For Immediate Release
Contact:
Chris Nordstrum
(415) 601-1992
Chris.Nordstrum@nmlegis.gov
SANTA FE – Today, Senate Bill 6: Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Recovery Fund, successfully passed on the Senate Floor, receiving bipartisan, unanimous support (39-0).
If passed into law, SB6 would appropriate $100 million to the Department of Finance and Administration to provide no-interest loans to counties and small towns struggling to pay for infrastructure damaged during the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire and the flooding that followed.
The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire now stands as the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. It burned nearly 350,000 acres and destroyed or severely damaged farms and ranches, homes and businesses, and displaced countless families who are still reeling from the devastation caused by the fire and severe flooding that impacted the burn scar during summer rains.
As the fire started as a federally called-for prescribed burn, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is providing federal aid for New Mexico communities impacted by the fire, however federal resources are slow in coming while the needs are urgent. The funds provided through this legislation will funnel money to counties and small towns more immediately as they work to restore their local infrastructure and prepare for more potential problems caused by spring runoff. As the FEMA funds eventually come through, they can be used to repay the loans.
“Nothing will ever fully eliminate the damage that’s been done, the hurt that’s been caused, or the long-lasting social and emotional scars felt by individual and families in these close-knit communities,” said bill sponsor Pete Campos. “But the funding provided through Senate Bill 6, along with other initiatives we’ll be working on this session, will provide the help and hope our communities need as they work to rebuild and come out of this better and stronger.”
“The devastation we endured as a community still feels like a bad dream some days,” says Cody Rivera, a sophomore studying business administration at Highlands University whose family lost a house, barn, and three wells at their family ranch outside of Las Vegas. “But we’re all family in the north. We look out for our neighbors and I have faith we will get through this. The outreach and help we’ve seen at the state level does a lot to keep that faith alive.”
The bill contains an emergency clause, so if it passes through both the Senate and House of Representatives it would go into effect 60 days after Governor Lujan Grisham signs it into law.
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