lujan Grisham in the just-ended budget year — the largest number of orders issued in any year going back to at least 2011, according to data from the LFC.

The orders issued in the most recent year authorized more than $72 million in emergency funding, with $59.3 million of that amount specifically targeted at wildfire response.

Much of the money comes from a state contingency fund, though it can also come out of the state’s cash reserves if the contingency fund is depleted. That occurred during the budget year that ended in June.

Kelly Hamilton , the deputy secretary of the New Mexico Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department , told lawmakers Tuesday he could not provide an exact estimate of the total cost of fire recovery and remediation efforts statewide.

“I can’t even imagine what it is and what it is going to be,” Hamilton said.

President Joe Biden said in a visit to Santa Fe last month the federal government would cover the state’s full wildfire response, but Hamilton said it could take years for some funding reimbursement requests to be approved.

“Every expense we incur as a state, we are going to aggressively ask to be reimbursed,” Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, the authority to issue executive orders that can contain appropriations of up to $750,000 per order comes from a state law that has been largely untouched over the last 60-plus years.

The law came under scrutiny in 2020, when a group of top-ranking lawmakers launched an inquiry into whether Lujan Grisham exceeded her authority by authorizing more than $30 million in emergency spending by executive order to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

No court challenge was ultimately filed by legislators, however, and the Democratic governor asserted in response that there’s no limit in state law to how much money she can spend in response to emergencies.

Lujan Grisham acknowledged that a state statute generally limits the amount of spending per executive order to $750,000, but said the law allows that limit to be exceeded in certain situations.

The pandemic-related emergency funding eventually sparked concerns about potential financial waste, but a 2021 legislative proposal to overhaul the emergency funding system by specifying qualifying criteria and changing the maximum amount of money authorized by each order failed to win approval.

Going forward, lawmakers said more state funding will have to be appropriated for wildfire recovery efforts, including protecting affected watersheds and removing debris.

“I hope we can build back better — sometimes I’m even concerned if we can build back,” said Rep. Jack Chatfield , R- Mosquero .

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Ò2022 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.