SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The Santa Fe area emerged as a major beneficiary of federal relief funds for local government, as the state of New Mexico assigned nearly $100 million to towns, cities and counties to offset spending on the pandemic response.
The city of Santa Fe was awarded $17.6 million in possible reimbursements, and Santa Fe County can receive up to $10.5 - accounting together for 28% of direct grant awards announced Tuesday.
McKinley County, which has the state’s highest tally of COVID-19 infections per capita, received an outsized direct grant award of $16.1 million. Details of grant applications were unavailable.
“Every applicant received funding. No one gets left behind,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a news release that listed 83 recipients.
New Mexico’s largest city and county - Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County - previously received direct relief funds from the federal government and were not included.
The Department of Finance and Administration also announced the distribution of $50 million in small business grant funds to municipal governments and counties. Local governments in turn will distribute that money to hard-hit businesses with 50 or fewer employees and annual revenues of $2 million of less prior to the pandemic.
Finance and Administration Secretary Debbie Romero said the criteria was designed to reach businesses that may have missed out on earlier federal relief through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
The top conduits for the small business grants include the city of Las Cruces, with a $5.4 million allocation, and Clovis, with $4.3 million.
Details of individual applications for relief funding and business grants were not immediately available Tuesday. Romero said the department was working hard to close out the application process and would eventually respond to public-records requests.
Romero said direct grant awards to local government take into consideration spending on compliance with emergency health orders, including public safety efforts - expenses that clearly qualify for federal reimbursement.
That approach has prompted concerns of possible favoritism amid clashes between local and state officials over the governor’s approach to reopening the economy. New Mexico currently limits gathers to 10 people, mandates masks in pubic, requires a 14-day self-quarantine for visitors and places a variety of restrictions on businesses.
New relief awards were approved irrespective of state sanctions against local businesses that defy emergency health orders, litigation or disagreements with local authorities on enforcement, Romero said.
“The one thing we didn’t want was this to be a political process. This is based purely on the merits of the applications,” she said.
The state awarded $2 million in small business grants for distribution by Cibola County, the city of Grants and the village of Milan. The area has been of hotbed of resistance by government officials and businesses to enforcement of state emergency health orders.
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