At Thursday’s regular meeting of the Grant County Commission, District 39 state Rep. Luis Terrazas lists capital outlay procured for the county, lamenting surplus spending and the lack of junior or GRO Funds that have in past years been allocated for individual legislators to spend in their districts.
By JO LUTZ
Daily Press Correspondent
With the 2025 legislative session wrapped, District 39 state Rep. Luis Terrazas and District 28 state Sen. Gabriel Ramos summarized its accomplishments and challenges for Grant County at Thursday’s regular meeting of the County Commission, highlighting more than $4 million in project funding and bills to benefit veterans and prevent anti-consumer insurance practices.
Gila Regional Medical Center CEO Robert Whitaker also mentioned capital outlay for hospital projects in his report, as well as increased patient volumes, including ER visits.
“Every session is a little bit different,” Terrazas said. “Every single one of them that I’ve been on, they’re always a little bit different than their own personality.”
He listed capital outlay projects that had been funded, including $700,000 for a new CT scanner for the hospital, $225,000 to renovate the detention center, $220,000 to resurface the airport parking lot and $60,000 for accessibility improvements at Fort Bayard.
Terrazas celebrated the passage of HB 47, which extends property tax exemptions for veterans and their spouses, as well as HB 161, which gives them free state park passes. He lamented the failure of a measure which would have enhanced support for rural doctors.
“The debate in Santa Fe is not so much Democrat and Republican, but urban versus rural,” Terrazas said. “We in the rural areas struggle a little more to attract doctors and other commerce.”
Terrazas also expressed disappointment that the $3 billion budget surplus was spent without allocating GRO Funds for individual legislators to spend, and a $70 million tax cut that he said was paid for out of reserve funds.
Ramos expressed relief at his reception in the Legislature after changing parties from Democrat to Republican.
“Being that I participated on both sides of the aisle … I’m not gonna lie to you, I was really wondering how I was gonna be [received],” Ramos said. “It was great. You know, the floor leader on the majority side reached out to me plenty of times, and we worked really well together when it came to insurance bills.”
Ramos drew attention to a few additional bills, including SB 3, which he said is a mental and behavioral health reform bill that will bring $1 billion in funding to New Mexico to address these issues. He also referred to SB 221, barring unfair insurance claims practices like some seen in Ruidoso after last year’s wildfires. Ramos said his support of those bills went against the interests of some of his partners in his private-sector career as an insurance salesman.
He also referred to SB 19, a bill requiring 10 education hours for members of boards of regents, including courses in ethics, budgeting and Robert’s Rules of Order.
In addition to the $700,000 in capital outlay for the CT scanner, hospital CEO Whitaker mentioned ongoing projects including improvements to the ER and outpatient registration areas, the replacement of the hospital’s phone system, and the addition of a new surgeon in March.
Sheriff Raul Villanueva reported that his office had responded to 1,657 calls for service and recovered five stolen golf carts last month. He mentioned investigating an aggravated battery incident at the detention center that resulted in an arrest.
Villanueva also noted that his department would be participating in the upcoming Tour of the Gila bicycle race and had increased patrols planned over the Easter weekend.
During public comments, Buckhorn resident Steven Mitchell praised the sheriff’s deputy assigned to his area, Cliff native Don Gatlin, whose presence he viewed as a campaign promise kept by Villanueva. He pointed out that Gatlin patrols an extremely large area, “from the state line over up by Mule Creek, up to the county line, all the way up to almost the truck bypass.” He took the podium to push back against information he had that the county had been having conversations about restricting his patrol area, suggesting instead that they hire a second deputy.
Mimbres resident Raul Saucedo said that there is a 7-foot drop from a backfilled road surface to his property around a corner he referred to as “Dead Man’s Curve,” and requested consideration of a guardrail at this location.
During commissioner comments, both Commissioner Chair Chris Ponce and District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina pushed back on what they described as scare tactics by Hidalgo Medical Services CEO Dan Otero, who had been vocal about HMS’s need for county and municipal support for senior centers at Tuesday’s commission work session.
Ponce said that invoices from HMS for senior centers had not previously been received, and reassured the public that the county would not let senior services go away.
After a hearing on fireworks restrictions at which no one offered testimony, the commission approved a proclamation declaring “extreme or severe drought conditions” and imposing restrictions on fireworks.
Jo Lutz may be reached at jo@scdailypress.com.
